Unofficial Historical Website for the Palace Hotel, San Francisco.
Unofficial Historical Website for the Palace Hotel, San Francisco.
January 11th, 1913: Scene at the Palace Hotel during the luncheon given yesterday in honor of the Marquis ds Ia Vega Inclan, emissary of Spain to the Panama-Pacific exposition.
April 23rd, 1913: Transportation Club Plans to Enlarge Palace Hotel Quarters. The Transportation Club is planning to enlarge its quarters in the Palace Hotel building by annexing the ground floor and the basement under its present quarters on the mezzanine floor. This would enable the club to establish a gymnasium, a plunge, a bowling alley and other features.
April 25th, 1913: SCENE AT THE PORTOLA BANQUET AT THE PALACE HOTEL LAST NIGHT. Flashlight picture of the guests and portraits of the toastmaster and some of the prominent speakers.
August 1st, 1913: O. Rich's signature in an ad for Mayerle's Eyeglasses.
October 24th, 1913: Jules Dauviller noted as chef of the Palace Hotel.
December 29th, 1913: New Restaurant of Palace Hotel Ready. Beautifully decorated and refurnished, the new restaurant of the Palace Hotel will be formally opened New Years Eve with a special program of music and entertainment. The decorations were under the supervision of Jules Guerin, world famous artist, who is doing the decorative work for the exposition. The English Room, off the Men's Grill, will also be opened New Years Eve. It Is handsomely finished in hardwood and fitted up with every comfort.
January 10th, 1914: Ad for the Sun Court of the Palace Hotel.
January 17th, 1914: The body of Donald H. Swain, who killed himself in the Palace Hotel, was held at the morgue today awaiting advices from eastern relatives. He is said to have been a nephew of W. A. Wyatt, general manager of Bradstreet's. Employed by a New York firm, he registered at the hotel January 14.
February 20th, 1914: B. O’Sann, 65 years old, a Chicago traveling salesman, was found dead in his bed at the Palace Hotel today. He had been sick from cancer of the stomach.
March 16th, 1914: Helen Keller visits the Palace Hotel.
April 7th, 1914: Despite the efforts of physicians to prolong her life by the use of oxygen, Mrs. T. B. Taylor, wife of the president of the Citizens’ Banking Company of Sandusky, 0., is dead at the Palace Hotel. Mrs. Taylor arrived in San Francisco March 26 and was taken ill shortly afterward. She was prominent in the social life of Sandusky.
April 14th, 1914: John M. Keith, mining millionaire, died in his room at the Palace Hotel.
May 7th, 1914: Nels Johnson, employed in the kitchen of the Palace Hotel, was arrested today by Detectives O’Connell and Earle, on complaint of the management. Hotel linen and sliver was found in his room.
July 3rd, 1914: Dr. G. W. Siefert, formerly physician for the University of Santa Clara and head doctor In the O’Connor hospital, who is said to be worth more than $500,000, is dead today following an attack of heart disease at his room In the Palace Hotel late yesterday afternoon. Siefert has no relatives living here, so Dr. Julian Waller, house physician at the hotel, took care of the body. Siefert was 58 years old and a resident of San Jose.
September 24th, 1914: John Mueller, a prominent Seattle brewer, is dead in his apartment at the Palace Hotel today. He expired last night from the effects of acute indigestion.
September 30th, 1914: REDECORATED PALACE GRILL TO BE OPENED. Part of the program of preparation for exposition year undertaken by the Palace Hotel will be shown to the public tomorrow, when the Gentleman's Grill will be reopened after a month of redecorating. The ceiling has been done over in gold lattice work with orange boughs bearing golden fruit and blossoms along the borders. Spanish velvet hangings have replaced the old Flemish tapestries at the east end of the room.
October 8th, 1914: Police detectives and attaches of the coroner’s office are conducting today a rigid investigation of the death of Frank G. Kahn, a commercial traveler, who succumbed to a brief but violent illness, presumably ptomaine poisoning, in his apartment at the Palace Hotel shortly before midnight.
November 5th, 1914:
Palace and Fairmont Landlord, Known All Over United States, Succumbs.
