Discovery is a wonderful human endeavor. It’s our permanent buffer against complacency and existential boredom. It is the sternest teacher of humility that we have.
First House of Sea Cliff
by Florence Holub
Noe Valley Voice, in Florence s Family Album - From the Ashes of 1906 , April 2001)
Every April, many of us dwell upon a terrible disaster (besides our tax returns): the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906. The 65-second temblor struck our fair city in the early hours of Wednesday, April 18. The raging fire that followed left four square miles of destruction.
Although my family, in Idaho at the time, had little knowledge of the event, our late friend Phoebe Brown and her family lived through the disaster and dealt with it bravely. The Brown family lived in a lovely, well-appointed home on Van Ness Avenue. After the powerful jolt struck -it was later determined to be 8.0 on the Richter Scale -the Browns house was still standing, but listing to the rear. All its contents the furniture, china, portraits -had been thrown to the floor and shattered. But luckily, none of the family members was harmed.