Photo: John Henry Mentz, Sfmta.com/photo

Image 1 of 18
City Hall Dome and Goddess of Progress Statue Standing Above the Ruins | May 7, 1906
Image 1 of 18
City Hall Dome and Goddess of Progress Statue Standing Above the Ruins | May 7, 1906
Shortly after the Great Earthquake rocked San Francisco 109 years ago, John Henry Mentz grabbed his camera and set out amid the destruction.
Working as a staff photographer for United Railroads, he toted his large-format camera and a case of 6 ½-by-8 ½-inch glass negative plates, meticulously capturing the havoc wreaked on the city and its transportation network.
In the end, he made more than 200 pictures on April 18, 1906, telling a story of a city in turmoil in what endures as one of the largest single-photographer collections from the earthquake.

Related Stories

“He was a real artist,” said Jeremy Menzies, a photographer and archivist for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which eventually acquired the city’s other transit companies and now owns Mentz’s work, including hundreds of original glass negatives taken in the quake’s aftermath.
“Every time I see them, I’m like, 'Wow, these are so good,’” Menzies said. “I’ve seen some of the photos multiple times, and even looking at the ones I’ve seen before, I’m kind of floored.”
Menzies and other archivists have been working over the past few years to digitize around 25,000 photos and negatives in Muni’s archive of more than 100,000 images — including Mentz’s work, which started in 1903 and spanned 42 years.
The vast collection is now available for the public to view on a website, created especially for Muni’s photography department and its archive.
The earthquake photos stand out, showing mangled power stations, City Hall in ruins, ravaged homes, and the city’s network of rails twisted into a useless serpentine mess.
The morning of the quake, Mentz gathered what would have been a laborious amount of gear, including a large box camera, a tripod and cases for the delicate emulsion-covered sheets of glass.
Some of the first photos he took were of a power station near his home at Mason and Washington streets. The quake’s shaking toppled part of the brick chimney, crushing a cable car in front. Heavy smoke can be seen billowing in the background.
Mentz returned weeks later, and took two more photos of the building. All that remained was a crumbled brick skeleton. The haunting contrast shows the magnitude of destruction wrought by the earthquake and fire.
He ultimately took 13 plates the morning of the quake, dodging multiple blazes as he pushed through the city, Menzies said. At Alamo Square along Hayes Street, residents in Victorian garb helplessly watch from the park as their city burns.
For Mentz, whose own home near the Mason Street power station was likely destroyed by fire, the day would have been chaotic.
“You can track his movements around the city,” Menzies said after reviewing the photographer’s notes and log books. “I would imagine he was also dealing with some of his own personal stuff.”
The quality of the work, Menzies said, speaks to the skill of Mentz, who worked with equipment vastly different than today’s modern gear with automatic functions and light metering.
“This guy knew what he was doing,” Menzies said. “The level of detail you can see is so sharp. Since the glass is incredibly smooth, the photo emulsion is really smooth.
“For one person to take so many photos and for them to survive is remarkable,” he said.
Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky