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Overview

Conceived of on a grand scale and occupying much of a city block, the highly eclectic Grand Hotel in San Francisco was in operation from c. 1865 until at least 1885. Its styling reflected elements derived from Italinate, Second Empire, and Neo-Classical architecture, among others. The building had three full stories, plus rooms on its mansarded attic level. Commercial shops lined much of the the hotel's first floor, sharing space with a main lobby.

Building History

Harold Kirker noted that Gaynor was the architect of the Grand Hotel. He wrote of the Palace Hotel, also designed by Gaynor: "This incredible structure, which vanished with its era in the fire of 1906, was both the supreme monument to William Ralston's ambitions and the apogee of the San Franisco style. Designed by John Gaynor, an immigrant of the sixties and architect of the neighboring Grand Hotel, the Palace was a testimony of California's self-sufficiency: the furniture, clocks, blankets elevators, locks and horse-hair stuffings were all of native manufacture." (See Harold Kirker, California's Architectural Frontier Style and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century, [Salt Lake City: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc., 1986,] p. 95.)

Building Notes

In 1882, the Apothecaries' Hall, with B.B. Thayer, chemist, and William J. Bryan, druggist, operated in the Grand Hotel. (See San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1882, p. 189.)

By 1916, another establishment called the "Grand Hotel" operated at 57 Taylor Street in San Francisco. "Grand Hotel Ad," Federal Telegraph Company Radio News, distributed aboard the S.S. Sonoma, a Matson Line ship, 09/27/1916, p. 1

PCAD id: 17608