The city was unable to raise money to build the museum, and the stones were damaged in five fires. The first came soon after the crates were set down in Golden Gate Park. Morgan said that "piles of burning boxes were pulled over and down by the Fire Department, many hurled over a hundred and fifty feet." Hearst died in 1951, and Morgan died in 1957; neither of them saw anything built with the stones. Two fires in 1959 appeared to be arson, and many of the fire-heated stones were weakened or cracked from sudden cooling by water. In 1960, Steilberg was hired to inspect the stones once again; he used a ball-peen hammer to lightly strike each stone and listen for a solid ringing tone, or a dull thud which indicated cracking. He found that a little more than half the stones were sound.
