Site of the Ship Niantic
(California Historical Landmark #88)
SW corner of Sansome and Clay (505 Sansome)
28.5" X 29.5"
28.5" X 29.5"
Built in Connecticut in 1844, the Niantic arrived in San Francisco in July, 1849. Within a week it was deserted as passengers and crew headed for the gold country. It was hauled ashore to the foot of Clay St. at Sansome St. and converted to a storehouse by cutting doors, partitioning the hold into warehouses and building offices on the deck. The fire of May 3, 1851 burned it to the water line and the Niantic Hotel was built on the site. It was considered one of the finest hotels in San Francisco.
In 1872 the hotel was torn down to make way for the Niantic Block. During the excavation thirty-five baskets of champagne were found. Buried for twenty-one years many of the bottles of Jacquesson Fils champagne - a very superior and popular wine in California - were found to be drinkable. It was one of several hundred abandoned ships hauled to shore and converted to buildings. A diorama created for the San Francisco Maritime Museum shows how the Niantic might have appeared as a storehouse in 1850. |