2013.58.6

Albumen print shows a group of male workers posing in front of the loading bay and side of a building. At the top left of the image is "Jonathan Kittredge / Phoenix Iron Works. / Safes And Vaults. / San Francisco, Cala / 1876" in white. Vertically down the side of the building is "Monito" and "18 / Safe" with the rest of the letters cut of by the workers.

In 1849 Jonathan Kittredge started a blacksmith shop on the edge of the beach in San Francisco, gradually drifting into the manufacture of safes and locks, and housesmith work. In 1878, Kittredge partnered with Mr. Edward A. Rix, the son of Alfred Rix, a California pioneer of 1852 and prominent San Francisco attorney, and the two started to manufacture machinery. In 1885, after Kittredge's passing, Rix bought his former partner's interest in the plant and tools and formed a copartnership with Joseph K. Firth, an educated draughtsman with six years of manufacturing experience at Pacific Iron Works who was also affiliated with the Almaden Quicksilver Mine, Fulton Iron Works, and Union Iron Works. The two men propelled the business into one of the most prominent productive industries in the city. Up until 1890, the firm worked in the manufacture of locomotive engines, compressed-air and hydraulic machinery, and architectural iron work, building structures on the coast of San Francisco. By this year, the plant covered an area of 60 x 275 feet at Market and Montgomery Streets, operating machinery valued at $80,000 or $90,000 and employing 50-100 skilled workmen. [information adapted from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~npmelton/sfbfirt.htm] Advertisement in the Pacific Rural Press (v.4 no. 18) lists Phoenix Iron Works' services and goods in 1872 as: iron doors and shutters, wrought iron girders, prison cells, bank vaults, and bank locks with a large assortment of safes of all kind on hand, including fire-proof safes, monitor safes, and fire- and burglar-proof safes. [image of advertisement available at http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=PRP18721102.2.51.1# page 287]