Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-12

SAN FRANCISCO. June 2s.-Nov
that the fire insurance companies are
ailoWlng the ruin-heaped area Of Sar
francisco to be cleared for building
operations, the host Of junk dealers anc
| spectators in scrap metal who have
come mere from many quarters of tho
world, are making interesting esti.
| mates on the aggregate wealth of the
| city in junk. These princes OF Junk
dom have been fairly revcling i'm the
/ debris, and declare that its total value
in scrap, If we put brick in the cate
| CORY with the tangle Of conglomerate
| matter with which IT is involved I'm the
/ general WreCkage. is about 5000 0O0
| The stricken city certainly presents
| magniiice opportunities i'm junk.
! Dealers I'm scrap metal throughout
/ the United states fairly swarmed to
| the Pacific coast, arriving here while
the ruins were still smoulderiug. and a
/ large force of them are still i'm the city.
ready the moment the insurance COM
panies raise their embargo, to purchase
the many million dollars worth Of
junk that is piled upon four square
miles in unsightly heaps. These junk
men have been estimating for six weeks
the value of the scrap metal Of San
Francisco, while builders and dealers in
second hand material have been fgur-
ing on the number Of brick i'm the ruins
and their worth; so that gradually a
comprehensive estimate has been made
This estimate which is considered con-
servative by the dealers, is the figure
above given-$2O 100000 1t was only
by collecting a mass Of data from all
Of the larger dealers in scrap metal
who have permanently located here
that this figure was obtained. for it in
wolves individual estimates of the junk
contained in more than II. 900 lots on
which buildings were destroyed
1t is safe to say that the world never
offered for sale so much junk within a
brief interval of time and San Fran
cisco now has more scrap metal on its
devastated area than was dug from
the ruins of all the cities Of the world
that have suffered from great Conha-
grations. In giving an approximate
estimate of $20,0OO0OO only the value of
the junk as 1t lies on the lot is figured.
The junk dealers who purchase this
marketable debris expect to make a
profit Of about 20 per cent. or $4,000 600.
Carrying this profit. the ruins of the
city exclusive of land values, are worth
about $24, 900, 600
In gathering this data it was neces-
sary to consult architects, engineers,
contractors. scrap metal dealers, cleo
trical manufacturers, second hand ma
terial dealers and many others, whose
combined knowledge made it possible
to reach final and comprehensive esti-
mates.
Value of the Brick
To make a beginning, the value of all
the brick in the burned area was first
considered. 1t has long been a custom
in San Francisco to construct brick
with individual side walls
The party wall was used in rare in
stances. though it has been custom
to build with them in all of the large
cities of the country for many decades |
individual walls did not make
the building stronger, and they wasted
many thousand feet of valuable surface !
area A party wall saves about twenty |
inches a front foot to every building, |
and where land is worth from $4,000 to |
10000 a front foot, such waste of !
space means a small fortune in every |
building of any size Party walls would |
not only have been just as serviceable, |
but advantageous structurally: for |
when an individual wall is standing |
and another building is erected to ad- |
join IT. botch work generally results. |
As the standing wall will hide what is |
slapped alongside of it, inferior ma
terial and slovenly workmanship has |
been the result Visiting architects and |
builders have remarked this in hun !
lreds of instances.
This depression is merely explanatory |
If how it happens that there are more |
bricks i'm the ruins of san Francisco |
han would he the case in any other |
'ity of the country, if not of the world. |
In this city, flve-story brick building, !
with a frontage of about 40 feet and 4 |
iepth of 80 feet contains, approXi-
nately $4,000 bricks OF course there !
we're many hundred buildings with a
greater height and breadth than this,
,ut there were also many hundreds of !
mailer brick buildings. Therefore, it
S possible to strike an average of
5000 brick building in estimating on
he combined brick area of $1,000 struc-
ures destroyed. Multiplying $4,000
,rck by $4,000 we reach a total of ,125,-
10000 bricks that are either standing
n dismantled walls or have fallen in
leaps of ruins. OF this vast number of
'ricks, however. only bout % per cent
re usable, making 2S1 ,250000 bricks
hat may be estimated as valuable
unk
Now, though there is no actual mar
et for these bricks at the present time,
hey have a physical value of at least
3 Il thousand. The owner of the lot
anrot get SO a thousand for them, but
hey are actually worth that to San
francisco. They will have at least that
alue to rebuilding. Dealers in second |
and materials are merely offering to
art away the brick, saving the owners
f lots the expense that would other
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