converted into warehouses, stores, restaurants, and hotels in the cove. The need for housing was so great that squatters camped on a small corner of dry land near Thompson’s Hide House — making them the first true guests at 717 Battery! The frenzy of waterfront activity and the quick disembarkation of gold diggers meant that sometimes merchandise was discarded en masse into the Bay. Amid decaying redwood pier piles and earthquake rubble, the archaeological team found a cache of nine unused cast iron frying pans and a barrel packed with bottles of beer, untouched. In 1850, a new wharf east of The Battery’s site was built and a great infilling project began. The city spread east over the water, laying a grid of urban development on top of piles of dune sand, refuse, and tons of rock blasted from Telegraph Hill. Many ships from that era are now buried under the sidewalks, some noted in sidewalk plaques that you can see while walking through the area today.
From Terrifying to Terrific Street Although the geologic record reveals an orderly restructuring of the site, the cultural record is far more chaotic and salacious. From the early Gold Rush era on, the neighborhood was characterized by the unsavory activities that result when single men arrive in a boomtown without any family attachments. Perhaps as punishment for the transgressions of the Barbary Coast era, the streets were decimated by a series of arson fires in the late 19th century that left layers of soot and debris, later uncovered by archaeologists. By the 1870s, more respectable businesses sprang up in the area, and by the early 20th century, many wealthy patrons had funded a renovation and conversion of the establishments into dance halls and jazz entertainment spots, rechristening the ’hood “Terrific Street.”
Due to the Coast’s reputation, San Francisco was known as “the wickedest town in America” until the 1920s.
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Paying Homage to Early Entrepreneurs Sanborn maps are named for Daniel Alfred Sanborn, a civil engineer and surveyor who started making fire insurance maps in the 1800s; those detailed maps would ultimately become invaluable historical records. A Sanborn map from the time of “Terrific Street” shows an Italian macaroni factory, a Chinese laundry, a bocce ball court, and the Musto marble saw and factory at the 717 Battery location. Named for its founder Giuseppe Musto, an Italian-born stone cutter and tile setter, the Musto factory’s two-story building burned down during the famous 1906 earthquake and fire. In 1907, Musto had it rebuilt by the first city architect, William Mooser, Jr., who also designed the National Maritime Museum on Beach Street. Musto classed up the venue, removing the noisy, dangerous marble saw and the factory operations, and leased the bottom arcade to luxury goods shops. Over the 20th century, the building became a candy manufacturer and a crating business before desk-bound office workers took over in 1969. From shell deposits to tallow tanks to marble chunks and chocolate bonbons, the Battery building has been a depository of material culture shaped by the prevailing zeitgeist. During the excavation of the building site, Archeo-Tec spent months digging sample trenches in the basement and courtyard of the Musto Building, ultimately unearthing 65,000 artifacts, including fish bones, tortoise shells, glass shards, leather boots, lumber scraps, and mercury-laden sedimentation that was a byproduct of gold mining. This collection from Thompson’s Cove will be held in perpetuity at the David A. Fredrickson Archaeological Collections Facility at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park. But the genius loci — that ineffable spirit of the place — will remain at The Battery. So when you’re sitting in The Musto Bar, raise your glass to old Alpheus Basil Thompson and marble man Giuseppe, the site’s original entrepreneurs. Think of the nights of debauchery and skullduggery that left unfortunate men relieved of all their assets after a single night of flirtation. And think even farther back, to when half the site sat under water at high tide. Now you, too, are part of this rich history. Bottoms up!
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