California Street Cable Railroad Company records, 1884-1952

Summary

Creators:

California Street Cable Railroad Co. (San Francisco, Calif.)

Abstract:

Extent:

Number of containers: 8 boxes, 9 cartons, 3 oversize boxes, 36 volumes Linear feet: 23

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

Board of Directors files, including articles of incorporation and related documents, as well as minutes of meetings; stock records, including minutes of annual stockholder meetings, correspondence, certificates, dividend statements, notices, and transfer records; general files arranged alphabetically by subject; operations records, including daily car records (chiefly receipts from the California and Hyde St. lines), accident reports (which list the date, time, line, and parties involved), and records of personal injuries resulting from accidents; personnel records, including weekly, monthly, and half-monthly time books (which record hours worked by each employee, hourly pay rate, and wages paid each week to conductors and gripmen), payroll ledgers and reports, and records of the employees benefit fund; financial records, including journals of daily purchases, cash books (chronological record of cash receipts and payments), ledgers, and trial balances; and Railroad Commission files.

Biographical / historical:

In 1874, Leland Stanford set out to promote the idea of a cable car for California Street, the principle ascent of Nob Hill from the east, with a more reasonable grade than Clay Street. In 1876, in collaboration with several associates in the Central Pacific Railroad, he secured the franchise, and construction was begun on July 5, 1877. The line ran between Kearney Street at the foot of Nob Hill to Fillmore Street in the Western Addition, a distance of about 1.7 miles, and a power house, designed by W.W. Hanscom, was put in at Larkin Street. Initially, the line operated with 25 grip cars and trailers built by the Kimball Manufacturing Company and the Central Pacific shops.

Service was initiated on April 10, 1878, at a ceremony attended by over six thousand people. The route duplicated the Clay Street Hill Railroad on its ascent of Nob Hill, but the western route was the first cable car service into the Western Addition. In the spring of 1879, the track was moved west by 0.8 miles, from Fillmore to Central (Presidio) Avenue. The extension was cheaply built of wood framing and planks in an effort to finance the project out of earnings. The new tracks were ready for service on May 30, 1879, but the right-of-way was so unsatisfactory it had to be rebuilt with standard conduit in 1884.

In 1884, Stanford sold his interest in the company to Antoine Borel, a Swiss-born San Francisco banker. Borel and President James B. Stetson initiated an expansion of the property in 1889. Included in the extension was a new powerhouse at California and Hyde Streets, an extension of about a half mile east to Market Street in 1890, and a new cross-town route on O'Farrell, Jones and Hyde Streets which opened February 9, 1891. This line of ca. 2.5 miles was intended to provide a direct connection between the Russian Hill area and the shopping district south of Union Square. A shuttle on Jones Street served the Tenderloin district. Howard C. Holmes was in charge of track construction.

The company was quite successful at the beginning of the 20th century, but like the rest of San Francisco's cable operators, the company suffered terrible damage in the earthquake and fire of 1906. Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, with which the company had some common ownership, was so hard hit by the disaster that the company settled for 50% of its claims. Management had the system back in operation by August 1906, but full restoration of the physical plant was not finished until July 1908.

The company maintained its independence of the Market Street Railway and of the Municipal Railway throughout the first half of the century, but the forces acting against the transit industry generally began to afflict the company seriously in the late 1940's. Traffic held up fairly well, but costs rose disproportionately. In 1949, a legal judgement, in which the company was held liable, caused Lloyd's of London to cancel the company's insurance contract and brought operations to an end on July 31, 1951. The City and County of San Francisco bought the company for $138,000 and restored operation on January 13, 1952.

Acquisition information:

The California Street Cable Railroad Co. (San Francisco, Calif.) Records were given to The Bancroft Library by W. P. Wreden and Dr. John O. Hanan in December 1959.

Physical location:

Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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