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
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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