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Building History

Mark Hopkins, Jr., (1813-1878), one of the "Big Four" railroad tycoons who financed the Central Pacific Railroad, died just after the completion of this sprawling residence on the southwest side of Nob Hill. He lived here very briefly with his wife, Mary Sherwood Hopkins (1818-1891); after his death, she returned to the East Coast, where she built a 60,000-square-foot mansion in Great Barrington, MA.

Mary Hopkins willed the house and her $70 million estate to her next husband, the interior designer Edward Francis Searles (1841-1920). Searles, the designer of Mary Sherwood Hopkins's estate at Great Barrington, preferred to frequent his inherited real estate on the East Coast. The plaque honoring the location of the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art stated: "In February 1893, Mr. Edward F. Searles donated the Hopkins Mansion to the University of California in trust for the san Francisco Art Institute for 'Instruction in and illustration of the fine arts, music and literature,' and as San Francisco's first cultural center." The Art Association operated the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art in the residence between 1893-1906

Demolition

The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 04/18-19/1906 destroyed the Hopkins House;