Refugee Cottages


Two refugee cottages at the Presidio.

There are two 1906 earthquake refugee cottages located in the Presidio today behind the Old Post Hospital at Lincoln Boulevard and Funston Avenue. These two shacks memorialized in the Presidio are originally from Camp Richmond, a large camp that compromised 24 city blocks in the western area of San Francisco. The initial owners of these particular shacks then moved them to 34th Avenue. In 1985, the Army's 864th Engineer Battalion relocated the cottages to the Presidio.

The disaster of April 18, 1906 destroyed roughly 500 city blocks and left more than a quarter of a million people homeless. As part of the relief effort, the U.S. Army established temporary refugee camps and issued provisions including tents, supplies and food rations.

Once earthquake relief efforts began, it became apparent that refugees would eventually require more substantial housing than the Army regulation tents. As early as April 27th, the Army Corps of Engineers had the completed construction of temporary housing in Golden Gate Park. The eight buildings were 150 feet long and divided into compartments for family units. The elderly and those with young children were given priority to live in the barrack-like structures.

While the government-run camps provided acceptable housing for a limited time, they also represented the possibility of civilian dependence. The Citizen's Committee debated the housing issue. Some advocated temporary housing to replace the tent camps, while the mayor preferred construction of a "sufficient number of permanent homes of an attractive character for all those who need to be housed." In July, the Citizen's Finance Committee reported approximately 5,000 camp families "who ordinarily pay a moderate rental, who do not own land and have not considerable savings, but who are in receipt of ordinary wages." It was just for such families that the earthquake cottages were designed, built and marketed.

The earthquake shacks were built in the fall and winter of 1906-07 under a joint effort of the Department of Lands & Buildings of the San Francisco Relief Corporation, the San Francisco Park Superintendent, and the U.S. Army. The San Francisco Union Carpenters actually built the structures. Some reports note that General Greely personally contributed to the shack design based on his own hardship experiences in a remote Arctic post.

The cost to construct the four different shack types ranged from $100 to $741. They were constructed of redwood walls, fir floors and cedar shingled roofs; all with the exterior paint of an official "park bench green" color. Wood or coal burning stoves could be purchased and installed by the refugees. There were no toilets or kitchens, though the camps had central facilities. Rented for $2 per month, the cabins were available to earthquake refugees based on the following priority criteria: first to those in permanent camps; second to those in tents and makeshift buildings; third to those staying in cellars and with friends; and, finally, to those San Franciscans forced to live outside the city.

Credit: Bob Bowen Collection

At peak occupancy, the shacks housed a total of 16,448 refugees. The cottages were built as temporary housing in public parks. However benevolent, the relief administrators were concerned with refugee behavior and dependence in the camps. San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz worried "I'm only afraid these people will never want leave their new homes here." Though, as the months passed, refugees trickled out of the camps. Those remaining were the truly poor, lacking alternate options. One relief evaluation noted the residents' lives were enhanced by the earthquake relief efforts; "The health of the refugees in general, it was frequently stated, was improved by the outdoor life…even in the rains of the following winter. Thousands were better off in the refugee shacks than they had previously been in the poorer grade of tenements."

The city developed an ingenious plan that continued to provide housing but also guaranteed that the camps would slowly be eliminated. The tenants paid a $2 per month rental fee that went toward the purchase of the shack. Over two years, the $50 sales price for the cottage was paid and the new owners were required to move the shacks from the parks. The cost to move the shacks was from $12 to $15 and lots could be rented for $3 to $15 per month. These new homeowners moved over 5,300 cottages out of the camps - the last of which closed in 1909.

The refugees dispersed throughout San Francisco, along with their cottages. It is estimated as few as nineteen refugee shacks exist today within in the city. Unidentifiable, many are converted to garages or built into larger structures. The two small green cottages that now reside in the Presidio represent the struggle and achievement of the individual families that endured excessive loss, the extensive relief efforts by the military and civic authorities, and the rebirth of the entire city.

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Resources

Bronson, William. The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned, (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997).

Clements, Jr., Robert M. "Reminders of 1906," San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle, 11 December 1977.

"Engineers Build New Dwellings for Refugees," Presidial Weekly Clarion, (Presidio of San Francisco), 27 April 1906.

Halsey, Jr., Col. Milton B., USA (Ret). Point Paper U.S. Army Activities in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, Presidio Ranger files.

Richards, Rand. Historic San Francisco: A Concise History and Guide, (San Francisco: Heritage House Publishers, 1991).

Russell Sage Foundation, San Francisco Relief Survey: The Organization and Methods of Relief Used After the Earthquake and Fire of April 18, 1906, (New York: Survey Associates, Inc., 1913).

The Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake Refugee Shacks Jane Cryan, Founder-Director materials and letter to Diane Nicholson, Golden Gate National Recreation Area curator dated 4 December 1997, Presidio Ranger files.