By Christina Gray
It’s been 120 years since the Great Quake of 1906 destroyed much of what took San Francisco’s early settlers nearly 60 years to build. A city founded with missionary purpose, San Francisco lost more than half of its Catholic churches and institutions after the 8.4 earthquake tossed citizens from their beds on April 18 at 5:13 a.m.
In the first of his three-volume history of the Archdiocese of San Francisco (1885-1945), former archdiocesan archivist Jeffrey Burns tells a profoundly Catholic story of ruin and resurrection. On the 120th anniversary of the Great Quake, Catholic San Francisco shares Burns’ detailed and intimate accounts (edited for length) culled from his research. Current archdiocesan archivist Jacek Nowicki provided archival photos and context.
City in rubble and flames
Resulting fires were as destructive as the quake, according to Burns. “As fireman rushed to put them out, they made the awful discovery that they had no water.” All the water mains into the city were broken. One observer shared: “The fire spread with amazing rapidity … Dozens of fires broke out at the same time, sometimes two or three or more on the same block. The fire spread so rapidly that many were buried alive who might otherwise have been rescued, for the rescuing parties were driven back by the flames.”
Fires raged throughout the city for three days, destroying the entire downtown area up to Van Ness Ave., and much of the South of Market district — more than 59 city blocks in all. The official death tolls was 456, “but clearly many more lost their lives,” said Burns. “In a city of about 400,000 souls, an estimated 250,000 were left homeless.”
The Church’s “massive losses”
The Catholic Church suffered “massive losses,” James Kelley wrote in The Monitor’s (the archdiocesan newspaper) 1953 Centennial History of the Archdiocese. “More than half of the churches and Catholic institutions in San Francisco were destroyed or badly damaged. St. Patrick’s, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius, St. Dominic’s, St. Joseph, Old St. Mary’s, St. Rose, St. Brendan, St. Boniface, Notre Dame des Victories, and Nativity were destroyed. Badly damaged churches included Holy Cross, Mission Dolores Basilica, St. Brigid and St. Charles.
Catholic institutions were also destroyed, including Youth’s Directory, Notre Dame College, Sacred Heart Presentation Convent School, St. Ignatius College, Sacred Heart College, St. Mary’s Hospital and Old Ladies Home, St. Vincent’s Convent, Holy Name Convent, Holy Family Day Home, Our Lady of Mercy Academy, St. Patrick’s Boys School, St. Joseph’s Boys School, and St. Rose School. St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park also suffered major damage.
One priest’s account
Father Ralph Hunt, a priest at St. Patrick’s captured the tumult: “We have suffered a terrible calamity,” he wrote in a letter sent months after the quake. “The city has been literally wiped out. Once the fairest on the West Coast, the proud queen of the Pacific slope, she is now a mass of charred and blackened ruins.”
Father Hunt’s personal account painted a vivid picture of the widespread terror, including his own and his quick call to serve.
He awoke to the shaking but because he was accustomed to smaller tremors, he waited for it to stop so he could carry on with his sleep.
“But it (the shaking) continued in dead earnest and my bed began to jump around the room. In a moment, I heard the immense spire of the church topple down beside my window and the big chimney of the electric plant came down behind the house. The brick house swayed and groaned so terribly that I thought every moment was my last. I ran to get my cassock, for even then I hated to appear on the street in night clothes.”
He met some of his brother priests at the door who had also hastened to make their escape. One in particular, in Father Hunt’s telling, had a scratch on his cheek that bled freely.
“I thought he was badly hurt, and my fears were confirmed when he dropped to his knees for absolution,” wrote Father Hunt. “I gave it to him, and he in turn to me. The scene was repeated upstairs by two others, and it will give you an idea of the state of our mind. We were certain it was all over with us.”
Father Hunt and other priests roamed the city assisting those they could and providing absolution for those who needed it.
Heroic efforts by priests and sisters
Many heroic deeds were enacted in the city over the next three days, according to Burns. One of the most famous in Catholic circles was the rescue of St. Mary’s Cathedral (which did burn down in 1962) by two priests. At some point, the main tower caught fire. As the story goes, the two priests at the Cathedral, Father Charles A. Ramm, and Philip O’Ryan, directed a stream of water on the flaming tower, risking their lives but saving the Cathedral.
Vicar General Father Stephen Howell told Catholic San Francisco about the foresight of the Marist Fathers of Notre Dame des Victoires Parish. As fires closed in around them, the priests dug a deep hole in the parish garden and buried the records dating back to 1856 under several feet of dirt. The fire came and went, but the records survived intact.
Burns noted also the work of the Sisters of Mercy after St. Mary’s Hospital on Rincon Hill was destroyed. “The Sisters of Mercy saved all their patients by placing them on a river steamer and then provided them quarters by erecting tents on a vacant piece of land owned by the hospital.”
Archbishop’s “conspicuous” role
San Francisco Archbishop Patrick W. Riordan was in Omaha on his way to a national meeting of U.S. bishops when the earthquake hit. Archbishop Riordan had experienced the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and as a result, he had insisted that new buildings in the archdiocese be constructed with brick and stone, materials that did not weather the earthquake well. In all fairness, wooden churches would not have fared much better, certainly in the fires that followed the earthquake.
The archbishop visited refugee camps and tried to rally the drooping spirits of the dazed San Franciscans after his return. He celebrated Mass outdoors and promised, “We shall rebuild.”
According to Archbishop Riordan’s biographer James Gaffey, “After a survey of his city, Riordan played a conspicuous role in restoring San Francisco.”
In a public speech the archbishop conveyed hope in the words of St. Paul: “I am a citizen of no mean city, although it is in ashes. Almighty God has fixed this as the location of a great city. The past is gone, and there is no use lamenting or moaning over it. Let us look to the future and without regard to creed or place of birth work together in harmony for the upbuilding of a greater San Francisco.”
The local Church rebuilt
True to his word, Archbishop Riordan committed himself to reconstruction of the local church, according to Burns. The last nine years of his episcopate were consumed by these efforts. In 1909 at his 25th anniversary as archbishop, Bishop Thomas J. Conaty of Los Angeles captured his spirit:
“San Francisco in its glory, San Francisco in its ruins, San Francisco in its resurrection … Through all these phases, he (Riordan) displayed a spirit that nothing could daunt or withstand.”
In 1915, San Francisco hosted a world’s fair, the Panama Pacific Exposition to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and to proclaim to the rest of the world that “San Francisco was back.”
Jeffrey Burns’ three-volume series on the History of the Archdiocese of San Francisco is available on Amazon.
