Complete Story of the San Francisco HorrorWhite, Trumbull
History
Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror
White, Trumbull
Disasters; Earthquakes; San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Calif., 1906; Vesuvius (Italy) -- Eruption, 1906; Volcanoes
Among those who submitted a comprehensive scheme for a new San
Francisco was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the noted architect of Chicago,
who designed most of the features of Chicago's World's Columbian
Exposition and from whose conceptions the Court of Honor at that
exhibition was built, and those who visited the White City in 1893
will never forget the picturesque grandeur of that enchanted region.
Mr. Burnham believed in a new and ideal San Francisco and would see it
take its place as the American Paris in the arrangement of its streets
and the American Naples in the beauty of its bay and skies. The plans
for the ideal San Francisco were his, and hardly had his report been
printed than the columns of the old city went down to ruin and fire
swept out of existence the landmarks by the gate of gold.
It is now the question, How far will the new San Francisco realize the
dreams of those who have had before them for so many years the image
of a metropolis of the Pacific with broad boulevards and great
parkways and wooded heights--a city of sunken gardens, of airy
bridges, of stately gardens and broad expanses?
Daniel H. Burnham had back of him a long record of achievements which
earned for him his title of city builder.
He built the Rookery building and the Masonic Temple in Chicago, and
then was called to various cities where he supervised the erection of
imposing piles which have become landmarks. It was while studying the
relations of these large buildings to their surroundings that he
became interested in his still greater work, which had to do with
squares and blocks and parkways.
Upon the invitation of the Association for the Improvement and
Adornment of San Francisco Mr. Burnham went to the Golden Gate, where
he devoted months to the plans for a new city. A bungalow was built on
the Twins Peaks seven hundred feet above the level of the streets,
from which Mr. Burnham and his staff of assistants could command a
view of the city and the bay. The material which they sought to make
into the perfect city was before them day and night. They saw San
Francisco by sunlight, in fog, in storm or in the blaze of a myriad
lights. As the work progressed the San Franciscans who were interested
in the scheme often climbed to the bungalow to watch the progress of
the work.
The scheme prepared by Mr. Burnham provided first for a civic centre
where all the principal city buildings were to be located and also the
new union railroad station. About this was to be a broad circular
boulevard, a perimeter of distribution, and beyond this a series of
broader boulevards or parkways connecting the hills, which were to be
converted into parks themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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