Editor’s note: This excerpt from the Mountain View Register, one of two city papers at the time of the Great Earthquake of 1906, best captures the feeling of the townspeople after the 7.8-magnitude quake rocked the region a century ago. The report included a list of those injured — there were a few broken bones, but most escaped with cuts and bruises — and tallied the property damage. The total, in 1906 dollars, was around $150,000, suffered mostly by the large Western-style buildings which lined Castro Street.
Friday, April 20, 1906
Most people of this section are probably well aware by this time that the earthquake of Wednesday morning, April 18, 1906, at about 5:10 o’clock, has been the greatest catastrophe in the recorded history of California. At the time of this writing (Thursday morning) it is impossible to get accurate information of the extent of the loss of life and property; but it is evident that all the coast side has suffered as bad as we have here at Mountain View; and San Francisco has been completely demolished by the falling of buildings and by a fire, which has been impossible to check. Hence in the account this issue we will keep pretty strictly to the topic of our local loss.
At this writing eleven persons have been reported as injured; but when one views the great piles of brick on Castro Street that were once beautiful symmetrical structures, and particularly the Rogers block where the lodging house stood, it certainly looks as if Divine Providence interfered in numerous instances to protect human life. …
There were seven people in the lodging house. Mrs. Mary F. Hessle and her daughter, Miss E. T. Hessle, occupied the same apartment and bed. They did not leave the bed but went down with the falling walls and the roof. Aside from a few bruises and the fright, they were not injured. …
Mountain View certainly presents a sorry sight. … The man who has a chimney left is envied by his neighbors; plastering down; buildings off of their foundations; broken china and knick-knacks; and what is worse in many instances the fear of danger to loved ones in less fortunate and unhappy San Francisco.
