Finding Aid to the Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of San Francisco Refugee Shacks Collection
1983-2005
(bulk 1983-1999)
Finding aid prepared by J. C. Baxter
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA, 94102
(415) 557-4567
info@sfpl.org
June 2002
Title: Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of San Francisco Refugee Shacks Collection
Date (inclusive): 1983-2005
Date (bulk): 1983-1999
Collection Identifier: SFH 9
Creator:
Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of San Francisco Refugee Shacks.
Physical Description:
1 carton, 1 box
(2.5 cubic feet)
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 557-4567
info@sfpl.org
Abstract: Research files, correspondence, photographs, and clippings documenting the activities of the Society for the Preservation
and Appreciation of San Francisco Refugee Shacks (SFPASFRS), an organization founded by Jane Cryan to identify and preserve
the remaining small dwellings that were mass-produced to house San Franciscans displaced by the 1906 earthquake and fire.
Physical Location: The collection is stored onsite.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in English.
Access
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours, with photographs available during Photo Desk
hours. Collections that are stored offsite should be requested 48 hours in advance.
Publication Rights
Copyright retained by San Francisco Public Library except where retained by specific authors for published and unpublished
manuscripts, or those retained by photographers. Jane Cryan retains copyright for: Hope Chest: The True Story of San Francisco's
1906 Earthquake Refugee Camps (1998), "Hope Chest: A History of One of the Most Magnificent Charities of All Time"(1993),
and "From Tents to Shacks: A guide to San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake Refugee Camps". Sergio Amunategui retains copyright
for his thesis, Shelter, Dwellings and Metamorphosis. Jim Kanne retains copyright for all photographs marked as such.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of San Francisco Refugee Shacks Collection (SFH 9),
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Provenance
Gift of Jane Cryan, founder of SPASFRS, in 1999.
Related Materials
Researchers are encouraged to view the San Francisco History Center's Subject Files and Photography Collection as well as
the catalog holdings of the San Francisco Public Library for related materials. See also the 1906 Earthquake Refugee Shacks
at the Presidio.
Materials Transferred
Photographs and slides have been transferred to the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection. Books have been transferred
to the San Francisco History Center Stacks and can be found in the library's catalog. Artifacts are housed in the San Francisco
History Center's Realia Collection.
Conservation Note
During processing, the entire collection was re-foldered and re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes. Some pages were removed
from binders.
Biographical/Historical note
Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of San Francisco Refugee Shacks was founded in 1983 by local activist Jane Cryan.
Its purpose was to identify and advocate for San Francisco's surviving earthquake cottages that were built as part of the
relief effort after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.
1. 1906 Quake Refugee Shacks
Though a necessity due to the quake, housing in the form of refugee shacks was commissioned as a result of peculiarities arising
out of the San Francisco relief effort. Following the quake, with some 200,000 completely homeless and 100,000 temporarily
displaced, a makeshift city of tents and shelters rose unofficially, including any available lean-to, voting booth or ruined
mansion. San Francisco was mapped into seven districts to feed, clothe, and temporarily shelter refugees. At the end of April,
1906, as many as 200 relief stations were in operation, with soup kitchens available for workers and the needy. By June 18,
official tent camps were designated to provide for the immediate needs of the citizens, namely food, shelter and clothing.
In all, 18 sites were selected as official tent camps, including Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. In return for the charity
and/or the cheap accommodations, the campers were expected to obey certain rules (no lewdness, vagrancy, drunkenness, etc.).
By August, hard times had driven some in the camps—particularly at Jefferson Square—to suicide and despair. Wooden shacks
were seen as a solution to the existing camp squalor, and were begun in the fall of 1906.
The course of figuring out how many wooden structures were needed and what to charge for them was a daunting prospect, since
there was an ever-shifting population of both paupers and self-sustaining laborers who may or may not have submitted to the
Finance or Relief committees' suggested retail prices. Where they would be built—shifting sand dunes in the Sunset and Richmond,
or the burned-out grounds of the Mission—also had to be considered. The Lands and Buildings Committee eventually settled on
a plan to build mass-produced cabins, which in the end totaled 5,610 (after an initial plan for 3000). In total, 31 official
camps were housing earthquake refugees, 11 of which were shack cities. Of the shacks, three types are known, labeled Types
"A," "B," and "C," respectively by researchers and enthusiasts.
2. SPASFRS
The formation of The Society For the Preservation and Appreciation of San Francisco's 1906 Refugee Shacks (SPASFRS) was announced
on October 1, 1983 by its founder, Jane Cryan, a local activist. Cryan's enthusiasm for the shacks grew out of her own interest
in a cottage she had rented in 1982, later discovered to be an amalgamation of three "Type A" shacks and a free-standing "Type
B" refugee shack (her Little Red Cottages). Appreciation quickly turned to anxious activism, when it was made known later
in 1983 that her own red cottage-shack was for sale and would be demolished, as had many other refugee shacks since 1906.
