1906 + 2010: The Earthquake Blend (Part I)
1 October 2010 by Shawn Clover 16 Comments

After reading San Francisco is Burning, Dennis Smith’s superb book of San Francisco’s reaction to the 1906 earthquake, I got to thinking. What if I could precisely line up photos taken in 1906 with my own and combine the two together? I’ve always been frustrated by typical “then and now” photos because the photographer always seems to do a sloppy job aligning his ’then’ photos with the ‘now’ photos.

The Project

After sifting through catalogs of library photos of the devastation of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, I picked out a variety of photos taken from April 18, 1906 to 1907 that I felt give a well-rounded depiction of what was going on in the city at the time.

Now comes the fun part. Where was the exact spot the photographer stood? What was the equivalent focal length of his camera’s lens combined with the film medium? How high off the ground was the camera? Where was the sun in the sky? Everything needs to be precise when layering two photos on top of each other. My original idea was to tear away a piece of the modern photo to expose the 1906 photo, but after playing around a bit, everything seemed more interesting when the two were softly blended together.

I found that many of the original photos I planned to use were in fact unusable because the photographer was situated in a place where a building stands today. Others now have trees blocking the view. Oh well.

The Photos

Here the first part of a two-part series of photos:

Pedestrians cross Jones St towards a pile of rubble on Market Street. The Hibernia Bank building is burned out, but still standing strong.

A women opens the door to her Mercedes on Sacramento Street while horses killed by falling rubble lie in the street.

A woman walks dangerously close to a pit of rubble on 5th St by the US Mint. The Mint has done a remarkable job surviving the quake.

Shoppers cross Drumm St on Market St while men busily work at the monumental task of rebuilding a destroyed city.

A cable car heads towards the California St incline while shocked residents walk aimlessly through street amidst the devastation.

Men pose in a tent city to house displaced residents while an armored car turns left. Ferry Building repairs have begun.

Happy tourists pass by the Fairmont Hotel, which still stands, but is destroyed inside from the fires.

Passing cable cars offer a view of the destruction of California Street. Old St. Marys Cathedral has escaped destruction.

Residents take to the grass at Lafayette Park to get a view of the massive fires engulfing the city while a Muni bus stops below.

Pedestrians walk past Mechanics Monument at Bush Street and Battery Street while ghostly shells of buildings stand precariously in the background.

Some business people and a young kid face the camera while fire consumes a building on the corner of Franklin St and Hayes St.

The Painted Ladies have escaped fire raging down the street. Mothers rest on the low wall in Alamo Square while their children play on the grass.

Two girls stand before the partially destroyed Sharon Building in Golden Gate Park while students work on their art projects inside.

Please Share!

598 days ago by Shawn Clover in Photos, San Francisco | You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site

Michael

Very well done! Thanks for sharing.
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Joyce Walker

Amazing work Shawn. Thank you for sharing. You’re genius and so clever.
Doug

this is really cool!
Kc

I would buy a book of this.
Seriously. You could make a quick one on blurb.com or any other site like that and I would buy one.
http://www.shawnclover.com Shawn Clover

@Kc Thanks… maybe there’s a publisher out there somewhere??
http://priscillapolite.livejournal.com/726.html stacy

makes me want to drink alchoholic beverages
http://www.josephgreco.weebly.com Joseph Greco

This is absolutely brilliant work! Incredible idea and execution.

http://www.shawnclover.com Shawn Clover

Thank you Joseph

David Gallagher

Great job! very cool and inventive way of presenting these!

I think that the trademark building on California and Grant wasn’t built until 1907, but I could be wrong. Also, the Donohoe (Mechanics) Monument has been moved twice since the the earthquake, so I don’t know if that’s 100% accurate

http://www.shawnclover.com Shawn Clover

I knew only a GWSF master would find my error on Mechanics Monument. I realized right after I posted this that the monument was moved–something didn’t quite seem right about where the ruins in the background were. So I am in fact way off on this photo.

The California and Grant photo may be 1907, but, regardless, that rubble was still in the street. Everything in the black & white portion is from the same photo. I’ll edit my intro to say 1907 as the end of the date range.

Thanks David.

David Gallagher

One thing I like about the last one is that the tall apartment building has the words “Steel Framed Building” painted on the side of it. I’ve always assumed that that was a direct response to the fears of masonry buildings after 1906.
David Gallagher

so I guess what I mean about the Chinatown one is that the building are new in the old picture, almost all of Chinatown was destroyed by the fire. The new Chinatown, with a hybrid Chinese touristy architecture, was rebuilt quickly afterward to head off a growing movement to move the Chinese out while their neighborhood was in ruins.
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1906 + 2010: The Earthquake Blend (Part I)

The Project

The Photos