Between Market St. and Park, aka New City Hall Ave. | map |
Opening: It previewed July 4, 1886 with the public opening on July 5. It was a circular tent exhibiting "The Battle of Gettysburg," a painting by Carl Browne (1849-1914).
Thanks to panorama researcher Gene Meier for locating this photo of Mr. Browne as well as the newspaper items seen on this page.
The "Panorama of the Battle of Gettysburg" tent and its relation to City Hall is seen in this detail from image 25 from volume 2 of the 1886 Sanborn Real Estate Insurance Map that's in the
Library of Congress collection. That's Larkin St. up the left. The street parallel to Market, here seen as Park Ave., was renamed City Hall Ave. in the 1890s. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this.
A closer look: "Posts & Boarding - 25' High - Canvas Tent Roof."
One account gave the address as Market St. at City Hall Place and noted that it was in the "Sand Lot" at that location. Another mentioned that it was in front of City Hall. A current address would be about 1190 Market -- or about where the Orpheum Theatre is today.
While the Sanborn Map gives us a 25' figure, one account mentioned that it was about 30' high, and 300' in circumference. While it was under construction several complaints were made to the Fire Department and the Building Department.
Persons complaining were "causing the projectors of the laudable enterprise considerable annoyance." It's a May 28, 1886 article that appeared in the Journal of Commerce.
Questions about permits. It's a May 29, 1886 article from a paper called The Report. The "Battle of Waterloo" panorama that the article mentions as also being in town was at Mason and Eddy in the building that ended up as the
Tivoli Opera House.
An item in the Examiner about a press preview.
Another item about the "soft opening."
An ad for the July 4th weekend opening.
Another ad for the 4th weekend.
A July 6, 1886 item noting the boxoffice rush on opening day.
An ad from later in the run.
Closing: The date is unknown.
It's unknown if Browne's painting was the same "Battle of Gettysburg" that had been exhibited in 1884 in New Orleans by the Union Panorama and Scenic Company, in 1887 and 1888 at Washington Gardens in Los Angeles, and later in 1888 in Salt Lake City. And later in San Francisco the 10th and Market Panorama exhibited a "Battle of Gettysburg" painted by John Francis Smith.
In October 1889 Carl Browne proposed painting a Yosemite panorama in the Panorama Building on Main St. in Los Angeles where the painting "The Siege of Paris" had recently been removed. That project didn't happen. In his letter to the owners of the building he noted that his "Gettysburg" was being exhibited back east at the time. The letter was located by Gene Meier in the Loyola Marymount University collection.
More San Francisco panoramas: An early exhibition in town was the panorama "Paradise Lost" shown at the Eureka Theatre in 1865, accomplished by having it or rollers so it slowly moved across the stage. A later panorama in town was at Mason and
Eddy, a building that opened in 1884 with "The Battle of Waterloo" and was later used as a music hall
and then rebuilt as the Tivoli Opera House.
The 10th & Market Panorama opened in 1887 with "The Battle of Missionary Ridge." One attraction at the 1894 Midwinter Fair
was the panorama "Kilauea Volcano." A building at 8th and Market had exhibited the "Battle of Manila Bay" panorama and was rebuilt to become the Central Theatre in 1900.
More information: See Mark Ellinger's "Marshall Square" article on the Found SF site for a discussion of the pre-1906 City Hall Ave., a frontage road that was parallel to Market in front of the old City Hall. It had originally been called Park Ave. Ellinger noted:
"Marshall Square was a plaza that connected Market Street with City Hall Avenue, a parallel frontage road for the
old City Hall. When the old City Hall was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, the design for a
new Civic Center demanded the reshaping of grid lines.
"City Hall Avenue was completely obliterated and Marshall Square became part of the Hyde Street extension to Market. Opened in 1926, the office building and theater at the corner of Hyde and Market is the namesake of Marshall Square, though anymore it is known only by the name of its theater, the Orpheum."
A detail from a 1904 map showing City Hall Ave. that appears on the Found SF page. That's Marshall Square circled in red.
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