Cryan's passion for the shacks was not limited to preservation; she became intent on compiling a survey of extant shacks and
their histories.
After a successful appeal to the San Francisco Landmarks Preservation Board to bestow recognition on her cottage as San Francisco
landmark No.171, SPASFRS set upon saving the so-called "Goldie Shacks" in the Richmond District (named after a former resident).
Here the SPASFRS gained allies in both Freda Eisenson, the neighbor of "Goldie" who contacted Cryan about its proposed demolition,
and Gwenda Davies, another supporter. After much protest, "Goldie" was given an appeal from demolition, temporarily keeping
it in existence; now debates arose as to whether it should be moved or remain as a 'signpost' for the Richmond District in
which the shacks were originally placed. This second victory for SPASFRS was newsworthy and helped garner public interest,
combined with Cryan's informative and popular slide show presentations on the history of San Francisco refugee shacks. In
the end, the U.S. Army took over the care of "Goldie," moving them to the Presidio, thought to be an ideal addition to the
Army Museum's extensive 1906 Earthquake exhibit. The Army's 11th hour rescue of the shack—and the press and hoopla surrounding
it—certainly fueled public interest. The restoration of the shack and its opening on the 80th anniversary of the quake in
1986 took place in a large celebration, proclaimed "Earthquake and Fire Refugee Cottage Day in San Francisco" by Mayor Dianne
Feinstein.
Despite setbacks, including volunteer fatigue after numerous battles with reluctant property owners and subsequent demolitions
of shacks, as well as embarrassment of discovering so-called imposter shacks (as in the case of Labor Leader Bill Bailey's
shack formerly on Telegraph Hill), the SPASFRS persevered. In September 1989 Cryan met and collaborated with Sergio Amunategui,
a graduate student at UC Berkeley, whose Masters Thesis in Architecture involved the evolution of a temporary building to
a singlefamily dwelling. Amunategui had learned about the shacks through a Seismic Architecture class and called Cryan to
be his imaginary client. This resulted not only in a scale model of such a dwelling—being a glorified version of Jane Cryan's
own little red cottages—but also an academic assessment of the shacks heretofore not theorized: the cottages are archetypal
reminders of charity, as well as a reminder of the possibility of city-wide homelessness in an inevitable and unpredictable
future quake. The Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of San Francisco Refugee Shacks lost its last battle to save
a shack when the San Francisco Planning Commission overruled the Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board’s decision to save
the "La Rosa" shacks on April 9, 1992. Although less active, SPASFRS continued its grass-roots campaigns for preservation
throughout the 1990s. In September of 1999, Jane Cryan gave the SPASFRS archive to the people of the City of San Francisco.
Scope and Contents
Research files, correspondence, photographs, and clippings documenting the activities of the Society for the Preservation
and Appreciation of San Francisco Refugee Shacks (SFPASFRS), an organization founded by Jane Cryan in 1983 to identify and
preserve the remaining small dwellings that were mass-produced to house San Franciscans displaced by the 1906 earthquake and
fire.
The collection includes correspondence to and from property owners, surveys, bibliographies, photographs and slides, lectures,
published and unpublished material, press releases, and reference material related to the history of each shack, as well as
a few artifacts. Each refugee shack for which SPASFRS advocated had a file created for it containing research and correspondence.
Actions taken by the SPASFRS to preserve particular shacks are strongly represented, as are images of shacks that are no longer
in existence.
Jane Cryan originally organized the shack files. Volunteers added to the files, most notably activists Freda Eisenson and
Gwenda Davies. Sergio Amunategui's Master's Thesis and slide show is present, as is Cryan's unpublished "Hope Chest" in two
manuscript forms, one of which has been illustrated.
Arrangement
The material has been arranged into 5 series: Series 1: Jane Cryan's Research Files; Series 2: Shack Files and Correspondence;
Series 3: Press and Speeches; Series 4: Writings by Jane Cryan; and Series 5: Shack-related Projects. The subseries of individual
shack folders are arranged alphabetically by street address, then chronologically within. Other series are arranged by format,
then chronologically.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Cryan, Jane
1906 Earthquake refugee shacks
Emergency housing--California--San Francisco
Series 1
Jane Cryan's Research Files
Physical Description:
3.0 folders
Scope and Contents
This series comprises Jane Cryan's research on San Francisco earthquake refugee shacks and their history, including a bibliography
of contemporary newspaper citations on refugee shacks, a bibliography of photographs of refugee shacks from contemporary newspapers,
and survivor lists and shack lists. Included are Cryan's original surveys. The bibliography of newspaper articles regarding
refugees has been arranged by Cryan into the following categories: Refugees, Relief, Refugee Shacks, Camps (General), Camps,
(Specific), Flour Riots, Mary Kelly, Chinese Refugees.
