Entertainer And Philanthropist

Lotta Crabtree began her career as a singer, dancer and actress at a very young age. She would go on to become one of the wealthiest and most beloved American entertainers of the late 19th century. From her beginnings as a 6-year-old until her retirement at the age of 45, she was called The Nation’s Darling.

From: History of American Women

Lotta Crabtree loved the city and had gotten her start there during the Gold Rush days, when she would dance on barrels in saloons for miners who would throw gold nuggets at her feet. Using some of the gold coin, gold nuggets and gold watches that gentlemen bestowed upon her, Lotta bought the city a fountain in 1875.

Text from: Atlas Obscura

Picture from:OpenSFHistory.org

A view from the tower of the Ferry Building looking up Market Street in April 1906

For more photos of the devastation in 1906, go to: ronhenggeler.com

Shorpy image of San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. "Up Market Street from Montgomery Street." 8x10 glass negative.

 View full size.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors. After the 1906 earthquake, dazed survivors looked for anything left standing to congregate around. Lotta’s Fountain served as a meeting place for people to be reunited with their loved ones. Every year at 5:12 a.m. on April 18th a couple of hundred people meet in a ceremony of remembrance.

Lotta's Fountain stands at the corner of Market, Geary, and Kearny Streets in San Francisco.

Luisa Tetrazzini, the most famous opera singer of her day, sang at Lotta's Fountain on Christmas Eve in 1910

“When they told me I could not sing in America unless it was for Hammerstein,” she proclaimed, “I said I would sing in the streets of San Francisco, for I knew the streets of San Francisco were free.”

Luisa Tetrazzini

Lotta's Fountain is on the left in this photo

Luisa Tetrazzini announced a free concert that Christmas Eve as a gift to the city that had so warmly embraced her—and she arranged for it to take place around Lotta’s Fountain.

SF Earthquakes, Opera Stars & Chicken Tetrazzini

The landmark Lotta’s Fountain, donated to San Francisco in 1875 by one of San Francisco theatre’s greatest stars, Lotta Crabtree, became the beacon gathering place for the city’s nearly quarter of a million homeless searching for missing family and friends following the earthquake and fires.  It’s said that “I’m-alive-where-are-you letters” written on any materials salvaged near the fountain – scraps of fabric, half-burned boards – were delivered by the San Francisco Post Office.

From: San Francisco Theater District

By 1910, fifteen San Francisco theaters had been rebuilt and new ones added, making nineteen in all.  The performing-arts scene was doing its share to rebuild the city’s economy as well as its theaters.  Singers, musicians, actors and glitteratti came from around the globe to help lift the spirits of San Franciscans.

From: San Francisco Theater District

Considered the greatest opera singer of her day, Italian diva Luisa Tetrazzini performed for free at Lotta’s Fountain to tens of thousands of San Franciscans on Christmas Eve of 1910.  Mind you, there were no microphones then, so that was probably the only time in the city’s history that so many San Franciscans have been quiet. 

From: San Francisco Theater District

“I never thought I would be a street singer,” she said, “but I want to do this for San Francisco … because I like San Francisco better than any other city in the world. San Francisco is my country.”

Luisa Tetrazzini

Luisa Tetrazzini's gift ends S.F. era on high note

CHRISTMAS EVE 1910 Tetrazzini's free concert provided epitaph for city's losses from 1906 earthquake, fire

By Carl Nolte

Lotta's Fountain

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors. After the 1906 earthquake, dazed survivors looked for anything left standing to congregate around. Lotta’s Fountain served as a meeting place for people to be reunited with their loved ones. Every year at 5:12 a.m. on April 18th a couple of hundred people meet in a ceremony of remembrance.

 

Chrissie Martenstein

1898 - 2008

Chrissie was a regular customer of mine at the Big 4 Restaurant where I work.

Her niece and friends would bring her frenquently because the Big 4 was her favorite restaurant, and I was her favorite waiter.

I am including Chrissie's story with this post about Lotta's Fountain because Chrissie has the reigning distinction of having been the oldest living survivor of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. In 2006, marking the 100 year anniversary of the 1906 event, Chrissie was 109 years old. She was the big deal that year at the Lotta's Fountain Ceremony on April 18th at 5 in the morning. There were only a small handfull of other survivors, but she was the oldest. The San Francisco Fire Department had picked her up at 4:40am and drove her to the fountain for the Gathering and Remembrance.

She was nine year old girl in 1906. She once told me, that on the first night after the quake, when the city was burning, she and her family slept on the sidewalk at Van Ness and Market where their home was, because they were afraid of the aftershocks.

She lived in San Francisco her entire life. She was 110 years old when passed away in her sleep on April 18, 2008.

We celebrated her birthday at the Big 4 Restaurant on May 28, 2006. I've included some of my photos from her party in the Big 4's CPRR Banquet Room. Sixteen of her close friends and family were there for the celebration. I take great pride in having been Chrissie's favorite waiter. It was an honor knowing her and being a part of her remarkable life. She was an inspiration to everyone who knew her. Her secret to longevity?

"I look forward to my martini every afternoon at five . ." Chrissie Martenstein. April 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire in 1906  

Early in the morning on April 18,1906, San Francisco was hit by an earthquake that is now estimated to have been a 7.8 on the richter scale. The epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean just two miles offshore of Ocean Beach at the far western end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. With water mains and gas lines ruptured throughout the city, what followed was an unstoppable firestorm that raged for three days and destroyed 28,000 buildings. When the fires had finally played out, 80% of San Francisco was left in ash and ruins, and a quarter of a million San Franciscans were homeless. To watch a twelve minute film of a ride up Market Street on a cable car that was made on April 14th, four days before the earthquake struck, click here: 

A Ride on Market Street in April 1906

The view of San Francisco burning as seen from Alamo Square in the Western Addition.

In 1906, Chrissie and her family's home was at Van Ness and Market Street, several blocks down the hill from this area.

 

Chrissie's family lived at Van Ness and Market Streets, on the edge of the Hayes Valley neighborhood, and in 1906, the Ham and Eggs Fire.

After the quake, in Hayes Valley, a woman lit up her stove to prepare breakfast. But what she did not know was that the chimney (above her stove) was badly damaged. This started the 24-hour long ‘Ham and Eggs’ fire, which destroyed parts of City Hall and Market Street. The site of the original spark in Hayes Valley is stated as 395 Hayes Street.

The re-built San Francisco, and the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, saw 18,876,438 visitors during the nine months of the fair's existence.

To see more large-format images of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, visit this site.

The Great San Francisco Earthquake: Photographs From 112 Years Ago - The Atlantic

 

Chrissie Martenstein

1898 - 2008

Her secret to longevity?

"I look forward to my martini every afternoon at five . ." Chrissie Martenstein. April 2006