San Francisco's Chinatown comprises two or more thickly populated blocks extending from Stockton to Kearny and from California to Pacific street. The "town" is hedged in by the financial, hotel and apartment-house districts and a part of North Beach or "Latin Quarter." A Chamber of Commerce study indi cated that in 1927 there were 7,744 foreign-born and more than 3,500 native-born Chinese in the district, while several hundreds were scattered in other sections of the city. According to the Fed eral census three years later, there were 16,303 Chinese residents.
Seven times San Francisco has been swept by disastrous fires. The first fire of note occurred on Dec. 24, 1849, and was followed in quick succession by others on May 4, 1850; June 14, 1850; Sept. 17, 1850; May 4, 1851 and June 22, 1851. In 1906 came the greatest conflagra tion experienced on the western coast. Following the earthquake which occurred early on the morn ing of April 18, 1906, flames swept through the city creating havoc, especially in the central business and residential sections. Thousands of buildings, hun dreds of lives and approximately $500,000,000 were the losses sustained. An area of 497 city blocks, or 4 sq.m., was devastated.
According to official records 28,188 buildings valued at $105, 000,000 were destroyed. The value of the contents of the struc tures wiped out was impossible to estimate. Insurance companies and San Francisco financial houses estimate the insurance paid at $300,000,000, though many companies failed in the attempt to meet their obligations, while others repudiated them. Aid in the form of money to the sum of $10,000,000 was contributed by American, European and Asiatic communities, while additional millions in food and clothing were rushed to the stricken city, whose inhabitants slept in the remaining houses, parks and the streets for weeks. The flames were subdued by the generous use of dynamite, with the result that many expensive buildings were sacrificed by "back-fire" to save other sections of the city. While San Francisco had experienced earthquake disturbances in 1868, 1898 and 1900, that of 1906 was the most violent.
Within a remarkably short time San Francisco began the struggle to rehabilitate itself. Owing to the courage and energy of the people, within a year following the catastrophe the city was taking on a somewhat normal appearance. The new structures
were planned along more costly and substantial lines. With the aid of San Francisco banks and the money received from insur ance companies, the city went forward step by step and a beau tiful San Francisco once more arose from the debris and ashes.
In his search for Monterey, Don Gaspar de Portola, governor of Lower California, left San Diego in July 1769 and some months later members of his little band discovered San Francisco bay and the tip of the peninsula whereon the city is situated. From that time until California became a part of the United States, San Francisco became an objective of inter national strategy. In 1775, Don Manuel Ayala sailed through the Golden Gate in the "San Carlos," a packet of the Spanish royal navy. It was the first ship to gain entrance to the bay from the Pacific ocean. While the Spaniards won the credit of the discovery, the English, years before, narrowly missed gaining possession of the bay and the surrounding territory as well, for in 1579 Sir Francis Drake, the English explorer, sailed within a few miles of the "Golden Gate" and came to anchor in a little cove a few miles north, in what is known to-day as Drake's bay.
1776 a land expedition commanded by Col. Juan Bautista de Anza arrived on the peninsula and established the Presidio and the Mision Dolores. The following year (1777) Padre Juni pero Serra, father of the California missions, arrived. With the establishment of the Presidio, and the subsequent establishment of the pueblo of Yerba Buena, began the San Francisco of to-day. From 1776 until 1806 the inhabitants, soldiers and missionaries led a quiet, happy existence, occupying themselves with building the mission and the presidio, and doing only work enough to get the necessaries of life. For excitement, they had their Spanish fiestas, cock-fights and rodeos, while from time to time sailors, adventurers and visiting ranchers added a novelty. Trading in hides and tallow constituted the principal business of the period, though wines and brandies made by the missionaries were ex changed for ship's goods of varied assortment. Fur trading was also beginning to take on a commercial aspect. Eventually, this proved to be the principal business of the community.