Materials Transferred
See Appendix A for photographs removed from this series.
Arrangement
Arranged by subject.
Box 1, Folder 1
Shack Surveys, research and historical data
Box 1, Folder 2
Bibliography of newspaper citations from
San Francisco Chronicle
Box 1, Folder 3
Bibliography of photographs and drawings from
San Francisco Chronicle
Series 2
Shack Files and Correspondence
Physical Description:
30.0 folders
Scope and Contents
Included here are files of correspondence to and from Jane Cryan and other SPASFRS members with property owners of shack sites,
shack inhabitants, City Supervisors and other officials, members of the Landmarks Preservation Board, architects and others.
Also included are architectural/historical surveys written by SPASFRS members of the shack site, including documentation through
written notes and photographs (removed to Photo Archives), permit applications (in photoduplicate), letters of certification
and related material. Notes and documentation (including some notes to clippings) that are germane to the individual shacks
have been left in their respective folders, both dated and undated. General correspondence documents Cryan's contacts in research,
outreach, activism and authorship.
In Jane Cryan's original foldering, photographs were kept in the file folder representing each shack. Due to archival necessity,
these were removed to the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection (see Appendix B). Highlights include slides and photos
documenting the Goldie Shack's move and other shacks extant and destroyed. Highlights include correspondence between Labor
Leader Bill Bailey and Jane Cryan, correspondence surrounding the Goldie Shacks preservation and moving by aid of the U.S.
Army, and the many missives fired on behalf of the La Rosa shacks. Also included are two files about shacks funded outside
of San Francisco, at the Salinas Duck Club and its environs, and those found in Santa Cruz.
Arrangement
Shack files arranged by Jane Cryan, in alphabetic order by address or by the name by which the recognized shack was commonly
known, then chronologically by item. Other files are chronologically ordered.
This series is divided into four subseries: Subseries A: Authenticated 1906 refugee shacks; Subseries B: Structures determined
not to be authentic 1906 refugee shacks, including the Bill Bailey shack; Subseries C: General correspondence of the SPASFRS
and Jane Cryan; and Subseries D: Awards.
Subseries A
Authenticated 1906 refugee shacks
Materials Transferred
See Appendix A for photographs removed from this series. See Appendix C for artifacts removed from this series.
Box 1, Folder 9
"Goldie" Shack: post-Army
Box 1, Folder 10
"Goldie" Shack: Army Museum--Presidio
Box 1, Folder 20
1227-1227A 24th Ave. (Landmark No.171) (1 of 2)
Box 1, Folder 21
1227-1227A 24th Ave. (Landmark No.171) (2 of 2)
Box 1, Folder 22
1368 24th Ave ("La Casita")
Box 1, Folder 23
349 27th Ave. ("La Rosa")
Subseries B
Structures determined not to be authentic 1906 Refugee Shacks, Iincluding the Bill Bailey Shack
Materials Transferred
See Appendix A for photographs removed from this series.
Box 1, Folder 24
Bill Bailey Imposter Shack
Subseries C
General Correspondence of the SPASFRS and Jane Cryan
Box 1, Folder 26
Correspondence,
1983-1985
Box 1, Folder 27
Correspondence,
1986-1987
Box 1, Folder 28
Correspondence,
1988-1989
Box 1, Folder 29
Correspondence,
1990-1993
Box 1, Folder 30
Correspondence,
1994-2005
Subseries D
Awards
Materials Transferred
See Appendix C for artifacts removed from this series.
Series 3
Press and Speeches
Physical Description:
4.0 folders
Scope and Contents
This series is organized into folders representing lectures, press releases, and news clippings. Highlights include press
releases and related hoopla regarding the saving and moving of the "Goldie Shacks," the bitter battle to save the "La Rosa"
shacks, and 125 slides (removed to the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection) from Jane Cryan's informative lectures
on the shacks.
Materials Transferred
See Appendix A for photographs removed from this series.
Arrangement
Arranged by format, chronologically.
Box 1, Folder 36
Videotape of Jane Cryan's earthquake shack slideshow program,
Feb. 1, 1992
Box 1, Folder 34
Newspaper citations generated by SPASFRS (clippings)
Box 1, Folder 35
Newspaper citations generated by SPASFRS (bound version)
Series 4
Writings by Jane Cryan
Physical Description:
6.0 folders
Scope and Contents
Here are outlines, the draft and the finished manuscript of "Hope Chest: A History of One of the Most Magnificent Charities
of All Time" by Jane Cryan; also included is her manuscript of "From Tents to Shacks."
Arrangement
Arranged by title, chronologically.
