A little San Francisco Civic Center history
One of the first questions I get when people come in the door is, “What was this building before it was a museum?” Well, it was the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library, which opened to the public in 1917. But with the help of Rick Prelinger and his archives, we can see back even further. In this film from 1914, government officials are fighting the opium trade …
It is cool to see the building of city hall in the background, and just by the amount of opium pipes being burnt I can’t imagine what a wild west city this used to be.
5 Responses to “A little San Francisco Civic Center history”
Leave a Reply
bittermelon on June 2nd, 2009 at 8:58 am
that there’s a lot of opium pipes…
cristina on June 2nd, 2009 at 11:59 am
Wow, that’s some amazing footage. I do wonder about the wisdom of standing next to a burning pile of opium pipes.
nico on June 2nd, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Nowadays anything related to the old opium trade is highly collectible, so in certain antiquities circles this is tantamount to a book burning.
This is a fascinating subject for me in a couple respects. First, there’s the tea-for-opium trade that the British Empire set up in China to keep the balance of trade moving in their favor (just good business, of course).
Secondly, one of my favorite automatons at the Musee Mechanique is the Opium Den, replete with skeleton in the closet and a dragon that peeks its head in through a window.
rik on June 15th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Am I the only one who thinks the City could only improve with a redoubled opium trade?
Trackbacks on March 11th, 2010 at 5:30 pm