In 1835 Captain William A. Richardson, an Englishman, the
first foreigner to enter the embryo town, erected a tent for his
residence; and on July 4th, 1836, the second house was built at the
corner of Clay and Dupont streets. The story runs that the first
American to build a house in San Francisco proper was Daniel Culwer,
who also founded Santa Barbara. This pioneer was born in Maryland in
1793, and died in California in 1857. He lived long enough to see the
greatness of the city assured. But on that day when he finished his
modest house on the corner of New Montgomery and Market streets, he
little thought that in after years there would spring up, as if
by magic, under the skillful hands of the Lelands, famous in San
Francisco as in Saratoga in the olden days, the magnificent Palace
Hotel, with its royal court, its great dining halls, and its seven
hundred and fifty-five rooms for guests, rivalling in its grandeur and
its luxurious appointments the palaces of kings.
The growth of San Francisco was very rapid after the discovery of
gold. The population immediately leaped into the thousands.
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