The Saloon, in North Beach, is regularly touted as San Francisco’s oldest bar, dating back to 1861. While other bars were started sooner, their original buildings were destroyed during the 1906 earthquake and fire. The Saloon miraculously survived thanks to the firefighters and sailors that stretched a hose from the

BY V. ALEXANDRA DE F. SZOENYI Just a year before the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, none other than San Francisco’s fire chief was warning that San Francisco was not prepared for a major fire. Dennis T. Sullivan’s cautionary words proved prophetic, as the city was thrown into a disaster which