Other Areas of Interest

My visit was limited to only two days in San Francisco and there were other locations featured in The Trembling Hills that I was able to only visit briefly. Others I was unable to visit at all. However, if you are planning to visit San Francisco, you might want to further explore these locations.

Nob Hill

Nob Hill is an affluent area of San Francisco, and then location used for the home of the Temple family. It is possible that Phyllis A. Whitney used images of several well-known mansions in the area from the 1906 time period as the inspiration for creating the Temple family home including the mansion of railroad tycoon Leland Stanford, the mansion of banker/railroad tycoon Charles Crocker, or possibly the mansion of his son, William H. Crocker. All of these mansions were destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. The Crocker family gifted their land for the site of the new Grace Cathedral Church to replace the original church that was also destroyed by the earthquake.

No visit to Grace Cathedral would be complete without stepping across the street to Huntington Park to view the Fountain of the Tortoises.

Nob Hill is a small district in San Francisco adjacent to the intersection of California and Powell streets (and the respective cable car lines). For more information, check out the pages at these web sites:

SFGate.com - contains information about things to do on Nob Hill along with a map of the area.

Grace Cathedral Church web site - contains information about the history of the church and the gift of land by the Crocker family.

Lafayette Park at Lafayette Square

Lafayette Park was one of many locations in San Francisco where refugees from the 1906 earthquake set up camp. In The Trembling Hills, Allison meets her friend, Miranda Schultz at Lafayette Park where her family has been forced to reside until they can find lodging elsewhere. In 1906, from this hilly location, people were able to view the devastation below and watch the fires as they continued to rage throughout the city.

Lafayette Park is located between Sacramento and Washington, Laguna and Gough Streets. For more information, check out the pages at these web sites:

The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco - contains this view of the fire from Lafayette Square.

The Online Archive of California - contains this view of the fire from Lafayette Square.

The San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council - contains information about the history of Lafayette Park.

For more information about San Francisco and the 1906 earthquake, check out the pages at these web sites:

Only in San Francisco - The official visitors site for San Francisco. This site also contains a 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Commemoration page.

San Francisco City Guides - Contains information about walking tours

The National Archives page on the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.

Wikipedia's page on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Set during the time of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, The Trembling Hills is a "best-selling novel of ghosts, forbidden love, ambition and redemption from the Queen of American Gothic Romance." Order your copy from Amazon.co.uk today!