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John Hernan Oral History
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Hernan: 45th Street, Street, Avenue, and then on Street both houses are still standing out there. We had cottages, paid them $15 a month rent. Martini: Fantastic. Hernan: Now, I guess you couldn't get them for $50, $60 anymore. Martini: No, it's more like about $120. Hernan: My dad had gone into business. I was born in '91 (1891) so I'm going on 85 years old. We moved from there because we outgrew the place the folks had, moved on to Sacramento. They were there and my dad started a little one-man shop on Commercial Street near Sansome. And as he plugged and plugged we got the a lot further. We were located at Sacramento near Montgomery, or near Sansome, right across from where the Federal Reserve is now. And that's where we burned out at 11:00 o'clock the first morning. It was 1906. I was a boy then, only about 14. And that's when I got mixed in, we had to find something. We opened a stand on the street at California and Montgomery, no, California and Sansome where the Bank of California is now. We opened it on the street and I stood there and our own customers if needed. Then we and went and searched for the safes in the ruins to see and then get them out to open them up to see if everything was all right. And I stood there as a boy taking the orders from my dad. Martini: Didn't they have trouble with the safes after the fire killed them in too quick- Hernan: Oh, sure. You never want to open a safe up while its still warm because it might be a little warmer inside. If you open it up, it'll just explode into fire. And we had some, but everybody was so anxious. Open the safe, open the safe, open the safe. Then, you had men running around the street with hats on with a sign on "expert safe opening", probably never saw a safe in his life. But, we'd been in it then and my dad start a business 1889, yeah, 1889. And around in this area. You never had to worry much about burglary or [inaudible due to tape distortion] I’m gonna be 85 pretty soon. Martini: You must remember quite a bit about the World's Fair they held here in 1915. Hernan: Yes sir, we had an exhibit at the World's fair in 1915. The World's Fair was right out this way. Now we're up on Rincon Hill. Let's see, Nob Hill over there, no this one is... Russian. When I was then three years old, my folks had moved and I lived right over here on Broadway and Jones. That house isn't there anymore where we lived, it's was a set of flats but that burned at the time of the fire and from there then we finally moved and got out into the mission. You see, you gotta figure that all your downtown was mostly down in this area. In this flat around here. Now all these piers and all that did not exist at that time that we had. They're hardly used today anymore, they're just standing there. Only a couple of them used. And down here, a lot to this way and below here, let's just go out now, where are we now? Jones, see here’s Russian Hill, We're right up in this area, now you see this white? That's the area that we're in. That means that this plot was not burnt. Martini: It was just missed. Hernan: And Telegraph Hill wasn’t burned. But there wasn't much on Telegraph here, there wasn't too much on here, only Russian Hill was saved, due to this being a big barren hill in the first place and no one around the hill. Just like it went around Telegraph Hill. This was called East Bay. This was the end of the fire in this area here and the Telegraph Hill area and where we're sitting was still here. It wasn't burnt and Russian Hill that didn't burn. The fire didn't come up because people didn't build on the hills. You didn't have hills that were built like they are today with the streets and everything going through. Most of San Francisco in the early days all went out this way, and this was out into the mission area. And none of the mission area... and the main thing is people always talk about the earthquake. Well that was a hell of a strong earthquake. And there were creeks coming from there down this way and it came down through the mission just to the point like this and naturally the ground was not solid under this construction because that's where the water kept running under so that collapsed. Martini: Probably still like that today. Hernan: It's still like that today but a lot of it has been... They've done a lot of pile driving to support that construction. The other creek that came down came right down at the end of the post office, the seventh and mission. The only damage the post office has was just the corner of seventh and mission, the buildings here and here around they have all the metal, wood, and granite. Just on that corner that collapsed. It was only about that high. But from there it went down and across and on to Mission Street and Holland Street. Now if you go down Holland Street from 7th Street, 8th street, down to 6th street a lot of those buildings today, when you walk in, the street is up here but you gotta walk down. They used to be on the level. Now that whole area sunk because that was all filled in. And the buildings sunk and then the city afterwards brought the street levels up. But the houses, I mean there were small factories there, are still in the location they were when they sank to and they're still being used. Martini: Yeah, I work over there at Fort Mason, I know you were there earlier, was there any damage at Fort Mason? Hernan: No that building that you're in, that was the office building. That’s the furthest one down at Fort Mason? You see Fort Mason was a hell of a lot different then. That whole area where they have the Officers homes, and that now, that's been built. That was built since World War I. I was in World War I we used to use that whole area for our training course. Running and marching, you know. Yeah that was where you just put parade gravel and we'd