William Irvine in the Great San Francisco Quake of 1906

A complete accounting has yet to surface of William Irvine's experience during the Great San Francisco Earthquake. A quick note that he was present is found in an Impartial Reporter article from later that year, and Irvine himself made brief mentions of the event in his letters decades afterward. Although this event cannot now be linked to Two by Two doctrine or development, it must have made a profound impression on Mr. Irvine. It is known that he left for Los Angeles after the quake, and there encountered the Azuza Street Revival, the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. Pentecostalism 2 years later would jump the Atlantic to make its first appearance in Irvine's hometown of Kilsyth, which became the early center for the movement in Europe.

It is only recently that motion picture film footage has been re-discovered which shows San Francisco just days before the quake (when Irvine would have been there) and immediately afterward. Your browser must allow running scripts in order to view the film clips below.

San Francisco's Market Street immediately prior to the quake, during William Irvine's visit...

San Francisco immediately after the quake, while fires were still ongoing...