The Mechanics Monument
San Francisco, California
Nude, well-muscled and hardworking:
The San Francisco Monument turns 100 years old
MAY 15, 2001

by R. Christian Anderson, Ph.D.

At the intersection of Market, Bush and Battery Streets stands a majestic bronze sculpture which is hard to pass by without gazing up in awe at its magnificent display of muscles and manhood. This masterwork is the Mechanics Monument, the work of the sculptor some have called the Michelangelo of the West, Douglas Tilden. The monument turned 100 years old on May 15, 2001. Behind this heroic work is a fascinating story of two men that could only come from San Francisco.

In 1846, a certain Mr. Adna Hecox and his daughter Catherine joined a group of pioneers heading west. The group was the infamous Donner Party. Fortunately for Hecox and his little girl, they separated from the Donners before their tragic fate in the Sierras. Hecox would arrive at the coast, and not long after became the last mayor in Santa Cruz to serve under Spanish rule.

Catherine Hecox met Dr. William Peregrine Tilden, a physician, when she attracted his attention as she brought her younger brother in to see him for medical treatment. He married her when she was only age 14. He would eventually twice be voted into the California Legislature. He had been married before, his first wife, Mary MacDonald, died before arriving in California, leaving him with three young children (the descendant's of which mostly still live in and around Chico, California).

William and Catherine were to be blessed with five children: four boys and one girl. Two of the boys were "William Peregrine Tilden" (named after his father) and "Douglas Tilden."

Douglas was a gifted child born on May 1, 1860 in Chico, California. Sadly, the boy contracted scarlet fever at the age of 5 (which rendered him deaf). He was enrolled the following year in the "Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asylum" in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, the year 1849 was a tough one for Mr. Peter Donahue. The sturdy Irish blacksmith arrived in San Francisco with an anvil, a hammer, and his black leather apron. He opened a small blacksmith shop at the corner of Mission and First Streets beneath some shade trees. Donahue built his business into what was to become the first foundry on the Pacific Coast, The Union Ironworks. He was to manufacture the first printing press in the West. He then built the first city railway on the Pacific Coast. Donahue founded the San Francisco Gas Company, which later evolved into Pacific Gas and Electric when it merged with Edison Electric. From very modest beginnings, Donahue was a powerful industrialist by the 1870s.

(Above) May 15, 1901, the gala grand dedication ceremony. There was a large brass band, dignitaries, and the city celebrated the new sculpture and fountain.

Paris to the Park

It was during his stint teaching after his 1879 graduation that Tilden became interested in sculpture. He began to study the art in his free time. So impressed were the school trustees by Tilden's early works, they were able to secure a scholarship for him in New York and Paris. He accepted, and studied in France with another deaf sculptor, the famed Paul Chopin. Tilden's first formal work, The Ballplayer, won him great acclaim in Paris. Today, the sculpture may be viewed in Golden Gate Park.

At the crest of Nob Hill stands the majestic Mark Hopkins Hotel, but in 1894, the site was occupied by the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, the former Hopkins mansion. When Tilden returned from Europe, he taught sculpture there.

Tilden was to create three major art works for the Market Street Beautification Project at the turn of the 20th century: the Admission Day Monument (Market and Montgomery Streets), California Volunteers (Market and Dolores Streets), and one more which would become his greatest work. With a bequest of $25,000 from James Mervyn Donahue, the son of the late Peter Donahue, Tilden would create his masterpiece, the Donahue Memorial Fountain, now known as the Mechanics Monument, at the intersection of Market, Bush, and Battery.

Commissioned to create a monument for the Donahues, Tilden had difficulty finding an idea. Taking a walk on Mission Street, he passed an open-air machine shop and spotted a sweat-drenched, muscular man operating a "punch press" machine. Thinking of how Donahue began his empire, he envisioned an oversized version of a punch press in bronze, with five men struggling to operate it. The Donahues were skeptical when seeing his sketches, but Mayor Phelan, who had been a great patron of Tilden, insisted that the sculptor have freedom of expression to create an enduring monument that would be a tribute to all those who had toiled to make the Peter Donahue fortune - it would be a greater tribute.

(Above) On April 18, 1906, the great earthquake struck the city. Downtown was in ruins, and the reflecting pool was shattered, but the great bronze bodybuilders were still hard at work on the great machine and they helped inspire a city to rebuild itself. This photograph shows the smoke still rising from the fire that engulfed the area only hours before. That fire burned for 4 days.

Classic nudes

Controversy arose in the months before the scheduled opening, when it was learned that Tilden designed the piece with his magnificently built male ironworkers with no clothing. Some thought that the statue should depict the authentic outfits (or at least the pants) of the men the monument salutes. Others, including many artists, believed this public work of art would be far more "artistic" if the men were more in line with classical sculpture of the male physique, and remained in the nude. A petition was circulated, and the monument was approved in the name of artistic expression. The statue would show the workers without clothes.

