San Francisco's Soul

Known as the "Granite Lady," the old San Francisco Mint was the city's first stone building. Its sturdy construction withstood the infamous 1906 earthquake.
Photo courtesy of Gil Castle

By Christina B. Farnsworth

What stone building baked, shook, snapped, crackled and popped just over a hundred years ago?

At 5:12 a.m., April 16, 1906, San Francisco awoke to its infamous earthquake. After the big shake, damaged natural gas and water lines sparked 20-story high infernos that melted steel and glass. Broken water mains left little chance of quelling the fires. Observers reported fire raging on water. In the end, five square miles of ash marked the destruction of 28,000 buildings.

The answer is the "Granite Lady," second of the San Francisco mints. In the midst of hell, the San Francisco Mint stood tall, strong and ready. Today, San Francisco is in the midst of restoring and re-purposing this elegant and well-loved stone landmark.

Several dozen men had held fast through a fire so fierce that the mint's glass windows melted. Fusillades of pops and sharp snaps resounded through the structure as the flames attacked its sturdy stone facings. The mint employed some 150 people, but only a few dozen worked the night shift. At stake were not just the people and the building, but also $6 billion in gold and silver at today's prices. Experts speculated that had the mint burned the United States economy might have collapsed.

The 1848 California Gold Rush accelerated interest in a West Coast mint. Monetary transactions in the booming coastal metropolis were rather fluid. Some people bartered; others completed transactions in gold dust or currencies of the United States, Mexico, France, Holland, England, and even Indian rupees. Numerous private mints stepped into the breach, making private coinage. Figuring out how to do business with a plethora of currencies was one problem; sending heavy gold to Philadelphia to be minted into coins created other issues, including the hazards and expense of transport.

The old coining room still features its original marble flooring. At its peak, the mint produced 60 percent of this country's gold and silver coins.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Chernin

In 1850, President Millard Fillmore recommended a branch of the United States Mint be established in California. Congress approved in 1852 and the tiny first mint opened in 1854; the brick building was a mere 60 square feet, about the size of a walk-in closet by today's standards. Nevertheless, it produced more than $4 million in gold coins in its first year. Discovery in 1859 of what came to be called the "Comstock Load" in Nevada produced even more gold and required a larger mint.

Architect Alfred N. Mullet — also architect of Washington D.C.'s Old Executive Office Building — designed the new, $2.1-million mint on a city block site acquired through eminent domain for approximately $300,000. Wood boarding houses, hotels and apartment buildings came down and the Granite Lady rose. On May 26, 1870, masons laid the mint's cornerstone; the three-story mint opened on a rainy Saturday, Nov. 5, 1874.

The Granite Lady, San Francisco's first stone building, surrounded a courtyard. It was that courtyard and the artesian wells within that helped her survive the earthquake and fire. Mullett's engineering knowledge helped, too. He knew the Pacific Coast to be subject to earthquakes and designed the mint to "float" on its foundations in an earthquake, rather than shatter. Mullet also designed the concrete and granite foundation to deter tunneling by thieves in pursuit of the trove of bullion. It is, in effect, something of an ark for money. The quake tossed the mint's furniture about but the building itself performed well.

Though little besides the foundation and stairs are granite, some enterprising scribe early on dubbed her the Granite Lady. Three schooners brought sandstone from Newcastle Island in British Columbia for the facing of the upper floors and the six colossal fluted columns on the portico, so the building is literally stone from Newcastle. Local granite for basement walls came from the Griffith Quarry in Penryn, Placer County, Calif. Other stonework highlights include hand-laid floors and marble fireplaces.

Following the earthquake and resulting fires, the mint had the city's only source of potable water, and it also served as the community's bank.
Photo courtesy of San Francisco Museum and Historical Society

By 1880, just six years after opening, the San Francisco mint produced 60 percent of the United States' gold and silver coins and a third of the United State's national gold reserves. Historian Charles Fracchia, founder and former president of the San Francisco Historical Society (now The San Francisco Museum and Historical Society) called the mint "feminine." The smelting ovens worked 24 hours a day to mint coins, and Fracchia noted, "The smoke contained gold dust and workers would go out and scrape it off buildings and other things coated with it."

