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Nob Hill in San Francisco City and County, California — The American West (Pacific Coastal)
 

Robert Louis Stevenson

 
 
Robert Louis Stevenson Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Andrew Ruppenstein, April 18, 2009
1. Robert Louis Stevenson Marker
Inscription. Lodged at 608 Bush Street, December 1879 - March 1880, and there wrote essays, poems autobiography and fiction.
Plaque placed by admirers of the author in cooperation with the California Historical Society.
July 26, 1972
 
Erected 1972 by The California Historical Society and admirers of Robert Louis Stevenson.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Arts, Letters, Music. A significant historical month for this entry is March 1880.
 
Location. 37° 47.427′ N, 122° 24.442′ W. Marker is in San Francisco, California, in San Francisco City and County. It is in Nob Hill. Marker is at the intersection of Bush Street and Stockton Street, on the left when traveling east on Bush Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 608 Bush, San Francisco CA 94108, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Miles Archer (a few steps from this marker); Home Telephone Company (about 500 feet away, measured in a direct line); SFFD Engine Co. No. 2 (about 700 feet away); Sears Fine Food (about 700 feet away); Pacific States Building (about 700 feet away); Mayors of San Francisco (about 800 feet away); California Theatre (about 800 feet away); Dr. Sun Yat Sen (about 800 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in San Francisco.
 
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sectionhead>More about this marker.
The marker is located between the entryways for 604 (residential apartments) and 608 Bush Street(San Miguel Haircutters, to the left of the entryway arch). While Stevenson may have stayed at the 608 Bush Street address, it is likely that this building post-dates his stay, given that it's style indicates a later vintage, as well as given the location is within the zone of near total destruction from the earthquake and fire of 1906.
 
Regarding Robert Louis Stevenson.

• Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a famous Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist. He is perhaps best known for the novel, Treasure Island, the novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the collection of poems, A Child's Garden of Verses.

• Stevenson traveled to California from the UK in 1879 to be with Franny Vandegrift Osbourne, whom he married in May, 1880.

• In The Amateur Immigrant, Stevenson described his life in San Francisco as living "...all alone on forty-five cents a day, and sometimes less, with quantities of hard work and many heavy thoughts...".

• After his stay in San Francisco, Stevenson and his wife Fanny, along with her son, Lloyd, spent the summer of 1880 on Mount Saint Helena in Napa County. He wrote about the experience in The
608 Bush Street - Site of Robert Louis Stevenson's 4 Month Stay in San Francisco image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Andrew Ruppenstein, April 18, 2009
2. 608 Bush Street - Site of Robert Louis Stevenson's 4 Month Stay in San Francisco
(No, the bottom of the picture is not distorted - both Bush and Stockton head downhill at this intersection).
Silverado Squatters
.

• Later in 1880 Stevenson and family returned to Europe, where they lived until 1887.

• In 1888, Stevenson and family set sail across the Pacific Ocean, stopping for extended stays in Hawaii and various other Pacific islands. He eventually settled in Samoa in 1890, where he died, probably of a cerebral hemorrhage, in 1894.
 
Also see . . .
1. Robert Louis Stevenson. Wikipedia biography (Submitted on April 28, 2009.) 

2. Robert Louis Stevenson. RLS website (Submitted on April 28, 2009.) 
 
Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife, Fanny image. Click for full size.
Photographed By John Singer Sargent
3. Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife, Fanny
John Singer Sargent's painting of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny, circa 1885. The painting is on display at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Modern Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial in Portsmouth Square image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Andrew Ruppenstein, January 29, 2012
4. Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial in Portsmouth Square
Just four short blocks north of the marker site there is in Portsmouth Square a memorial to Stevenson. The memorial reads: "TO REMEMBER ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: To be honest, to be kind — to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation — above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself — here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy..." (The inscription is a quote from Chapter XII of Stevenson's A Christmas Sermon.)
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on February 7, 2023. It was originally submitted on April 28, 2009, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California. This page has been viewed 2,900 times since then and 51 times this year. Photos:   1, 2. submitted on April 28, 2009, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.   3. submitted on April 28, 2009.   4. submitted on February 22, 2012, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California. • Syd Whittle was the editor who published this page.

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Mar. 19, 2024