Tilden worked on the statue for 10 months. A 19-year-old from Oakland, John Winfield Pearson (who's photograph and story can be found in the gallery), posed for the statue. Pearson was interested in physical culture and had a beautiful physique. Pearson's idol was Eugen Sandow, the "father of modern bodybuilding." It is believed Pearson modeled for the youngest of the male figures in the group, the energetic youth dangling from the very top. Pearson went on to attend Stanford University in the same class as Herbert Hoover (whom he didn't like), and later became a prominent engineer and inventor. Pearson opened an office on New Montgomery Street, and it is said children would peer into his office just to see him working at his desk, because of his handsome looks and physique, apparently visible even under his shirt. He exercised at the Olympic Club on Sutter Street to maintain his musculature, and was eventually to meet his hero, Eugen Sandow himself.

The monument was unveiled on May 15, 1901 to a huge crowd. As a band played, the fountain was engaged, and water sprayed against a platform designed by Tilden's friend, architect Wills Polk. The crowd cheered its immediate approval. The five muscular, larger-than-life males displayed their brawn proudly, without pants. Two of the men wore only leather blacksmith aprons, the rest wore only loose-fitting loincloths. These bronze men would represent the mechanics for all time, in the classical Greco-Roman style.

(Above) Another view taken in 1906, just after the earthquake and fire. The statue still stands at the corner of Market, Bush, and Battery Streets.

Some believe that the most spectacular of the figures, a massive man who holds the larger portion of a hunk of sheet metal, may be inspired by Sandow himself. Though his apron covers him from the front, his magnificently developed back is completely visible from behind. Muscles bulging, the three youths pulling the great lever at the top struggle in unison to operate the press and puncture the metal. Tilden said his figures had the "virile bodies of working-class men," and indeed they do. It is a tribute to strength and perfectly developed men as much as a monument to hard work and manual labor.

The great earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906 gutted the commercial district where the monument stood. When the population filtered back into the city after a four-day exile, there the men of the monument stood over the broken and evaporated pool, their muscles gleaming, hard at work rebuilding the burned-out city. The monument becoming an inspiration to take the city back from its pitiful ashes.

The statue was remounted without the pool. Though moved a few feet over the years, it has remained at the same corner for a century, only one block away from the small blacksmith shop of Peter Donahue. Douglas Tilden died in 1935.

Copyright ©2001 by The Bay Area Reporter and R. Christian Anderson
All Rights Reserved - Reprinted by permission

Updated November, 2004 with additional information provided by Richard Tilden.

 

 

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(Above) The Mechanics Monument seen before it's recent restoration. The Art Deco styled Shell building is seen in the background.

The Mechanics Monument is maintained by the city of San Francisco through funds received from Gannett Advertising for the maintenance of monuments on Market Street. The last maintenance was in 1998. The conservation of the monument is performed by Genevieve Baird of Baird/Rief Fine Arts Conservation.

(Below) After the restoration, the statue looks as it was intended. The Crown Zellerbach and Standard Oil Company Buildings are seen in the background.

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Three years before the great earthquake, on May 13, 1903, the President of the United States of America, Theodore Roosevelt, who was staying at the Palace Hotel. He was escorted by cavalry officers at 9 a.m. to meet with Ex-mayor Phelan (and patron of sculptor Douglas Tilden) and to enjoy breakfast with him and other dignities at the Native Son's Hall.

He then was then escorted to be part of a parade on Van Ness Avenue where thousands of school children had assembled from all parts of the city.

The presidential party continued to the Presidio, where he reviewed the troops with General MacArthur. He met with troops from all services and a review was given for him.

Through Lincoln Park, and finally to lands end and the castle-like Cliff House, where he enjoyed a gala luncheon with California Governor Pardee.

The President finally took an afternoon ride through Golden Gate Park via Baker Street and down Market to THE MECHANICS MONUMENT. He stood before the fountain (it was in a pool of water with jets of water splashing against it at that time) to give an afternoon speech. The great "working man's statue" was appropriate to his speech, since his speech was entitled "Expansion and Trade Development and Protection of the Countries Newly Acquired Possessions." A powerful backdrop indeed.

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THE TILDEN FAMILY:

What happened to William Peregrine Tilden, the brother of Douglas Tilden?

He grew to spend some time in Hawaii and then in England. In the 1890s, while the adventurer was in London, he was robbed.

Upon hearing this, Douglas came up from Paris (where he was studying sculpture) and assisted his brother with funds. William then boarded a ship and set sail for a voyage back across the Atlantic.

He eventually jumped ship in Australia, being secretive about his background upon arrival. He told a story to people he knew (including his brother in Paris) that he was actually from Canada and not the United States. He repeated the story in the hopes that, should he ever be caught by the authorities, he would avoid deportation since Canada was also part of the British Empire.

Douglas' mother Catherine, outlived her husband by 61 years, dying in 1934, the year before her son Douglas passed on.

Alice Vincilione, William Peregrine Senior's great-granddaughter from one of the children of his first marriage, donated Douglas's "Tired Boxer" (an exquisite piece) to the M. H. de Young Memorial Art Museum in San Francisco. A totally new de Young Museum is to open soon replacing the one damaged in the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989.

Special thanks to Richard Tilden for information about his wonderful family