Box 2, Folder 1
"Hope Chest": outline, notes
Box 2, Folder 2
"Hope Chest": permissions to use photos, etc.
Box 2, Folder 3
"Hope Chest": Mary Kelly research
Box 2, Folder 4
"Hope Chest"
1993
General note
Earlier un-illustrated version, unpublished.
Box 2, Folder 5
"Hope Chest"
1998
General note
Finished version, unpublished.
Box 2, Folder 6
"From Tents to Shacks"
1999
General note
Manuscript version, unpublished.
Series 5
Shack-Related Projects
Physical Description:
3.0 folders
Scope and Contents
The two projects: 1. Serge Amunategui's Master's Thesis "Shelter, Dwellings, and Metamorphosis: Adaptations of the 1906 Earthquake
Refugee Shelter in a Single Family Dwelling" along with relating correspondence and pieces of his study model for the "Cryan
Residence" (which was destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake) and 2. The Randall Museum Shack Replica and its related
correspondence and press.
Materials Transferred
See Appendix C for artifacts removed from this series.
Box 2, Folder 7
"Shelter, Dwellings and Metamorphosis": Amunategui's Master's Thesis
Box 2, Folder 8
Serge Amunategui: related correspondence
Box 2, Folder 9
Randall Museum Shack Replica Project
Appendix A
Photographs separated from SPASFRS files
Box 3, Folder 7
"Goldie" Museum--Presidio
Box 3, Folder 20
Bill Bailey Imposter Shack
Box 3, Folder 21
Slides for lectures, presentations
Box 3, Folder 22
Amunategui photographs and slides
Appendix B
Books and periodicals separated from the collection and cataloged
The Argonaut: Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society,
Fall 1998
General note
Vol. 9, no. 2. Ed. by Charles Fracchia. Illus. 107 pp.
California Fault: Searching for the Spirit of a State Along the San Andreas
General note
Clarke, Thurston. 417 pp.
In the Victorian Style,
1991
General note
Delehanty, Randolph. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Illus. From photographs by Richard Sexton. 177 pp. (Inscribed to Cryan
from the author and photographer).
Russian Hill: The Summit, 1853-1906. Volume I of a Neighborhood History,
1997
General note
Kostura, William. San Francisco: Aerie Publications. Illus. 131 pp. Incl. index. (Inscribed to Cryan from the author).
…If You Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake,
[1987]
General note
Levine, Ellen. Illus. By Richard Williams. New York: Scholastic Inc. 64 pp. (Inscribed to Cryan by the author).
Sure of You,
1989
General note
Maupin, Armistead. New York: Harper & Row. 262 pp. (Inscribed to Jane Cryan from the author).
1906 Remembered: Firsthand Accounts of the San Francisco Disaster,
1981
General note
Ed. by Patricia Turner. San Francisco: Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Illus. By Charlie Aquilina. 80 pp. incl.
index.
The Story of Julia Page,
1915
General note
Norris, Kathleen. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. 421 pp.
The Refugees' Cook Book,
1979
General note
Compiled by one of them. San Francisco: S.F. Archives. [20 pp.] + index.
San Francisco Relief Survey: The Organization and Methods of Relief Used After the Earthquake and Fire of April 18, 1906,
1913
General note
Compiled from studies by Charles J. O'Connor et al. New York: Survey Associations. 449 pp. + photos, index.
The Cottage Book,
1989
General note
Sexton, Richard. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Intro. By Sally B. Woodbridge. Illus. 119 pp. (Inscribed to Cryan by the
author).
Tiny Tiny Houses,
1987
General note
Walker, Lester. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press. 220 pp. Illus.
Appendix C
Artifacts separated from the collection
Box 4
One (1) doorknob set from "The Goldie Shacks" removed from 485 34th Ave., SF, CA. by the U.S. Army and now sited in the U.S.
Army Presidio of San Francisco
Box 4
Three (3) redwood boards painted McLaren's Parkbench Green which were removed from "La Casita" Refugee Shack, 1368 -- 24th
Ave., San Francisco, CA 94122, prior to demolition on February 13, 1991
Box 4
Award fabricated of glass presented to Jane Cryan by the San Francisco History Association for her work to save San Francisco's
1906 Earthquake Refugee Shacks,
1997
Box 4
Seven (7) wood Refugee Shacks. Scaled to "Type A" Shack. Hewn by Sergio Amunategui for his thesis, "Shelter, Dwellings and
Metamorphosis: Adaptations of the 1906 Earthquake Refugee Shelther in a Single Family Dwelling"
Box 4
One (1) paper Refugee Shack. Part of Amunategui Study Model for Cryan Residence. Model destroyed in 1989 Earthquake (this
is all that remains)
Tube 1
Three (3) architectural drawings by Sergio Amunategui "The Cryan Residence" (drawings are part of Amunategui's thesis)
