SF Basement, Buried After 1906 Earthquake, Unearthed at Construction Site on Van Ness

An excavation on Van Ness Avenue in SF led workers to the top of an old staircase, which they followed underground to discover a fully intact basement that had been sealed off since the 1906 earthquake.Alex Coburn, a staff archaeologist at engineering and environmental services firm Kleinfelder, was working on a project near the firebreak, which was established to contain the fires that followed the earthquake, when his team came across the staircase, as People magazine reports. They reportedly followed it down to a door that opened into a cellar that had apparently remained untouched since 1906. The stairs were still functional, and later excavations uncovered bottles, cans, and other household items.Coburn s work involves monitoring construction projects for archaeological resources that might be disturbed during excavation, as discoveries can range from remnants of old buildings to Indigenous cultural resources. According to People, when Native American artifacts or other cultural r