Raphael Weill, owner of the White House department store, dedicated his life after the 1906 earthquake and fire to the resurrection of San Francisco. His last name was misspelled in this old Chronicle headline.
Chronicle archivesImagine a day in San Francisco worse than any day so far in 2020.
的city is in literal smoking ruins from the April 18, 1906,earthquake and fires。的streets are under martial law, the newspaper has returned with days of bludgeoning headlines (“DEATH COMES TO FIRE CHIEF”; “LOOTERS SHOT BY THE POLICE”) and the steel bank-vault doors are too hot to open. We still don’t know if all the ledger books and currency inside have been incinerated as well.
Now imagine an elderly local business owner assessing the situation, somehow finding a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, and declaring the following:
“I have enough left to buy an annuity and live like a fighting cock for the rest of my days; but none of that for me,”Raphael Weill told the newspaper on April 22, 1906, four days after the disaster.“我进入重建的工作all my soul. I am 70 years old, but I love San Francisco with a love that is filial, and I am going to work on the restoration of the city as if I was only 30.”
Since I found this clipping in the San Francisco archive more than five years ago, I’ve thought about Raphael Weill constantly in context to San Francisco’s struggles. His words are a mantra, an inspiration and a North Star. But I also lived in fear of them. Does San Francisco have enough Raphael Weills in the 21st century to survive a city-shattering event and rebuild better than before?
Has San Francisco,as we ask ourselves constantly, truly lost its soul?
Tents line a McAllister Street sidewalk on the same block as UC Hastings College of the Law in June in S.F.
Noah Berger / Special to The ChronicleEven before the pandemic, San Francisco was at one of the many important crossroads in its history. Whether the situation of homelessness, income disparity anda shocking rise in drug overdosesis more or less dire than the city’s other great historic crises —two earthquakes, fires and plagues, an alarming violent crime spike in the 1970s,the AIDS crisis of the 1980s——是一个主观的讨论。
But in the 21st century, we have a frustrating added hurdle before responding to new challenges: Before engaging in efforts to right the city’s wrongs, we must first justify our position that the city is worth saving. As if that stance isn’t already completely obvious.
In the years before 1906, San Francisco was filled withreckless leadership and corruption。It took 27 years to build the old City Hall, and when the big earthquake reduced that structure to rubble, it was revealed that shady contractors had filled the fragile walls with actual garbage. But nothing could shift the prevailing view that the city was worth fighting for.
San Francisco has been defined by these fights. History has proved time and time again that we’re better because of them.
Whitney building in background, Geary Street between Stockton and Grant, in April 1906 after the earthquake and fire in San Francisco.
Chronicle archive 1906的difference now is that the beauty and value of San Francisco is no longer a given. Before engaging in important battles, we must first hear from cynical forces, who want to argue that the battle is already over.
的East Coast media continue to produceso manythe-sky-is-falling-in-San Francisco stories, like a game of bad-take Whack-a-Mole, that responding to them all becomes futile. Meanwhile, national political forces try to depict the Bay Area in alternate reality. A president on national TV describes beautiful and proud Oakland asa violent city under siege。A news network spends weeks filming the most distressed corners of San Francisco,presenting themas the entirety of the city.
即使是最简单的语句表达公民公关ide in 2020 is likely to elicit attacks from both the extreme right and the extreme left.
My biggest mistake, which I held for the first five years after learning about Raphael Weill, was thinking our salvation was bound to come from wealthy white men.
Weill owned the White House department store, and was one of the biggest employers in San Francisco when the earthquake hit. And it was indeed the rich men — A.P. Giannini, Isaias Hellman and others — who fueled the city’s return.
Where are the Raphael Weills of today? There’s Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, and seemingly no one else.
This misconception ended in gunfire on May 1, 2020, when Courtney Brousseau被杀in the Mission District. The 22-year-old Twitter employee, transit advocate, Gay for Transit co-founder and unconditional-lover-of-San Franciscohad a lot of Raphael Weill in him。I met him once, at a Muni Diaries event, and liked him immediately. Later, he spent the day searching for a Chronicle to explore the 49 Mile Scenic Route map, one of my bigger Total SF civic engagement projects with Heather Knight.
