San FRANC ISCO'S Progress 



CLARBNCB E. EDWOnDS, Cfalef of Pnblicity, The California Promotion Committee. 



BY the great fire during the four days following the morning of April 

 18th four hundred and ninety-seven city blocks were devastated, 

 four square miles of territory burned over, the business center wiped 

 out, sixty miles of streets covered with debris, and 200,000 people 

 rendered homeless. Half a billion dollars worth of property was 

 destroyed and every street-car line was rendered inoperative. 



This was the condition following the fire. It is well to bear it in mind 

 when considering the rebuilding of San Francisco. 



Three days after the fire was under control — it was not entirely sub- 

 jugated for ten days — Market Street from the ferries to Van Ness Avenue, 

 California Street to Van Ness Avenue, and Kearny Street from California 

 to Market Street were sufficiently cleared of debris to permit of the passage 

 of vehicles. On the ninth day after the beginning of the fire the United 

 Railroads had its cars running, and within a week traffic was resumed on 

 several lines so that people could go from the ferries to all parts of the city. 



Naturally the beginning of things in the way of reconstruction was 

 the erection of temporary buildings in which to transact business. An 

 emergency order gave permission for the erection of any kind of one-story 

 structure, anywhere in the city, and under this order forty-five hundred 

 such buildings were erected. These buildings are subject to removal and 

 demolition within sixty days after proper notice by the city authorities. On 

 July 1st six thousand firms were doing business within the burned district. 



But the temporary period in San Francisco is past. On June 20th an 

 order was issued forbidding the erection of any more temporary structures. 

 Business was being resumed in all lines, and the bank clearings, that index 

 of business, grew in volume daily, and by June 15th an increase was shown 

 over the clearings for the same week of the previous year. This Increase 

 grew, and by August 16th the grand total of nearly forty-four millions was 

 marked for the week's clearings of San Francisco's banks. 



While insurance companies were slow in making their settlements, it 

 must be remembered that many questions were to be considered; many 

 policies were to be taken account of; much property was to be appraised. 

 The insurance companies felt that they had an equity in the forty-odd 

 million dollars worth of salvage. All these vexing questions had to be set- 

 tled before there could be much of a start toward permanent building. 



But San Francisco men chafed at delay, and while waiting they per- 

 fected their plans for rebuilding. Architects were busy night and day, 

 while dealers in builders' supplies were sending urgent orders for material 

 to have it ready against the day when work should begin. That has arrived, 

 and forty thousand men are at work on reconstruction of San Francisco. 

 Of these thirty thousand are skilled artisans in the building trades. They 

 are at work on three hundred permanent buildings, ranging from three to 

 twenty-two stories in height, and costing from ten thousand to three 

 million dollars each. Within three blocks of Union Square, in the heart of 

 the burned district, where The California Promotion Committee has its 

 home in the California Building, erected since the fire, work is going on in 

 thirty-six Class A buildings. 



The estimated total value of these buildings will reach twenty million 

 dollars. It must be remembered that these comprise but a fraction of 

 the total number of similar buildings under construction. The Sharon 

 Estate has obligated itself to spend three million on the new Palace Hotel. 

 The Brewers' Syndicate has devoted two million to the rebuilding of the 

 destroyed breweries. In addition to these about twenty-five million is 

 the valuation of other buildings on which work is being done, making fifty 

 million dollars a conservative estimate of the value of buildings now under 

 construction in the city. 



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