Before the quake
Old Nob Hill.
Old Market street.
One of Arnold Genthe's picture of chinatown.
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San Francisco was the greatest city west of Chicago before the quake. It was the place millionaires wanted to go and the poor saw a better future. One example is Nob Hill. The Big Four- Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Collis Huntington, were the ones on the crown of the richest hills in San Francisco. One man, Robert Louis Stevenson, even called it "a hill of palaces."
Market street was one of the busiest streets there was. It has a suitable name, considering all the shops. Streetcars rumbled up and down the street, sellers called out prices. Even though it was very busy, it was a rather happy place. It was called "The queen of the west.”
One of the busiest places in San Francisco was chinatown. With an estimated population of 15,000, San Francisco's chinatown was the biggest in America. |