TABLE 1
Estimated Hotel Room Supply in San Francisco, 1880–1930

1880

1910

1930

Palace hotels

Total rooms in rank

3,360

2,848

7,464

Residential rooms

672

570

1,492

Share of all SF residential rooms

8%

2%

4%

Midpriced hotels

Total rooms in rank

1,840

7,768

13,864

Residential rooms

1,049

3,573

4,575

Share of all SF residential rooms

12%

13%

12%

Rooming houses

Total rooms

4,240

9,352

17,368

Residential rooms

3,265

7,014

13,026

Share of all SF residential rooms

38%

26%

34%

Cheap lodging houses

Total rooms

4,800

21,264

25,428

Residential rooms

3,600

15,948

19,446

Share of all SF residential rooms

42%

58%

50%

All ranks

Total rooms

15,440

41,234

64,624

Total residential rooms

9,606

27,105

38,539

Residential proportion

62%

66%

60%

SOURCE: Groth, "Forbidden Housing," 325–328, Tables IV-1 to IV-21.

TABLE 2
Costs of Urban Housing Alternatives in the Mid-1920s

Palace and midpriced hotels

Weekly cost ($)

1. Palace hotel, five-room suite with bath(s)

97–210

2. Palace hotel, two-room suite with bath

60–90

3. Midpriced hotel, two-room suite with bath

30–42

4. Midpriced hotel, one room with bath down the hall

6–10

5. Commercial residence club (one room)

10–20

Rooming house and lodging house hotels

6. Rooming house, downtown type, bath down the hall

4–10

7. Institutional residence club ($8 typical)

3–12

8. Rooming house in converted single-family house

2½–6

9. Cheap lodging house, private room

3–5

10. Cheap lodging house, cubicle or ward style

1–3

11. Flophouse or Salvation Army home

1–1½

Boarding and lodging with a family

12. One room (heated) in a family house

6–12

13. Elderly person boarding with a family

2–6

Apartment hotels and efficiency apartments (furnished)

14. Apartment hotel, very elegant, two-room unit

50–100

15. Apartment hotel, four rooms with sun parlor, high priced

90

16. Efficiency apartment, one room with kitchenette and dinette

25–30

17. Light housekeeping room, bath down the hall

5–6

Apartments, flats, and tenements (not furnished)

18. Luxury apartment, five to seven rooms

80–250

19. Luxury apartment, three rooms

40

20. Skilled workers' apartment, four rooms in older suburb

12–25

21. Tenement apartments, lowest price

2–6

Single-family houses (including operating costs)

Weekly cost ($)

22. Mansion with seven servants

385

23. Very fashionable house but a changing neighborhood

160

24. Professional's six-room house, close to center city

50

25. Small house in a cottage district for skilled worker

10–14

26. Miserable four-room cottage or rear house, slum

4–6

NOTE: Most prices are from studies done in Chicago and San Francisco during the years 1923 to 1925. For comparison's sake, monthly and daily prices have been adjusted to reflect weekly costs.

SOURCE: Groth, "Forbidden Housing," 466–471, 494–498; and San Francisco Chronicle (Sunday, September 2, 1923).

TABLE 3
Typical Weekly Incomes for San Francisco Occupations, 1920

Employment

Women

Men

Manufacturing

Foundry and machine shops

$12–14^a

$35–39

Shipbuilding

13–16^a

33–38

Bakeries

11–14

28–34

Boots and shoes

10–14

25–30

Clothing, women's

12–15

29–35

Clothing, men's

10–14

29–35

Printing and publishing

12–15

27–32

Food preparations

10–13

22–25

Furniture, band and store fixtures

14–16^a

20–24

Steam laundries

11–14

20–23

Canning

10–13

20–23

Boxes, bags, cartons, etc.

9–12

19–24

Confectionery

9–13

19–23

Tobacco

10–13

18–21

Trades (only union wages reported)

Carpenters^b

—

40–45

Stone masons and setters^b

—

40

Laborers^b

—

30

Sewer cleaners^b

—

38

Teamsters, ice deliverers

—

34

Longshoremen, general cargo

—

43

Longshoremen, clerks

—

36

Laundry mangle hands

—

15

Laundry first-class hand ironers

16

—

Waiters and waitresses

18

21

Salesclerks

18

—

Cashiers

18

—

^a A very small number of women were reported for these occupations.

^b These trades had won a 44-hour week; all the other trades listed had a 48-hour week.

SOURCE: California Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1919–1920 (Sacramento: California State Printing Office, 1920).

TABLE 4
Selected Employment Groups in San Francisco, 1920

Occupation

Women

Men

Total

Potential residents in palace and midpriced hotels

Retail dealers and managers

837

10,296

11,133

Owners and officers in manufacturing

177

2,038

2,215

Technical engineers (civil and mech., esp.)

0

2,304

2,304

Bankers, brokers, and moneylenders

50

1,683

1,733

Potential rooming house residents

Office clerks (nonretail, nonstore)

4,813

12,374

17,187

Sales staff in stores and department stores

4,074

9,606

13,680

Stenographers and typists

8,101

592

8,693

Bookkeepers and cashiers

3,872

3,006

6,878

Machinists

0

6,306

6,306

Carpenters

3

5,793

5,796

Clerks in retail stores

1,403

3,351

4,754

Waiters and waitresses

1,339

3,323

4,662

Schoolteachers

2,492

320

2,812

Food, candy, canneries (semiskilled)

1,085

1,356

2,441

Telephone operators

1,960

92

2,052

Bakeries

53

1,359

1,412

Milliners and millinery dealers

1,147

47

1,194

Printing (skilled and semiskilled)

315

669

984

Potential residents in rooming or lodging houses

General laborers^a

684

17,176

17,860

Ship- and boat building (semiskilled)

7

2,815

2,822

Clothing manufacturing

2,001

545

2,546

Longshoremen and stevedores

2

2,404

2,406

Sailors and deckhands (not in U.S. Navy)

2

5,002

5,004

^a This is the total figure for general laborers listed in all categories.

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the U.S., Vol. 4, Population 1920 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1923): 222–238. Figures are for the day of the census; employment may vary substantially in other months of the year.