San Francisco Municipal Reports for the Fiscal Year 1874-75
San Francisco: Spaulding & Barto, Printers, for the Board of Supervisors, 1875.
First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 916 pp, indexed, with 6 folding maps, double-page frontispiece with photographic portraits of the city commissioners. Bound in full black leather with all edges gilt, stamped Jas. F. Chapman on front board. Chapman was a San Francisco merchant engaged in the shipping trade. Leather scuffed and chipped at spine ends; internals sound and clean. Maps in very good condition. This volume includes interesting detail on all aspects of civil life in San Francisco, including reports from the Board of Health, Coroner, Fire Department, Harbor Master, Industrial School, Park Commissioners, Sheriff, and Superintendent of Public Streets. But it is of particular importance for the extensive Appendix on the city's water supply, which runs to about 110 pages and includes all six maps. The section opens with a statement on "the importance of securing an abundant supply of pure fresh water for the use of the inhabitants of this city and county," notes that although options had previously been explored, but no action was ever taken, and asserts that "the city should acquire and own water-works, and such supplies of water as would meet the present and future wants for the next fifty years, not alone for all classes of our population, but for cleansing our sewers, watering streets, and for fire extinguishing purposes." This is followed by the text of the 1874 "Act to Authorize the City and County of San Francisco to Provide and Maintain Public Water Works...and to Condemn and Purchase Private Property for that Purpose. The maps, made from surveys conducted under the provisions of that act, are: General Map of the Surveys for the San Francisco Water Supply; City Water Supply Map of Blue Lakes Reservoirs; City Water Supply Map of Clear Lake; City Water Supply of Laguna de la Merced; City Water Supply Map of Calaveras Reservoir; and City Water Supply Map of Spring Valley Reservoir.
Item #23663
Price: $450.00