Very Rare Early San Francisco Directory
Massive Growth in the Wake of the Gold Rush
One of the most extensive early city directories for San Francisco, including a street index and many illustrations of early business buildings in the advertising matter. The location of buildings is noted in the street directory (see pages 162-202). The volume as a whole reflects the rapidly developing, increasingly cosmopolitan city during the immediate post-Gold Rush era. Of particular note is the extensive advertising matter for San Francisco businesses, an indicator of the explosive growth of the city since 1850, when the first business directory for the city consisted of merely three pages. The introductory comments printed before the index to the "Advertising Department" describes the rapid growth, and even points to greater growth in the future:
The business of San Francisco is rapidly increasing, and the causes are varied which operate so favorable upon it. The rapid increase of the population, and the arrival by every steamer of families, who intend to make this their future home, give an air of stability and permanency to the city, and create a larger demand for the luxuries as well as the necessaries of life, for home consumption, in addition to the already immense, yet constantly increasing, inland trade, so well facilitated by our matchless harbor and its tributary bays and rivers. Yet it must be evident to every one, that the immense business now carried on in San Francisco is, comparatively, small to what it will be when the great international improvements now in agitation shall have been completed.
Quebedeaux contextualizes this directory within the city's still evolving urbanization, especially in relation to the the economic and business aspects of the city:
On February 11, 1854, the princpal business streets of San Francisco were lighted with coal gas for the first time. Cobblestone paving of Washington Street between Dupont (now Grant) and Kearny commenced on November 2; and the lighthouse on Alcatraz Island was established on November 4. The city was becoming "developed" and increasingly cosmopolitan in character. There was a lack of "method" in business, high prices and uncertain markets, much speculation and gambling, and constant auctions. The pioneer press was influential, family life was absent, and there was a notable lack of women in the population. But with their directory, Le Count & Strong try to convey to the reader the beginnings of "stability and permanency" to San Francisco as a city, and with that, an even better market for new businesses and products - Quebedeaux.
It is worth noting the beautiful typography (and occasional illustrations) of the interleaved colored paper advertising sheet. The number of these leaves seems to vary among the extant copies of this rare directoy. Quebedeaux describes a copy with 14 leaves, the copy described in Howell Catalogue 50 had 16 leaves. The present copy has a total of 11 unnumbered advertising leaves. Each sheet is is devoted to a single business:
Andrew V. S. Anthony, Draughtsman and Engraver. Illustrated with allegorical cut of a cherub among engravers tools.
P. A. Brinsmade, Agency for Claims Against the Government of the United States. Describes types of claims, including those of officers and soldiers of Col. Stevenson's Regiment of New York Volunteers, for bounty lands. Also those of California Battallion under Lieut. Col. John C. Fremont.
Bryant & King, Importers, All Kinds of Furniture. Illustrated with cut of building.
Geo. J. Brooks & Co. Paper Warehouse.
George T. Crowther, London Porter and Burton Ale Stores. Illustrated with cut of inside of the establishment showing barrels of liquor.
Harrison Eastman, Designer and Engraver on Wood. Illustrated with allegorical view of cherubs, and a miner "seeing the Elephant."
Kewen, Johnston & Morrison, Real Estate Brokers and Auctioneers.
Lord & Webb, Importers of Blank Books and Stationery. Illustrated with cut of building facade showing street scene, horses, carriages and people.
Warren & Son's Horticultural Museum and Hall of Science.
John S. Watson & Co. House, Steamboat, Sign and Ornamental Painting.
Wells, Fargo & Co. New York, California and European Express and Banking Company.
Additional typographically dazzling advertising fills pages 17-88 at the end of the volume.
This directory is a testament of the remarkable growth of San Francisco on the heels of the Gold Rush, and an important primary document for the history of mid-19th century San Francisco.
Rarity
Any California directory from the 1850s is of much interest and rarity, especially such an extensive directory for San Francisco. The present directory was described as "very rare" as early as the Norris Catalogue (1948), and while well represented in institutional confines we see only one copy noted in RBH.