just empty lots and they'd just even them off a little bit so we could use that. The rest of our training we used to do down here on the water front. We had to run on cobble stones in those days. Martini: Did you live on the post? Hernan: Hm? Martini: Did you live at Fort Mason? Hernan: They didn't have quarters for us to live. Martini: You're kidding. Hernan: No. And they didn't have quarters to feed. Though they tried to get local boys in there to handle. That was a medical depot exchange. (Sirens heard in the background) It supplied all the camps that were opened up in this area. To supply medical supplies and that's where we started, that where I had enlisted. Well… I had enlisted before that but then my uncle told me about this and I went down there to see him and what Major Stairs was looking for was people having experience with business, enough to start and handle the depot. Which we finally opened and in fact the building is still standing down at the end of Bay Street down here. That's what we finally turned into the warehouse and I had charge of that warehouse. I was secretary to the Captain. That's why I never left here. Everybody else that I helped to train after that, they left, they went like to Vladivostok Camp Freemont which is now Menlo Park down there, that was the big camp which was created for the M That's where the draftees from this area all went and from there they were shipped out. And from here a lot of them were shipped over to Florida, from Florida over to England, and then into France, and then finally into what is now West Germany. Martini: You said some of the guys were sent to Vladivostok Hernan: Well you see there's still those two docks down... That's where the Sheridan and the Sherman transports used to leave. They were capable of handling about 700 men and they put 1,400 on them. And when the boys finally came back and told me, "Jesus were you lucky not to go over there. That was just Hell." They were crapping on the decks and everything else because there wasn't enough toilets anywhere they could get, When you had to put 1,400 boys on a ship that was total was supposed to be 700, well that's where they used to dock and that's where the transport all used to dock, that was the government property down in there. Now it's hardly used, I don't know whether they're used at all now. Martini: Yes, it now belongs to the National Park System. It's a park land it’s opened to the public : Now you take everything from there out and all the properties I said where the Word's Fair was, which went from Chesham Street down to the Bay. And from Van Ness out to Rodrick except some that what was in what is now Crissy Field out there, that's where the had a lot of those buildings, the old buildings that they use as a stable because Crissy Field itself was a horse race track. That's during the World's Fair. While the whole district then was so different than what we're used to, we had a couple of trucks here, and we usually have to load the trucks and go down town to have lunch. Then at night time we could come home. Half the time I was still living out there off of Second Avenue in the Richmond District and I got married while I was in the army. My wife's folks lived over here on Clay and Clyde, and that's where she stayed and that's where I went home at night. Martini: You commuted to the army each day? You commuted to Fort Mason to go to the army? Hernan: Well, you had to go on the street car, they didn't give you transportation when you were discharged, and at lunch time we used to all pile in trucks and go downstairs or downtown to a restaurant on Farrell Street to have our lunch because they had no facilities. And there was no hospital there. My son was born when I was in the army. He's now, what, 60 something years old, and his three children, they're my grandchildren and I'll never forget this. I picked her up, the army picked her up at Clay Street where we were living, we'd just had that flu epidemic, sent an ambulance, took her out to Letterman Hospital. Then the doctor who was a local doctor here, must've enlisted into the Army, he had charge of Letterman, he was a good man, and the whole cost was $17 to be there, I had to pay the government for the laundry they needed. But these big buildings across from out there, Letterman consisted only of the small wood buildings that still stand beyond. Letterman's Hospital was most of those wood buildings in those days. This has all been built since. In fact one of them was recently completed as you probably know about the big addition there. Then World War II my son was in the Navy and I used to devote a lot of time to what was then the YMCA across from Lebanon. It isn't any more, I don't know, I think the government runs it now. Martini: I think it's just vacant. It's a big white building? Hernan: Well we used to- No, a little wood building. Across the road from Lebanon. The old wood buildings at Lebanon. And beyond that now is a parking area before you get to the parade grounds. But we had spots in there and the YMCA, we used to put on shows for the boys that were in love [inaudible] The ramp that's in front, that used to be stairs, we changed that so they could roll wheelchairs up, and I served out there for a couple years during World War II and with the YMCA and since then it's been given over I think it belongs to Lebanon now I'm now sure. And what they use it for I don't know. But we had everything in there. Loads of boys coming back who were unwell we had places where they could work with their paint, you know? And study... Martini: Was the Presidio a lot more barren then than it is now? Hernan: Presidio to a degree was more barren, but generally not too much different than it is now, except that [inaudible] more and it's in better shape than it used to be. Now they're asking about those gun emplacements. That have been placed if we knew anybody who used those gun emplacements. Now