Family

San Francisco before the Traversos

The Philip Hone sailed into San Francisco Bay on August 9, 1849, ending her final voyage after 194 days at sea. Captain B. Mitchell and his crew, with 60 passengers, navigated from New York via Cape Horn and Rio de Janeiro anxiously seeking their further journey to Sacramento Valley and the rush for gold. There were fewer than 1,000 people living in the “City by the Bay.” Hundreds of ships of all sizes came to San Francisco, unloaded their passengers and crews leaving the ships unattended. The Philip Hone was no different than the others. Captain Mitchell moored her at Buckelew's Wharf near Law’s Wharf in the upper north end of Yerba Buena Cove leaving her to become a storeship and falling into tax delinquency in 1871. According to the Maritime Heritage Project - San Francisco, the Philip Hone still lies beneath the Embarcadero between Battery and Front Streets (N/S) and Union and Commerce Streets (E/W).
In 1852, new houses were climbing up the West side of Telegraph Hill. At the corner of Greenwich and Dupont Streets were two buildings side-by-side, 491 Greenwich and 1654 Dupont. There is a record of a grocery at 491 Greenwich in 1867. Before there was Coit Tower at the top of Telegraph Hill, there was “Layman’s Folly.” Built in 1883 by Frederick O. Layman, this German-style building boasted the best views in San Francisco and included a restaurant, bar, and entertainment. Getting to the top of the hill on foot was difficult especially during the soggy winter months. By 1884, Layman, with cooperation from the city government, completed the Greenwich Street Cable Car line connecting San Franciscans and tourists to his building. The line ran for less than two years.
In the house at 1654 Dupont lived Eliza and William Davis. In August 1852, Abraham Brown, Thomas Bundy, Thomas Davenport, Willie Denton, Harry Fields, George Lewis, Fielding Spotts, and Eliza and William Davis organized a church in the Davis home. It took two years for the church to move out of congregation members’ homes and into its first physical location on Grant Avenue (then Dupont Street) on Telegraph Hill. According to the church’s website, it was “the first Negro Baptist Church west of the Mississippi.” The congregation purchased the old First Baptist Church and moved it to this location in 1854. The house on Dupont was later to become California Historical Landmark No. 1010, the original site of the third Baptist church (formerly the first colored Baptist church). The plaque is on the west side of 491 Greenwich Street leading to confusion of the actual site.
These three locations: 491 Greenwich Street, 1654 Dupont Street, and the resting place of the Philip Hone were to become significant to the Traverso Family and V. Traverso Co. Dupont Street was named for Captain Samuel F. Du Pont, who commanded the flagship Congress and afterwards the sloop-of-war Cyane. This street was the original "Calle de la Fundacion" of William A. Richardson and ran from about the line of California Street north-northwest. It was later swung into line with the other streets by Jasper O' Farrell. The street acquired an unsavory reputation by becoming the residence of an undesirable class of citizens. These disreputable residents were removed and following the earthquake and fire of 1906, the name of the street was changed to Grant Avenue.