Mark Hopkins Mansion
San Francisco c.1880
San Francisco c.1880
Mark Hopkins, another of the legendary "Big Four" builders of the first transcontinental railroad, was a shopkeeper who came west at age 35 from New York. He was associated in business with Collis P. Huntington in Sacramento. They both became enormously rich and famous building the Central Pacific Railroad. Hopkins was convinced that Nob Hill, with its spectacular views in all directions. would be a good place to invest and to build a mansion. Wright & Saunders were the mansion's architects who created for Hopkins a huge and ornate, redwood stick-style Victorian with towers, goblets, and steeples. Some interior amenities were: a side drawing room, a dining room to seat 60, paneled in English oak, and a gentleman's library. Hopkins unfortunately died in 1879 before it was finished. His wife. Marv. who was America's richest widow, finished the mansion even though she owned others in New York City, Rhode Island, and in Massachusetts. She died in 1891. Afterward the residence became the first home of the San Francisco Art School.
Interior view of the Mark Hopkins mansion. The arrow in the bottom left corner points to a canvas painting. The painting is an oil portrait of Mark Hopkins that survived the Great Fire in 1906 and now hangs just inside the main entrance of the Big 4 Restaurant in the Huntington Hotel at 1075 California Street.
This truly was a magnificent home and has many stories to tell from it's time as an art school. The large square tower featured in the exterior pictures was (at the time) gauged to be the highest point in San Francisco - not only because of it's height, but simply because the mansion itself sat at the top of Nob Hill.
ReplyDeleteMost (if not all) of the panoramic photographs of San Francisco taken before the Great Earthquake/Fire were taken from the windows of that tower.
A Palace of the West.
ReplyDeleteOne of the many fine residences built by the wealthy of San Francisco, only to be destroyed by the infamous earthquake and fire of 1906. My grandparents who were born in San Francisco told me how they were told people, news reporters and cameramen would gather at the site of the destroyed home to view the extant of the damage to the city after the earthquake and fire.The site on the hill of the Hopkins mansion is now the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the famed Top of the Mark cocktail lounge is on the 19th floor with panoramic views of the City and the bay. During WW2 soldiers shipping out to war would stop by for a farewell drink with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, as wives and girlfriends would gather to watch ships in the bay depart with their husbands and paramours. Military aviators and their crews had their customary Squadron Bottles to be kept at the bar for their own use. Each man would sign and date a label attached to their Squadron Bottle after getting a drink, and the man who had the last drop would keep the bottle and purchase a new bottle to replace it.
-Rj
RBrysco & Rj - Thank you both for that neat background info!
ReplyDeleteIt was a breathtaking marvel wasn't it? A shame the three-day fires took the mansion following the earthquakes.
ReplyDelete