my recollection, as far back as I know, those guns all stayed from when Spain owned this place. All those forts going around the front. Now as a youngster, my grandparents had a place in Baker & Lombard and I used to go there, my uncle used to take me, he'd say "C'mon," and we'd go down to the waterfront. We'd go crab fishing down there. Amongst the rocks. Fort Mason was there at that time, but there wasn't the road way or anything more like down to Fort Mason. What's left were a whole lot more of these gun placements there when I was a boy. But I always was told, I always had the impression that was when Spain had this and they had put those gun placements in there. I don't know if any of those guns have ever been shot [inaudible due to distortion] sure they were there to help protect any invasions, and from where we were down here we have a net across the golden gate to stop any subs from coming in which had to be lifted all the time when one of our own ships were coming through, but I don't remember any of these guns ever being shot in either World War I or War II. Martini: Nobody ever attacked. Hernan: No, we were close sometimes to some of the attacks, but nobody I don't think ever tried to get in, because we had that and we have what is now what Cronkite? Over there? That wasn't always a Fort, that was a Fort put in by Americans and then what qualifications, we used to go up the hills there in World War II to entertain the boys when we were taking a troop and going up, take some entertainment up there, and they were built cheaply for World War II. Those up in the Marin Hills But as far back as I can remember, there was no Crissy Field or anything down below in there. The guns go around as you drive, that was my impression from the time I'm a little boy that those were all built by the Spanish when they owned and controlled California. Now I can't vouch for that, but they were there when I was a boy. Martini: There were never any cannons near those ones you said that never fired, you don't remember any at Fort Mason do you? Hernan: Those were the cannons used to shoot the round balls. Martini: Right. The Americans brought some too, they built their own- Hernan: There's a lot of those have been taken out in recent years, you know. Martini: They've melted down for scrap, a lot of them. Hernan: A lot of those have been taken out since the Golden Gate Bridge has been built and had to make more to surround, and after Crissy Field was built, which is partially used, the rest of it like the old Spanish building that's up at the end of the parade ground which is now the offices club, that was there. And those buildings around the parade grounds were there. Because I got my issue of clothing out there. Two suits, two pair of shoes, and one suit I couldn't wear, it was too tight and the other one was so big it hung on like a rag. Those were terrible times because it'd been so long since we'd really been outside of the Spanish-American conflict which we were no more prepared for a good war at that time like we had to get into as when that World War I started which we never expected to be in. We should never have been in it as far as I'm concerned. It was nothing very good in it. Martini: You never did get sent overseas, did you? Hernan: Beg your pardon? Martini: You never did get sent overseas, did you? Hernan: No, I stayed right here. The Major kept me here. We used to enlist 60 at a time. Just to train to keep sending them off to these new... and I don't know, somehow he seemed to like me, like my work, and he didn't send me out. And then I was practically in charge of taking the inventory of supplies the business end of it, and I became the Captain's secretary, I was still a sergeant first class, and I used to do all the work down at the warehouse here for the Captain, all his paperwork would come in, he'd dump it on my desk, and I'd have to investigate it, write out the answers, sign it, and he'd send it back up to Fort Mason. So I never left here. I stayed right here in San Francisco. Martini: This must've been pretty good duty being stationed in San Francisco, rather than- sent to hell and gone. Hernan: Oh, yeah. [Inaudible] But a lot of the boys that were trained down here at Mason they went across, and those days you didn’t fly, they went on the Sheridan, and the Sheridan and the Sherman were the two transports they used to come in. Martini: Did they actually draft them and train them right at Fort Mason, teach them how to fire the rifle and everything? Hernan: No, we never trained them there with the rifle, because we were not going to be where the use of the rifle was going to be necessary, we were always going to be in the supply depot of any camp that they opened. Martini: Uh-huh. So- Hernan: Anywhere in the United States they opened a camp they had to have a medical depot connected with a temporary hospital and all the supplies for the western United States came through at our warehouse and then we always had to keep an inventory of that and report and get new supplies in and we had to pack them here and ship them out to all the port on the West. Martini: You must've been handling an awful lot of stuff. Hernan: Oh we did. And there wasn't time. When they said, "Inventory," they wanted the inventory... we had a three story brick garage building, it's still standing down there, full. And as I say I had first to third floor after I was in for a while and then I had the whole building under my control, and I'd had business experience, and that's what the Major wanted and they said I was doing a good job. I surprised them first day, there was 60 of us and they took 59 away and I stood there and didn't go. So that's why I never got out of here because they kept me here all the time to take charge of this warehouse. It was alright by me. Martini: Now where did you say the warehouse was, you say it's on Bay Street...? Hernan: Right down on Bay Street, Bay