CITY HOTEL, CIRCA 1848

You came for the gold, but something about the growing San Francisco captures your imagination. You feel like you’re about to watch this little village blossom into the New York City of the West, and you don’t want to miss it.

Spending the last of your reserve, you buy a stout meal and a room for the night at the City Hotel, San Francisco’s first place of lodging, built in 1846.

In the morning, you head out looking for work. You scour the city for leads, reading broadsides and handbills, and inquiring at every business in the commercial district.  With all the bustle at the docks, you query a few shipping lines; none are hiring.  A broadside on the wall of a livery stable asks for bookkeeping applicants for an overland freight company, but the advertised address is abandoned.

You find two promising leads:

• The Rassette House, a hotel at the corner of Kearny and Clay Streets, needs a clerk and receptionist.   Take this job
• Able young men of all walks of life are needed in constructing the fast-growing city.  Take this job