Earthquake/Fire: Lafayette Park
The striking images on these cards date from the afternoon of 4/19/1906, the second day of the fire. Most look SE from Lafayette Park toward the corner of Gough/Sacramento. 1905 Sanborn (V. 3, sheet 260) shows details of the area before the fire. Punnett's Two Years After map shows that the fire burned to within a block of the park; it crossed Van Ness but was stopped at Franklin. Doolittle shows the burned area after the fire, looking east across Van Ness between Bush/Pine toward Nob Hill.
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- Weidner 212, postmarked SF 4/15/1907. At the left edge is 1941 Clay (SE corner Gough/Clay), with the tower of 1939 Clay just beyond, and the houses on the corner at the right edge are 1812/1814 Gough. Behrendt 229 shows the same image with dramatic coloring of flames added.
- Weidner 229.
- Rotograph, postmarked 2/13/1907, looks E across Gough between Washington and Clay. The foreground houses are 2000/2004/2010 Gough.
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These postcards all show the same view; a higher resolution image is here. This must be later in the day than Weidner 212 above, as a large tent has been erected, the park is filling with refugees and their belongings, and the fire is much closer. The houses at 1812/1814 Gough again appear at the right edge. Just left of the woman's white blouse is 1919 Sacramento, still standing in 2020. A Scheff postcard using this image is postmarked 7/26/1906.
- Rieder, postmarked Oakland 5/16/1906, less than a month after the earthquake and fire.
- Behrendt 212, same image as preceding. Unknown publisher 212 (same stock number, so presumably Behrendt) colors and enhances the image with sensationalized flames. The image also appears in Behrendt's souvenir postcard folder Destruction of San Francisco by Fire and Earthquake, titled "Watching the Fire".
- Weidner 210, postmarked U.S.S. South Dakota, postmark date illegible but message dated 2/20/1910; same image as Rieder but in color.
Steve's SF postcard pages:
