RON HENGGELER

February 8, 2006
Bird's eye view of Nob Hill

  ‘Before Andrew Hallidie’s cable cars conquered the steep hills of San Francisco,  the wealthy preferred living in the low–lying flat areas of south park and the Western Addition.  Nob Hill at the time was sparsely populated primarily by families of modest means in modest homes.  With the advent of the cable cars and the explosion of the wealth from the Comstock Lode and the transcontinental railroad,  Nob Hill’s views and commanding position above the Financial District suddenly looked mighty appealing to the Bonanza Kings and the Big Four railroad barons.
   In 1878 Big Four mogul Leland Stanford built the California Street cable car line over Nob Hill.  This newly created accessibility set off a mansion-building binge that resulted in a neighborhood of opulent and gaudy Victorian palaces never equaled before or since.  By the 1890’s,  more than the silver mines or the railroad trains,  Nob Hill became the greatest symbol of California’s new royalty and its fame spread around the world.  The fabulously wealthy mansion builders mistakenly thought their homes were immune to the occasional fires that plagued crowded downtown.  And they were until the ferocious Earthquake and Fire of 1906 swept Nob Hill clean of its palatial wooden Victorians.  All but the brownstone Flood mansion burned to the ground leaving only charred remains of the magnates’ magnificent excesses.
   Today,  Nob Hill’s prestigious hotels,  charming park,  and Gothic cathedral are a direct legacy of those prosperous pioneers and immigrants who once perched themselves atop this lookout over the city and state they effectively ruled.  After the 1906 fire,  California’s barons spread out to Pacific Heights,  down the Peninsula,  and abroad.  Never again would the Golden State’s wealthiest concentrate in such a few square blocks.’
WALKING SAN FRANCISCO ON THE BARBARY COAST BY DANIEL BACON © 1997 Quicksilver Press

The photo was taken on February 5, 2006 from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark.

 

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