Earthquake/Fire: Hibernia Bank
The Hibernia Bank at 1 Jones (corner Jones/McAllister/Market) was built in 1892. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire with some damage and reopened a month later. Today (in 2025) the landmarked building is called The Hibernia, providing leased office space and event space.
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These cards show Market/Jones on earthquake day 4/18/1906.
- Weidner 208 looks east on Market from Jones. Left: Prager's department store (1238-1250 Market), still intact. Center: Fire many blocks away obscures the Ferry Building but has not reached the Call yet. Right: Smoke pours out of Sterling Furniture (1039 Market). Market is empty: two lonely pedestrians in many blocks, no firefighters.
- Mitchell 146, postmarked Santa Barbara 12/09/1906, shows refugees gathering on Jones with piles of their belongings as the fire consumes the south side of Market on 4/18/1906. The space directly behind the bank is being excavated, presumably to build the office building seen in the later Newman card below. The caption is incorrect: Prager's (1238-1250 Market) is on the left, Hibernia Bank (1 Jones) is on the right.
- Pacific Novelty 645, postmarked Alameda 6/13/1908, is a colorized version of the same image.
The postcard album Facing Disaster (S.F. Bay Area Post Card Club, 2006) suggests that the refugee image above is doctored, based on a later photo. I disagree; I think the "neatly piled rubble" in the picture is construction material and the buildings are largely undamaged because the fire has not yet reached them, though it is very close.
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- Unknown publisher shows substantial earthquake and fire damage to the bank. The background smoke is probably added by the postcard artist. "Praeger's" should read "Prager's".
- Rieder 6976 looks west on McAllister from Market (right edge: McAllister side of the Hibernia) showing workers in the initial stage of post-quake cleanup.
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- Rieder-Cardinell is a formally posed post-fire image of the bank building with debris clearing in progress.
- Roesch shows the Hibernia decked out for Fleet Week 5/06/1908. The fences and trees on each side are surely a product of the postcard artist's imagination; the bunting and vegetation on the bank probably are too.
- Newman V195 shows the repaired bank building with the 1908 Hibernia Office Building just beyond. The card credits the photo as © Charles Weidner 1909.
Steve's SF postcard pages:
