The San Francisco call., 1897-03-20
OLD ROOKER|ES
THAT ARE DOOMED
The Heart Of Barbary
Coast Divedom to Be
Plucked.
Low Wooden Buildings at Mont
gomery Avenue and Kearny
Street.
A Notorious Group of Patched Up Old
Shanties FRI quented by
Old Hays

A canker sors in the heart of the Bar
barry Coasts low wedge of dilapidateG
wooden rookeries leaning upon them
selves at the corner of Kearny street and
Montgomery avenue-must be plueked
from that conspicuous position. The
Board OF Health has conde mned the irreg
ular pile and its equipment as dangerous
and unhealthy to human occupation.
Old, unstable. with perpendicular
walls and unhorizontal floors and with
compartments honeycombing the unin-
viting structure, 1t forms a hel!'s vent
hole where nightly congregate the more
abandoned and dirty hags of the dive
element.
The place is historic in its way, in its
crooked way. For nearly forty years the
building, or collection OF pas.eboard
shanties, has stood on the spot proof
against a dozen fires. In 1868, "Billy"
Dwyer, the prize-fghter. kept restaurant
there. That was several years before
Montgomery avenue was cut through and
the buildings were changed into their
present triangular shape.
According to one of the oldest residents
of the neighborhood, 1T was always
notorious place, but never worse than it is
now.o Under it. below the level of the
street and below the sewer, is a stable
hidden from view and reached by raising
q part of the sidewalk, beneath which there
is an inclined way leading from the curb
down into the supterreanean home of
horse, dog and scores OF timorous rats.
When an officer of the Board OF Health
made an examination of the premises q
snort time ago he found that the place had
not been cleaned out in two years.
Above such n foundation are two sa-
looms. They have entrances conveniently
on both streets. Each is supplied with a
piano, whereon the nocturnal revelers
pound out discordant tunes. The wall.
paper 10 streaked and soiled overhead by
leaks and lower down by row OF circular
blOtches from greasy heads
There is nothing in them to attract,
nothing to charm the ordinary habitue of
q saloon except the stock behind the bars,
and that appears meager and uEtempting
The miserable pictures, the coarse drink
ing tables, the tawdry pieces of portieres
that as occasion demands may be dra wn
along on q wire and used as screen by
the patrons the rough chairs-an indicate
the element that is catered to. The char
acter of the interior is in keeping with
what is below and what is above.
And yet the occupants can see nothing
wrong with the place. "It's all right" re-
marked one of the barkeepers. ITS safe.
Nothing but nice quiet people come here
sailors and such. The boss has been
spending good deal of money painting
round and fixing the place up at his own
expense and now they want to tear it
down."
The boss is . man named Silva who
leases the whole from the Cook estate and
sublets the various little compartments.
In addition to the two saloons there is
bar rber-shop and a tailor-shop. Piled on
top of these at the rear is small rookery
with three rooms, in which two men live.
The very point Of the triangle next to
the Cogswell' fountain il owned by Cogs-
we'll. It Is little piece about fourteen
feet on Montgomery avenue and eight
feet on Kearny street and yet it is rented
for midnight sandwich counter and for
q daytime bootblack stand.
The prospective destruction and removal
of the old rookeries is very pleasing to
those who own property in the neighbor-
hood, for the buildings and their uses
have been constan. cause OF distress 10
them.