*One of the latest pictures of Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick, taken with one of his little colts at the Pleasanton stable.Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick, manager of the Sharon Estate Company, the Fairmont and Palace Hotels and one of the best-known hotel men in the United States, died at 5:20 o’clock this morning in his apartments at the Fairmont. The family was gathered about the bedside when the end came. Until an early hour Dr. Janies W. Ward held but hope for the colonel's recovery after the veteran had rallied slightly earlier in the evening, but after midnight he took a turn for the worst and began to sink steadily. FAMILY AT BEDSIDE Mrs. Kirkpatrick, his wife, remained faithfully at his side through the night, as did his son, William, and his daughter, Mrs. Allen McDonald, with her husband. The colonel's death will be a shock to thousands of his intimate friends. There is hardly a person of note in the state, and, in fact, throughout the United States, who was not personally acquainted and on the most intimate terms with him. His charm as an entertainer attended him through years of active management of San Francisco's two largest hotels and won him friends and admirers. Few of the people generally knew he was ill. Two weeks ago, a delegation of hotel men came here from distant cities for the "purpose of giving him a birthday dinner. The dinner had to be postponed because of a sudden attack of diabetes. The attack proved fatal, however, as he grew worse gradually until yesterday his physician called a consultation of doctors. Later they announced that the end was but a matter of hours. The first announcement of his illness appeared yesterday, and as a result the Fairmont was besieged all day with anxious inquiries for the Colonel's condition. Colonel Kirkpatrick came to California in 1885 and has been manager of the Palace Hotel since 1898. He was born October 29, 1857, in Steubenville, Ohio. and educated for the law in Michigan University. He came west because of ill health. In public life here he was, before the Taylor administration, park commissioner, and served also as a harbor commissioner. Arrangements for the funeral are to be announced later in the day. On account of the death of Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick, the “the dansant” to be held at the Fairmont on Friday afternoon has been postponed to a later date and the Saturday afternoon dansant at the Palace will also be postponed to the following Saturday. *One of the latest pictures of Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick, taken with one of his little colts at the Pleasanton stable.
November 7th, 1914: Layng, Noted Horseman, Dies of Heart Trouble. Arrangements will he made today for the funeral of William G. Layng. known as one of the best-informed harness horsemen on the Pacific Coast, who succumbed to heart trouble last night in the Palace Hotel. He was 59 years old.
November 14th, 1914: Choosing of Manager Of Palace Deferred. The selection of a successor to the late John G. Kirkpatrick as managing director of the Palace Hotel Company, was deferred at yesterday's meeting of the board, but William E. Sharon was added to the membership and F. G. Drum made vice president.
November 16th, 1914: C. A. Cooke Manager of Palace and Fairmont. Charles A. Cooke, former assistant to the late Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick, today is manager of the Palace Hotel Company, having been appointed to his late chief's place at a meeting of the board of directors Saturday. Cooke has had a long and successful career, rising from a brakeman's position on the old Eastern railroad in Massachusetts to manager of two of the largest hotels in the world. After thirty years in the tourist and traveling business, Cooke became in 1909 manager of the Fairmont Hotel, without any previous experience in the hotel business. Cooke for five years successfully handled the problem of managing the big hostelry.
November 28th, 1914: Colonel Henry I. Kowalsky, attorney at law, adviser to the late King Leopold of Belgium, famous raconteur and art connoisseur, and one of San Francisco's most picturesque characters, is dead. He was found at 8 o'clock this morning in his apartment in the Palace Hotel, lying fully dressed, on the floor of the bathroom. Death had taken place eight hours before, according to Dr. Julian D. Waller, house physician at the Palace, who was summoned immediately. He diagnosed the cause as acute dilation of the heart.
November 30th, 1914:
December 15th, 1914: Au Revoir, 2-Bit Bar! You Can Get Drink at Palace for 20c Now. Contrary to the general trend of prices in liquid nourishment, the cost of whisky at the Palace Hotel bar today is 50 cents, where for the last thirty-eight years it has been famed as a “two-bit drink.” The Palace maintained the only two-bit bar on the Pacific Coast and with the change goes one of the most unique customs of the prodigal pioneer days. The bar opened in 1876, when two bits a drink was the rule, and in late years any change has always been opposed by a strong clique who argued that it would destroy the exclusiveness of the buffet.
January 28th, 1915: Palace Hotel Lobby Is Being Remodeled. General remodeling of the Palace Hotel lobby and offices is under way today, to provide better facilities to cope with the influx of Exposition visitors expected within a short time. The entire New Montgomery Street entrance is to be devoted to the registration of arrivals. The reconstruction work represents an outlay of several thousand dollars.
March 19th, 1915: Obadiah Rich, Palace Hotel Manager, Resigns. Obadiah Rich, assistant manager of the Palace Hotel, has tendered his resignation, to take effect April 1. Rich intends to take a trip East and later to return to San Francisco to enter business on his own account. Rich is one of the best-known hotel men on the Pacific Coast. He was manager of the old Grant Hotel prior to the fire of 1906.
