Pub. 4 Issue 3

14 O nApril 18, 1906 at 5:13 a.m., the San Andreas Fault ruptured over a total of 296 miles, north and south of San Francisco, and started amajor earthquake. Damage started northwest of San Juan Batista and extended toCapeMendocino’s triple junction. The earthquake was 7.8 on the Richter scale and is more famous for what it taught scientists about earthquakes than it is for the damage it did, even though that was considerable. The earthquake was immediately followed by an outbreak of many fires that continued to burn for days and consumed 514 blocks. More than 3,000 people died, mostly in the city itself, and 28,000 buildings, or 80 percent of the city, were destroyed. People felt the earth- quake as far north as southern Oregon, as far south as Los Angeles, and as far east as central Nevada. More earthquakes followed, but none were as serious as the one in 1906. Aman named Robert A. Smith got to thinking about earthquakes, and that one in par- ticular. He had gained a fundamental un- derstanding of the fact that it’s hard to get a horse to take you to safety outside a city such as San Francisco when it has been terrorized by a natural disaster. What do you want instead? You want a reliable car. Smith was fascinated with cars, loved people, had an entrepreneurial spirit, and had the vision to build something great. In February 1917, Smith (who was also known as R.A. Smith) opened his first Chevrolet dealership in San Francisco so he could sell cars to people who viewed car ownership the way we view 72-hour kits: as a way to get to safety in the event of another earthquake. The car industry was still new then. The first car ever built in the U.S. dates back to 1805, which is when Oliver Evans built a marvel that could travel on water or land. That was followed in 1893 when Frank and Charles Duryea built a Ladies Phaeton gas engine inMassachusetts. It had one cylinder, four wheels, and no top. Frank built another one in 1894 and won a race by traveling, recklessly fast, at a speed of 7.5 mph. But the industry did not really take off until Henry Ford got into the business. He founded his company in 1901 and developed assembly lines in 1913. Those assembly lines made cars affordable so they could be bought by people in the middle class. It was not long before Smith had about a dozen dealerships around the city, with his headquarters on VanNess Avenue. Be- ing mindful of possible barriers to buying, he also founded the Continental Finance Corporation, although he was later forced to sell the finance company to General Motors. It became part of GMAC. Like many small business owners, Smith felt the effects of the Great Depression. His dealership was repossessing more cars than it was selling. By 1932, the business Hitting The Century Mark