More about Palace Hotel

Contributor

The Palace Hotel is one of those places that you walk by and think, "maybe one day I will be both rich and elite enough to stay there."

But for now, as I struggle through my twenties, I'll settle for a dumpy hotel in the Tenderloin instead. Trust me though, if I could, I would stay at the Palace because it’s got class written all over it. I mean, a hotel colloquially known as the "Bonanza Inn" must be a snazzy good time, right?

When it was established in 1875, the Palace was the first luxury hotel in San Francisco and the largest in the world. They catered to celebrities and the cultural high class. It was a hotel for the highbrow city visitors and remained that way until the building was engulfed by flames and destroyed by the 1906 earthquake that ravished the entire city. Here’s to building a city on a fault line! Shortly after, the hotel was rebuilt and the new magnificent building showcased  beautiful architecture of steel, concrete and brick. Because they clearly didn’t learn the first time that building structures out of brick in a earthquake-prone area is a bad idea.

Not only did they rebuild the building, they revamped many of the attractions within the hotel including a garden court, which they enclosed in a $7 million stained glass dome. I cannot even imagine what that would equate to today, but needless to say, a stay at this hotel will be rough on the pocket book. Another addition to the renovated hotel was the Pied Piper mural by Maxfield Parrish. The Palace paid Parrish $6,000 back in 1909, and in 2013, the mural was removed and brought to Christie's auction house where they expected the piece would fetch upwards of $5 million. But when strong public opposition reigned down upon the hotel, they decided to take back the mural and rehang it.

Also, if you’re into ghosts you should try to book room 8064, the room president Warren Harding suddenly died in. This hotel is often featured as one of the many stops on supernatural walking tours through the city. So if you want world-class murals or an eerie reminder of a president who mysteriously perished, pack up your bags and head to the Palace Hotel.

Featured Content

Here is what Wikipedia says about Palace Hotel, San Francisco

The Palace Hotel is a landmark historic hotel in San Francisco, California, located at the southwest corner of Market and New Montgomery streets. The hotel is also referred to as the New Palace Hotel to distinguish it from the original 1875 Palace Hotel, which had been demolished after being gutted by the fire caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The present structure opened on December 19, 1909, on the same site as its predecessor. The hotel was closed from January 1989 to April 1991 to undergo a two-year renovation and seismic retrofit. Occupying most of a city block, the hotel's now more than century-old nine-story main building stands immediately adjacent to both the BART Montgomery Street Station and the Monadnock Building, and across Market Street from Lotta's Fountain.

The Palace Hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Check out the full Wikipedia article about Palace Hotel, San Francisco