The Palace Hotel - San Francisco, California

Unofficial Website for Historical Artifacts

     Until 2019, I had never heard of the Palace Hotel. While planning a week long trip to Napa Valley to tour various vineyards, we decided to spend additional time in San Francisco as a belated honeymoon. Although my primary academic focus is World War II history, a long-standing secondary interest of mine has been staying at historic hotels during our travels. After researching well-known properties such as the Fairmont, St. Francis, and Mark Hopkins, I came across the Palace Hotel and was immediately enthralled by both its beauty and its history.

     On April 2nd, we walked through the main lobby doors and were instantly transported to an era when luxury, craftsmanship, and attention to detail were the standard at established hotels. What followed were four days immersed in a level of historical ambiance unlike anything I had previously experienced. My fascination with the Palace began that first day, and I soon found myself researching everything I could about the property in an effort to better understand its past. While the information and photographs I uncovered were exceptional, I found the greatest enjoyment in viewing - and eventually collecting - the physical objects that had survived from throughout the hotel’s history. Although only a limited number of images existed of the Palace’s earlier relics, I began tracking down and acquiring as many surviving pieces as possible. While artifacts from the hotel’s more recent past are relatively common, my primary focus has always been on items dating from the original 1875 Palace through approximately 1950. During our return visit in 2022, I was able to visit Landmark 18, the Palace Hotel’s historical museum located in the former Barber Shop area across from the Rose Room. Curated by former hotel manager Clifton Clark, the exhibit features artifacts spanning from the original 1875 building through the April 3rd, 1991 reopening. Mr. Clark graciously provided us with a personal tour of the first, second, and ninth floors of the hotel during that visit.

     As my collection continued to grow, I decided to create a website dedicated to showcasing the historical artifacts of the Palace Hotel, accompanied by brief contextual notes. In 2024, I undertook the much larger project of writing a comprehensive book on the hotel’s history, essentially a condensed, chronological, hard-copy counterpart to the website. Between March and November, I read approximately 150,000 newspaper articles dating from 1873 to the present in order to assemble the most complete timeline of the Palace Hotel’s history ever written. This timeline is available on my website under the “More” section, which is subdivided into different sets of years. 

     The final chapter of the book came in 2025, when we returned to the Palace Hotel to commemorate its 150th anniversary. We spent five days over Christmas enjoying the lavish feasts and festive decorations while staying in the Palace Suite. During this visit, I was fortunate to meet Angie Clifton, General Manager, and Jason Paradis, Hotel Manager, both of whom were extraordinarily generous with their time. Mr. Paradis provided a behind the scenes tour of the hotel and granted me access to the Palace Hotel archives, allowing me to resolve a few outstanding questions in my research. Each of these visits is also fully documented under "The Palace Today" page. 

     Unless otherwise noted, all items featured on this site are from my personal collection. The links below include current websites and books that offer in-depth examinations of the Palace Hotel’s history, including a link to my own Palace Hotel book. This book, published independently through Blurb, is admittedly more expensive than it would have been through a traditional publisher, but doing so gave me complete creative control from cover to cover. I did not write this book to earn profit - any potential revenue is negligible. Rather, I set out to create a definitive historical record of the Palace Hotel, one that distills the material on my website into a lasting, comprehensive chronicle that will endure even if the website does not.

I am always looking to acquire new pieces for my collection, so if anyone has any Palace Hotel items they are looking to sell or donate,

please contact me through the information below.

Thank you for your interest in the Palace Hotel, San Francisco!