Just after the earthquake, night supervisor T. W. Hawes saw the fires start and instructed the night crew to close and lock the building's ground-floor iron security shutters. The crew removed as much as they could of what could burn from the building exterior.

The artesian well was the real blessing. By chance, the mint sported newly installed fire hoses, a building innovation put in place just 10 days before the fateful fire. The quake knocked out the well pump, so the night crew turned to chemicals to staunch encroaching fires: the sulfuric and hydrochloric acids used to manufacture the coins.

Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston, fearful of raids on the mint by Barbary Coast pirates and other thieves, dispatched 10 soldiers. Volunteers from the day shift brought the headcount to 60 people intent on protecting the mint. It was still only 9 o'clock in the morning. Mint superintendent Frank Leach was stalled a mere two blocks away trying to cross police lines reinforced by armed soldiers. Finally, a policeman recognized him, and he was able to join the 60 employees and soldiers working to save the mint.

The old mint coining room, circa 1890. The smelting ovens, as can be seen above, were in operation 24 hours a day.
Photo courtesy of San Francisco Museum and Historical Society

The pump was quickly repaired, so Leach instructed the crew to wet the mahogany window frames and the building's interior. Where the hoses wouldn't reach, bucket brigades wet down anything that might burn. It was still only lunchtime, and the danger was nowhere near over. The fire continued, engulfing the building and throwing cinders into the courtyard as buildings across the alley burned. Window glass, Leach reported, "melted down like butter."

And the sandstone and granite began to make popping sounds Leach described "at times the concussions from the explosions were heavy enough to make the floor quiver."

The precious metals treasure was in the basement but no one thought it safe. And then the copper roof, or rather the wooden roof beneath the hot copper, began to burn. The crew tore off copper to get water to the flames. The new hoses and the artesian well water were still winning the battle.

About 5 p.m., some 12 hours after the quake, Leach went outside the mint. Everything within sight was burned, leaving only fields of smoking embers.

The mint was a font of recovery and solace following the fire. An estimated 3,000 people had perished and more than half of San Francisco's 400,000 residents were homeless. The mint had the city's only source of potable water, and it also served as the community's bank.

But neither fame nor purpose last forever. The Granite Lady produced her last coin in 1937. The San Francisco Mint moved to its third location, and the historic landmark became a somewhat neglected relic.

The Old Mint, as the Granite Lady came to be known, became a National Historic Landmark in 1961. In 1994, the building closed, and this writer remembers rats trolling its grounds in daylight in the late 90s. In 2003, the federal government sold the building to San Francisco for one dollar — a silver dollar struck at the mint in 1879. In 2004, The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the mint as one of America's 11 most endangered landmarks.

The $83-million restoration plan, scheduled for completion in 2008, includes seismic strengthening and recreating the courtyard, while making the old mint a "green" sustainable building. At the restoration groundbreaking, Mayor Gavin Newsom called the Granite Lady "the soul of San Francisco."

Christopher Chadbourne of Boston is in charge of the restoration. Chadbourne's past projects include The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Mount Vernon and Monticello. "People seek a sense of rootedness," he said. Plans are to restore the mint and respect its historic fabric inside and out. "We are working, sensitive to the 18 rooms that will be the galleries, convention visitors' bureau and restaurant," he said. In the bowels of the mint, where billions in gold and silver once waited, will be a money museum. The museum will explore the past through "stories rather than artifacts," Chadbourne said. Yet, "artifacts are sacred windows to these stories."

It seems fitting for proceeds from sales of commemorative coins to help pay for the restoration. On Friday, Oct. 27, 2006, then House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi unveiled the coin celebrating the Grey Lady: "Along with history comes a sacred responsibility to preserve and protect it for future generations. Just as the Old Mint's vaults protected millions of dollars in government gold, the museum will help preserve San Francisco's rich history for future generations of San Franciscans and visitors from throughout the world to our beloved City.

"San Francisco deserves a museum that pays fitting tribute to its rich past, and the Old Mint deserves a purpose that restores it to its original beauty, and honors its role in our city. Today begins a bright new future for our Granite Lady."

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