Ghosts of 1906 Endure in Santa Rosa

Last weekend while I was in Santa Rosa having breakfast three consecutive mornings at Omelette Express on Fourth Street in the old original downtown historic district now known as Railroad Square one building in particular attracted my attention. I already knew that this town was utterly devastated by the 1906 Northern California Great Earthquake with greater per capita death and destruction than any other city affected by the disaster, including San Francisco. I also know that it has always been a rather common practice (even up to the present) to recycle bricks from older buildings that are demolished disastrously or intentionally. Something about the texture of the old Jacobs Building (formerly the Hotel Oliver and built in 1910 in the Mission Revival Style and a nod goes to reader Stacey for this information) as I viewed it while walking past it going to and from my yummy omelet breakfast caught my mind's eye. I noticed older bricks that appeared damaged, some of them as if by fire (fire did follow the 1906 earthquake here with equal destructiveness and deadliness as in San Francisco), incorporated into the brick facade. These seemingly fire-damaged bricks were only showing their ends as they were placed side to side and not end to end like the regular-looking bricks were and they also stuck out noticeably further than the regular bricks. I later found out from reader Stacey that these were not fire-damaged bricks from the disaster but rather partially-vitrified "clinker bricks" which were popular a century ago. The net effect was aesthetically pleasing but the sight of those burnt-looking bricks was a sobering reminder that most of this town's nearly 100 fatalities happened right here in this district with many burning alive while trapped in the rubble. Nowadays the first floor of the building is 6500 square feet of commercial retail space while the upper floors are rental apartments.




Photo Credit: Kim Patrick Noyes (All Right Reserved)