Chapter X

Growth of San Francisco--Number of Houses erected--Prices of Real
Estate--Rents--Wages of Mechanics and Labourers--Gambling--Prices
Current--Climate--Churches--Steamboats--Statistics of Shipping,
&c., &c., &c.

Within the past six months, the growth of San Francisco has been enormous. During that time, at least a thousand houses have been erected, of all sizes and forms. The hills around the town are now covered with buildings, and every spot of ground near the centre is occupied. When it is taken into consideration, that lumber during this time has never been lower than two hundred and fifty, and often as high as four hundred dollars per thousand, and carpenters’ wages have been at from twelve to twenty dollars a day, it must be conceded on all hands, that the Californians are at least an enterprising people. During this time the price of real estate has risen in proportion with the growth of the town, property being now fifty per cent. higher than it was six months since. A lot on Portsmouth Square, which was purchased some three years ago for fifteen dollars, and sold last May for six thousand, was purchased a few days since for forty thousand dollars! The mere ground-rent of a little piece of land of sufficient size to erect a house upon, in any of the public streets, varies from one hundred to five hundred dollars per month. Rents of houses are, of course, in proportion to the price of real estate. A common-sized lodging-room, anywhere near the centre of the town, rents for one hundred dollars per month; an office on a lower floor, from two hundred to five hundred. The “Parker House,” a hotel upon the Square, is leased for two hundred thousand dollars per annum, and under-leased in small portions, at a profit of fifty thousand more. In the “El Dorado,” a large building next to the Parker House, a single room on the lower floor is rented for gambling purposes, for one hundred and eighty dollars a day, or five thousand four hundred dollars a month--nearly sixty-five thousand dollars per annum. Most of the large rooms in the hotels are rented to gamblers, each table where a game is played paying thirty dollars a day. A man who erects a house in San Francisco usually intends that the rent should cover all expenses of the building in three or four months, and in this he generally succeeds. Mechanics command enormous wages. Carpenters are now getting from twelve to twenty dollars a day, and tin-smiths, brick-layers, paper-hangers, and others employed in the construction of buildings, the same; while common day-labourers engaged in discharging vessels, digging cellars, &c., command eight dollars a day for their services. Board varies from sixteen to forty dollars per week, and washing costs eight dollars per dozen. A bewildered stranger, in search of a night’s lodging, may procure one by sleeping upon a narrow shelf called a “bunk,” at the moderate charge of two dollars, and get his breakfast at an eating-house in the morning for a dollar and a half. Many of the common articles of trade, such as clothing, can be obtained here almost at New York prices.

San Francisco possesses one of the most capacious and magnificent harbours in the world; one in which the navies of all the maritime powers could ride at anchor in perfect safety. From its entrance to its head is a distance of about twenty miles, and branching from it are two other large bays--San Pablo, and Suisun. The entrance to the harbour is guarded by lofty hills, about five thousand feet apart, and could be protected with the greatest ease. But the town of San Francisco itself is not fitted by nature as a pleasant residence. During the spring, summer, and autumn, cold northwest winds are continually blowing, sometimes with such severity as to destroy buildings, and always filling the streets with a dense cloud of dust. From December to March, during the continuance of the rainy season, the streets, which have been filled with dust in the summer, become perfect pools of mud and mire, so that in some of them it is almost impossible to travel. The climate is one of the most peculiar in the world. During the summer the weather is so cold that a fire is always needed, and the surrounding hills are dry and burned up; while in the winter, in the intermissions between the rains, the weather is delightfully warm and May-like, and the hills become clothed with a lovely verdure. Among the improvements in the town are several wharves, which have been completed within a short time past. The principal of these, the central wharf, built by a joint-stock company, extends into the harbour a distance of two hundred and ninety-two feet, and will, when completed, be twenty-one hundred feet in length, enabling vessels to lie abreast, and discharge their cargoes directly upon it. Several churches have also been erected; and there are now in the town seven, of the following denominations, viz.: Catholic, 1; Episcopalian, 2; Baptist, 1; Presbyterian, 2; Methodist, 1. There are also two public schools in operation. Some ten or twelve steamboats are plying on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, and the bay of San Francisco; so that travelling has ceased to be so disagreeable as it was when I went up the Sacramento in a little open boat. These steamboats run to Benicia, Sacramento City, Stockton, and San Josè; while several smaller ones ply up and down the Sacramento River, to and from the various little towns upon it. The passage from San Francisco to Sacramento City, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, is performed in nine hours; the price of passage being twenty-five dollars.

The following table, kindly furnished me by the Collector of the port, exhibits the amount of tonnage in San Francisco on the 10th of November, 1849, together with the number and national character of the vessels in the harbour.

American tonnage, 87,494
Foreign do. 32,823
-------
Total amount of tonnage, 120,317

No. of ships in harbour, 312 No. of do. arrived from April 1st, to November 10th, 697

Of which there were,

American, 401 Foreign, 296