April 15th, 1915: Obadiah Rich, Palace Assistant Manager, Will Retire May 1. Obadiah Rich, for years assistant manager of the Palace Hotel, will retire May 1, causing several shifts in the personnel of the hotel management. The position of assistant manager has not been filled, and the work which Rich did will be apportioned among other officials. Fred W. Bain, chief clerk for many years, has been made floor manager, and William J. Sheppard becomes chief clerk. Another change is in the bar where Sven Christenson, better known as “Chris," has been a familiar figure for the last fifteen years. He will open a saloon of his own, it is said.
April 23rd, 1915: RICH IS HEAD OF PALACE HOTEL CO. Obadiah Rich, one of the best-known hotel men of San Francisco, is manager of the Palace Hotel Company today, following the resignation yesterday of Charles A. Cooke. The company of which Rich now is manager is the operating concern of the Palace and Fairmont Hotels. Cooke's resignation was accepted yesterday by the directors at a meeting at the Palace. He gave as his reasons for leaving the company his desire to enter another line of business. Rich has been connected with the Palace Hotel Company for thirty seven years. He had previously tendered his resignation as assistant manager, to take effect April 30, but the directors persuaded him to take Cooke's position until other arrangements could be made. After the fire of 1906, Rich opened the Fairmont Hotel. Later he was transferred to the management of the Palace, and Cooke succeeded him as manager of the Fairmont. Then both hotels were under the managing directorship of Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick. When Kirkpatrick died last October Cooke was given the general management of both hotels. Rich remaining at the Palace and Antoine Harder becoming manager of the Fairmont. It is said that the plan is to engage an Eastern manager for the hotel company.
May 8th, 1915: G. A. KESSLER KNOWN HERE SAFE. George A. Kessler, American representative of the Moet & Chandon Wine Company and a millionaire well known in San Francisco, was saved from death among the victims of the Lusitania after a terrific struggle in the water lasting three hours. News of his safety was received here today by his friend, Joseph Deering, in a brief cable. Kessler has many friends in San Francisco, his wife having lived here before her marriage. She was a Miss Parsons. Kessler was in San Francisco at the time of the great fire in 1906 and was a guest at the Palace Hotel. Shortly afterward he left for Omaha, and from there he sent to this city three carloads of provisions for the needy. He divides much of his time between costly homes In New York and London.
ROY CARRUTHERS, OF CLIFF HOUSE, JOINS PALACE HOTEL STAFF. Popular Clubman to Assist in the Management of Two Large Hostelries.
Roy Carruthers, for the last four years president of the Cliff House Company, and widely known among hotel and cafe men of the United States, today joined the Palace Hotel company, operating the Palace and Fairmont Hotels, as assistant manager.
July 15th, 1915: SHARON FUNERAL WILL BE PRIVATE. Funeral services for Frederick W. Sharon, president of the Palace Hotel and Sharon Estate Companies, who died yesterday at his apartments in the Palace Hotel, will be held tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. The last rites will be private, only the few relatives who were at the pioneer Californian's death bed being present. Mrs. Sharon, the late hotel owner’s brothers-in-law. Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada and Dr. Harry Tevis, and his cousin Will Sharon are the relatives here who are completing arrangements today for the funeral which will be held from the Palace Hotel. Sharon passed away yesterday afternoon after being ill since July 1, when he was stricken with heart failure. He was the son of the late Senator William Sharon of Nevada and has been handling the immense property holdings of his father since the latter’s death.
July 20th, 1915: Woman Killed in 18 Foot Fall Down Shaft. Mary Dougherty, an employe of the Palace Hotel for the last twenty years, fell eighteen feet down an elevator shaft at the hotel shortly after midnight and was instantly killed. She had signaled for the elevator and then stepped through the door before the car arrived. How the door happened to be open Is the subject of an investigation. J. W. Nichols, the elevator operator, was arrested.
September 27th, 1915: Heller’s renowned and largely augmented orchestra, now situated on the ground floor of the Palm Court, continues to attract the thousands of distinguished guests both afternoons and evenings. Selections are rendered from a diversified library of classical and popular arias, while light refreshments are served.
October 18th, 1915:
October 21st, 1915: W. H. Workman, a former mayor of Los Angeles and a retired capitalist, is a guest at the Palace Hotel today. "I came just so as to be on hand for the fortieth birthday of the Palace yesterday,” he said. "The opening of the hotel on October 20, 1875 was an almost statewide society function. I'm 77 years old, but right now I can picture in my mind's eye just how W. C. Ralston looked on the night the hotel which he built was thrown open.”
October 30th, 1915: George Supf, Palace Cocktail Mixer, Dies. Oldtimers about the Palace Hotel today are mourning the loss of George Supf, who for the last eight years has been the favorite cocktail mixer of the Palace clubroom. Supf died yesterday at his Kenwood Ranch, Sonoma County, where he had been sick for the last three months. He was 42 years old.
