Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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Stanford Quad 1908 leaped from their beds at the first shock were thrown to the floor. Large fragments of plas- ter fell from the ceilings and walls, blinding and half stifling the occupants of the rooms. The ever-repeated crash of falling masonry added to the uproar. The great ornamental chimney, hurled to the roof by the shock, dashed itself through four stories to the base- ment, carrying with it three rooms with their five occupants. One of these men, Junius Robert Hanna, of Bradford, Pennsylvania, was instantly killed by the tons of stone under which he was buried ; the other four escaped without serious injury. Practically everyone in Encina rushed half clad from the building. Vet with all the fright which naturally took possession of everybody, there was no real panic, and the men, with some few exceptions, displayed remarkable coolness and judgment. Roble Hall, the building which was con- structed of concrete, reinforced by steel wires, would have been jjractically undamaged, save in broken window panes and plastering, had it not been for a chimney similiar to that at Encina, which fell in luuch the same way, carrying down the three rooms that lay in its ])atli. h ' ortunately the occupants escaped with- out any severe injury, although one girl who went to bed on the third floor awoke in the ])arlor. At the power house, the great historic chinmey which towered high above the sur- rounding roofs, fell, burying and killing the fireman, Otto Gerdes, who had remained at his post to turn off the electric power. The 22

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astonishment with which we gazed at the ruin around us, and the sense of our own utter helplessness. Yet, real as these feelings were, they were so confused that it is difficult at the present time to reproduce them with sufficient accuracy to give them reality in the mind of the reader. The earthquake occurred in the morning at eighteen minutes past five o ' clock, as was attested for months afterward by the motionless hands of the great clock in the tower of the Ferry Building in San l ' rancisco. The shock was preceded by a dull, heavy rumbling, and was accompanied by a deafening roar. The greatest confusion ensued. Few persons who went through the earthquake have ever been able to give a uniformly clear description of the details attending the phenomenon. Those who lived in frame houses probably received the more violent shaking, but in the stone dormitories the situation of the rudely awakened sleepers was fraught with far more danger. In Encina Hall there was a terrific grinding of masonry, as of stone upon stone, for the entire height and width of the walls. The shaking of the building was so violent that it was difficult for one to keep one ' s feet, and several who Stanford Quad 1908 INTERIOR OF ENCINA

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THROUGH THE ARCADES IN THE CHANCEL