Close on the heels of the defeat of the waterfront extension scheme waterfront property rose rapidly to incredible highs. What few lots that were available commanded record prices. Among these beach and waterfront properties were some in four small blocks along Commercial Street from Sacramento Street to Clay that had been given to the city for ninety-nine years by the Act of March 26, 1851 and had been reserved by the city council as a free public dock and was generally known as the city slip property. At first there had been deep water over these lots but as the docks extended further and further on each side it became impractical to dock boats there. On December 5,1853 an ordinance ordering the city slip property to be sold a public auction was signed by the Mayor after it had supposedly been passed by the council.
Abandoned ships in San Francisco harbor
On December 26 the sale took place. The property had been divided into one hundred and twenty lots, most twenty-five feet across by sixty feet deep. They were deemed so valuable that they brought in an average of ten thousand dollars each with the corner lots commanding considerably more for a grand total of over one million one hundred and ninety-three thousand dollars. Of this figure the city was obligated to pay one quarter to the state, and one hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars to satisfy claims of damage from nearby wharves. But after all these expenditures there still would have been a handsome profit for the city except it was soon found that the ordinance of December 5 had not actually been passed by the council and thus the sale under it was void. San Francisco, instead of gaining from the transaction, lost money.
Whaleships in SF 1853
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