The San Francisco call., 1906-08-16
lnAammabIe Material Sur
rounds Papers in New
Quarters Of the Recorder
DANGER FROM FIRE
EXTREMELY GREAT
Documents of Priceless Value
to Owners Of Property
Are Carelessly Exposed

IA ISNA1NIl lOuT fInOHtHS dAtoi AhS
nj great San Francisco fire the
~ most valuable records of the
city, 500 books of deeds and
more than 5000 deeds to real estate, all
record of which has been destroyed. are
daily exposed to danger. They are in
wooden building that is surrounded by
other wooden structures. The books
OF records stand on wooden shelves,
with wooden shelves above them. They
are in rooms in which all the partitions
are of wood and the desks and counters
of seasoned lumber infammable In the
highest degree
The deeds. to the number of $3.50, are
partly TO be found in thin tin boxes,
piled up in bundles The $500 separate
papers represent deeds to the number
OF more than 5000. The remainder OF
the papers are builders contracts, lis
pendens and similar writings.
Millions upon millions of dollars
perhaps 500, .0o0--of San Francisco
real estate and improvements are repre-
sented by the unprotected papers and
books. The deeds are In a great many
cases practically the only official rec
ords existing that would enable prop
erty owners to prevent land grabbers
from establishing adverse titles to their
holdings. They are the best evidence
that could be set sup in case Of attempt
ed land jumping to show that fraudu-
lent claims of actual and peaceable pos
session on the part OF real estate graft
ers are baseless and untenable.
SURROUNDED BY WOOD.
The greater part of the saved records
OF San Francisco deeds and all the old
deeds that have been brought in to the
Recorders office to be rerecorded in
the new deed books that have been
opened to take the places of burned
books are in two back rooms in the syn
a sogue of the Congregation Beth Is
rael, on Geary street, between Octavia
and Laguna. To the east towers a two
story and basement wooden building,
the walls of which, rising almost as
high as those of the synagogue. ap-
proach within very few feet of the
synagogue.
On the west is a two-story frame
dwelling house that is barely four feet
from the house of worship. The houses
fronting on the west line of Octavia
street and those on the east side of
Laguna. all two stories in height. with
possibly one or two exceptions, are old
and wooden. A row of wooden houses
In the rear extends toward the syna-
gogue. On all four sides are wooden
piles of the kind that. would furnish
for another great confagra-
tion.
The remaining records of San Fran
cisco were conveyed to this place about
a month after the fire. The Recorders
Office has been haunted daily ever since
by people with deeds and other evil
dences of property rights in San Fran
cisco to be placed on record. Men and
women may be seen every day in the
Recorders Office with their deeds, wait
ing to have them taken by an official
and placed in half open tin boxes, there
to stay, in many instances, for num-
ber Of weeks. every minute in danger
OF destruction if fire should break out
in the neighborhood.
books WITHOUT PROTECTION.
The deeds that were filed with the
Recorder in May and June have been
copied in new books and have been re.
turred to the owners. 1t is reported in
the Office of the Recorder. But the
books are on wooden shelves. Be-
gir ming the 1st of July, the time whe n
the great rush to have new official rec
crds made in behalf of anxious men
and women who own real property in
this city began, all deeds that have
been deposited in the Recorders office
are still on hand, sheathed in tin boxes
for ithe most part ii not entirely, but
without the protection of a
safe or vault or any contrivance that
could be called freproof.
Considering that 1t is estimated that
there are 10000 owners of real prop
erty in San Francisco and that each
one of these property holders may be
called upon to make title good at a
minimum cost of $50 each, the aggre-
gate expenditure IL the McEnerney act
is held to be constitutional will be
s2.000,000. Considering also how VAL
liable each old deed Is in defending and
up new title the carelessness
displayed in the care of the practically
priceless papers Is enough to amaze
even an Indifferent beholder.
The building east of the synagogue
holding the present Hall of Records
towers at least thirty feet above the
records, an unbroken. menacing
wooden wall with enough infiammable
material in it to set fire to brick
block The same may be said of the
building Immediately to the west, al
though, being on the slant OF the hill
descending westward, its top Is not so
high. But the danger is evident.
TITLE CONCERNS GIVE WARNING.
Why are the records not placed in
a place of safety? is the question that
owners of real estate in all parts Of the
city are asking. Title insurance COM
panies warn their clients not to con-
sign their papers In haste to the syna-
gogue building.
The same course is taken by some
banks. The existing danger is recog-
nized by Recorder Nelson, who keeps
men in the building all the time and
has provided night and day watchmen
and special connection with the Fire
The placing of the record books and
papers to be rerecorded in the back
rooms of the ground floor of the syna-
gogue structure is explained by the
statement that they are near rear
street. But the street is narrow.
Filled with smoke and flame 1t would
speedily become an inferno into which
none would dare to go to attempt to
save the valuable records.
The space occupied by the present
Hall of Records is rented from the Con-