“I just ate a delicious burrito in Dolores park and for a brief moment everything felt OK,”he typed on Twitter, minutes before tragedy struck.
As tributes flowed for Courtney, from his family and friends and like-minded locals, it made me realize we don’t need all the billionaires to create a better San Francisco. There are Raphael Weills throughout the city. Our army is Benioff,Megan Rohrer,the Black Lives Matter paintersat Bernal Heights rock, everypandemic bagpipe player,Renel Brooks-Moon, the ghost of Warren Hellman and all of the Courtney Brousseaus.
If you travel with an open heart, you will find a tribe that loves the city. That’s where this fight begins.
Raphael Weill grew up with San Francisco, arriving in 1855 in his teens in a boat from France that ended up shipwrecked on the California coast.
He saw many San Franciscans become rich during the Gold Rush, and many, many more get crushed by that dream, finding themselves penniless on the city’s streets. Those working-class citizens became Weill’s focus. He used his work as an importer, and later his department store, to help not just his shareholders but the stakeholders of the city.
After the earthquake and fire, he was forward-thinking, leading the reorganization of the San Francisco retail industry while putting the workers first. He paid them while his store was rebuilt and led a clothing drive for the tent camps. As his business grew, the bachelor worked harder to know his employees, personally and socially. He insisted on calling them “co-workers.” When he died in December 1920, they mourned the loss.
Once he made good on his 1906 promise, and San Francisco had emerged even more vibrant, Weill left in 1918 for France, at age 82, to help with civilian efforts supporting World War I (“with a love that is filial” ...在他童年的家Phalsbourg和包围ing communities in Lorraine, France. The city was saved and he was awarded the Medaille de la Reconnaissance — the French medal of gratitude for civilians — in 1919. Weill was working on post-war reconstruction when he died, splitting his time between Phalsbourg and San Francisco.
的re were multiple funerals and newspaper articles to honor Weill, in San Francisco and in Europe. All seemed to be struggling for words to describe his contributions.
“The heart of San Francisco is touched by the passing of Raphael Weill,” San Francisco Mayor James Rolph said on Dec. 10, 1920. “No citizen has ever given more generously of his affection to any people than he gave to the beloved city and all who dwell within it. As he loved San Francisco, San Francisco loved him.”
Raphael Weill, pictured in 1908 at a country home, was a department store owner who gave his life to the restoration of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire.
Chronicle file photo的lesson of Raphael Weill is one of clarity.
When the world is the most chaotic, civic duty can become purpose, and it can be your guide back into the light. The businessman, friend, lover of music and chef worked hard for the city he loved, celebrated every comeback and had fun along the way. (Chicken Raphael Weill, an incredibly rich dinner that he fed to employees and Bohemian Club friends,is one of the first things that comes upwhen you Google his name.)
A percentage of residents will leave the Bay Area in 2020 and 2021, just as they did in 1906. I hope they find happiness wherever they land. For those who stay, remember Raphael Weill, a man who was defined by his wealth at age 70, and became redefined by something greater. Imagine the peace he must have felt at the end of his life, seeing the city he loved rebuilt better than before. Knowing that his gamble of faith and hope during the bleakest times had paid off.
Now imagine that life for yourself, and how our current crises fit into that.
“With a love that is filial ...”
Ink the words on your forearm, using the services of a local tattoo professional. Commit to supporting independent businesses and artists. Be open to change and reinvention, especially when it benefits the most vulnerable. And when youclimb stairs, explore new heights and find new beauty in the San Francisco Bay Area, listen for Weill’s words in the wind.
“With a love that is filial ...”
Charles Cadiz took this photo in Bernal Heights looking over downtown San Francisco and Mission Bay.
Charles CadizTo know that the city’s future isn’t guided by one person or political movement or special interest. To know that time and time again, our region has been defined by ideas and passion and hard work.
“With a love that is filial ...”
To see the tragedies that bring despair as an opportunity, not just for rebirth, but for redemption.
And then imagine taking your last breath, realizing that all along the soul of San Francisco was in you.
Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s culture critic. Email:phartlaub@sfchronicle.comTwitter:@PeterHartlaub