Street, just as far as you go down, there's a red brick building right there before you get to the waterfront. I think the cross-street is either Sansome or... Because it's a private warehouse now, it's not government anymore. They just took it that time, I don't know it's somebody's, and rigged it so a little remodeling and used it for the whole medical supply for all the West. Martini: As I understand it the Army out there at the Fort they have warehouses all up and down Embarcadero it wasn't all located nice within the fort boundaries. Hernan: I don't ever remember any warehouses along the waterfront out by the Presidio Martini: Wasn't the building, the Montana building, wasn't that used by the Army too? Hernan: That's correct. Everything that was built there, the Montana warehouses and these down there now, at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf they were all used by the Army but not for our department. Martini: Yeah, everybody was separate then. Hernan: We had all our department down in this other big building down there. Martini: You were using horses at that time to transport everything? Or did you have trucks? Hernan: Mostly was motorcycles. For us. They had a motorcycle any time it was a major up here wanted me the motorcycle would come down and the side car, they'd pick me up and bring me out to Fort Mason so I could talk to the Major or the Captain and get any different change in orders from that. I really didn't have one of the dirty jobs in the army, I had a pretty good job in the army. Thank god I'd worked some before, because I started work right at the time of the fire, then I went back to school, after they opened it up, Polytechnic High, opened up which is now the University Hospital up on Parnassus used to be the affiliated college which was also part of UC. They gave us one room when 50 of us went back to school up there and they didn't of course have any shops, so we only had half-day school. Martini: Is that kind of the equivalent of a GI Bill? Hernan: No but that was a municipal, it was under the state because they were all state buildings, Polytechnic High was down at Bush and Stockton As I said they burnt down just about the same time as we burnt down over here on Clay street near Sansome. This is, just to give you an idea... [Distorted] In that time they gave you an opportunity to get your insurance in cash over a certain period, or you could take it in stock in the company, or you could take it and divide it half and half, you had different options. Cause eventually, jeez they were hurt, fairly young company at that time. So that time we didn't have too much there, we took stock, my dad did, for the value of his insurance, a pretty big bet then he never wanted to cash it in, and I still own it. Martini: A pretty smart move, it's really gone up. Hernan: That worked out alright. Now you see, if you look at this picture for instance, now this is from Russian Hill. And there's your ferry building. Now this is, looking at it, from before the fire. Martini: You can hardly even see the ferry building anymore. Hernan: No, you can't, but you can see the ferry building wasn’t bothered because the fire started along in here where the SP buildings are now. Obviously SP they built that, they didn't have any buildings down there at that time. All the stuff down here most of it was shacks. Now this is very little of this that is left. Some of this further over here they were buildings that were gutted and rebuilt. Now this is also looking from south of Market, south of the slot and this was the old type construction down there, but this was the old city hall which was destroyed. Next to the old was the big auditorium Mechanic’s Pavilion which was where the city hall is now coming over where the auditorium is. That auditorium was the Mechanic’s Pavilion where they used to have show’s and that in the building and big meetings, just a great big wood building. That burnt down but just to show you how they didn't expect the fire to go that was turned into a hospital. Martini: Brother!? Hernan: And they took people from the downtown area in here and moved them out and made a hospital out of it, just put cots in there, and then they apparently during the second day of the fire they had to move everybody out and get them placed where they could. Martini: They had no idea it was going to get as far out of hand as it did. Hernan: No. We knew we had an earthquake, but where we were we couldn't see downtown except we could see a little smoke but nobody realized in the beginning what it was gonna be. As I say the fire chief he lived on Bush Street, and next to it as a theater, the Old California Theater, and in the earthquake the chimney fell from building next door, broken, fell through the roof of his building and killed him in bed. He didn't even know we had a fire. Martini: You always hear all these stories about the National Guard and soldiers shooting people in the street- Hernan: That is correct. Well, you see, we had government military control, that's what it was, a great big ruin. There were strict orders that, nobody was to leave the street. Nobody was to enter any place where there were ruins. Because there was nothing but block after block after block of ruins. Now if the militia was going around and you were... I saw this for myself, if you were out in the ruins and snuffing around, they'd just call you out on the sidewalk and line you up and if you had anything in our pocket that didn't belong to you that you might've picked up, they shot you. There was no questions asked.
Description
This interview was conducted in 1976 between Park Rangers and John Hernan for the general collection at Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The interview was conducted at the informant’s home. John Hernan was 14 years old during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.
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