[My SF Past] Nob Hill Tour 1

[Gloria Lenhart]

Stanford Court Hotel 1911  Creighton and Withers, architects 

   In 1876, Leland Stanford, president of the Central and Southern Pacific Railroads, built a $2 million mansion on this site, the largest home in California at the time. The gray stone retaining walls that surround the property, and the Stanford name, are all the remain from that mansion today.
   Jane Stanford lived in the home until her death in 1905. After the house burned in 1906, the Stanford estate sold the property to a real estate investor who built the current building as luxury apartments. In 1970s it was remodeled and re-opened as a hotel. The hotel underwent an extensive renovation in 2008.

Leland Stanford mansion, with Hopkins mansion behind, 1877

Mark Hopkins Hotel
1925  Weeks and Day, architects

   Hopkins was a miserly man with simple tastes, but apparently the same was not true of his young wife. In 1875, Mary Hopkins began construction of a house on the hillside property behind the Stanfords. Three years, $3 million dollars and several architects later, she moved in alone. Mark died before the house was complete.
   Mary wasn’t alone for long. She soon married an interior designer Edwin Searles who was many years younger. They moved to the East Coast and began building another mansion there. Mary died in 1891, and Searles inherited everything. A patron of the arts, he donated the Nob Hill home to the San Francisco Art Association, for use as classrooms, studios and galleries.
   After the mansion burned in 1906, the Art Association re-built a smaller building here. In 1925, now called the Art Institute, it moved to its current location on Lombard Street. The Nob Hill property was sold to developer George D. Smith who built the current hotel.
   In 1939, the penthouse suite was converted into the Top of the Mark bar and restaurant, offering a 360-degree view of San Francisco. It became a popular gathering place for soldiers during World War II. Wives and girlfriends would stand along the northwest windows to watch the ships sail out through the Golden Gate. It soon became known as Weeper’s Corner.

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Posted By Gloria Lenhart to My SF Past at 11/15/2011 02:00:00 PM