On Sept. 23, 1918, the Spanish Flu reached San Francisco when city health officer Dr. William C. Hassler ordered a local man who had returned home after a recent trip to Chicago with the disease to be kept in his home under quarantine.

By Oct. 9, the city had at least 169 cases of influenza. Only a week later that number had jumped to over 2,000. San Franciscoﾒs epidemic had started. In the end, the epidemic brought nearly 45,000 cases of influenza to San Francisco and killed over 3,000 of its residents in the fall of 1918 and the winter of 1919.