November 2nd, 1915:
San Francisco's social elect attended by hundreds the first dinner-dance given in the Palace Hotel last night, and helped to inaugurate the social innovation of the year. Women in costly jewels and beautiful gowns vied with each other in the brilliant assembly that thronged the great Rose Dining Room, which had been specially decorated for the occasion. This was the first of the season’s dinner-dances which will be given every evening, excepting Sundays, from 7 until 1 o'clock, and from the manner in which the guests gave themselves to the pleasures of the evening, it was obvious that the new Palace Hotel dinner-dance will be the social event of the season.
What would life be in San Francisco without the Palace Hotel? That was the question heard on every side among the diners and the dancers in the palm-set ballroom. It was the same question which was asked back in the middle seventies, when San Francisco was only a debutante and W. C. Ralston’s dream of building here the finest hotel in the world had just become a six million dollar reality. It reflected then, as it reflected last night, the part which the Palace Hotel plays in the social life of San Francisco.
Tables for the dance and dinner last evening had been reserved for days in advance, for the suggestion of these dances, made by Roy Carruthers, assistant manager, had immediately struck a popular chord. In fact, the dinner-dances are only one of many innovations which the new Palace Hotel management has inaugurated to popularize that hostelry in a way never before attempted. The dinner-dances are in line with the new policy of the new management which has resolved to add new luster to the old glories of the Palace, and not a single detail had been omitted to make the setting for last night’s function perfect.
A new ballroom floor had been laid in the main dining room, and to make room for this daily event, the main dining room has been moved into the Marble Court. "The history of the Palace has become tradition," said Roy N. Bishop, assistant to the president. The man who is most closely identified with the history as well as the success of the Palace is Obadiah Rich, the general manager, who has been with the Palace for 36 years, and in that time has become known to Palace guests the world round. Mr. Rich is a native of Massachusetts and began his hotel experience in the old Grand Hotel in 1879, under the management of the Palace Hotel Company. Previous to the fire he was manager of the Grand and assistant manager of the Palace, and since the death of Colonel Kirkpatrick he has become manager of the Palace. He is a hard worker and considered one of the ablest hotel men on the coast. “A great hotel can not live in the past", said Mr. Rich. "It must make new history every day, and meet the demands of the present. That is all that we are trying to do.”
People who have known and loved the Palace Hotel since the day it first opened its hospitable doors in 1875 realized that the new era had commenced some months back when the Palace bar reduced the price of its drinks from two bits to 15 cents. For years the Palace had maintained its two bit bar, the only one left in San Francisco, and under the management of Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick, who buried the old Palace and rebuilt the new, these touches of early days remained unshaken. With the death of Colonel Kirkpatrick and the passing of the management into younger hands, new ideas immediately asserted themselves, were put into effect and proved successful. The success of the new plans became apparent in every department.
For the last ten months the Palace has cared for 25,000 to 30,000 guests every month, and its 900 rooms and enormous capacity for entertainment have been taxed to the utmost. What this means can only be appreciated when something in detail is known of this capacity. A new policy of reduced rates was introduced at the beginning of the Exposition, which had a tremendous bearing upon the entire hotel situation in San Francisco. Visitors learned that instead of being held up by advanced rates, the hotel accommodations had been actually lowered. The Palace announced rooms down to $2 a day, and 100 rooms with bath were put on the schedule at $2.50 a day. In the old days no room could be had in the Palace for less than $5. Another big success along this line was the announcing of club breakfasts for as low as 40 cents, and the introduction of a popular lunch in the Men’s Grillroom. This grill room had been newly decorated after & design by Jules Guerin, the man who colored the Exposition, the artistic touch of which reached its finest expression in the beautiful medieval tapestry panels. Another popular chord was struck in the opening of the University Club Room, decorated with the colors of all the leading great schools of the country. Throughout the year visiting college men have come there, signed the special registers provided by the hotel, and met classmates and college associates. Among the great universities represented there the visitor finds the "Y” of Old Eli, the Harvard "H” and Cornell emblem, the Pennsylvania and Princeton banners, and those of many other great Eastern and Middle Western schools. During the Exposition year events Berkeley and Stanford students have used this club room and rallied about their university colors. This year the Palace celebrates its fortieth anniversary, and with it begins its third period of hotel history. The first period began with the hotel in 1875, when with the millions taken from the Comstock mines, W. C. Ralston completed the old Palace and opened its doors to the world. Until the fire of 1906, when the hotel was entirely destroyed, the Palace was the chief center of San Francisco social life.
All the big banquets and entertainments were held there. Its history was filled with big occurrences and the pages of its register crowded with the names of eminent people. Great Civil War generals, among them General Grant and John Sherman, were banqueted there. Its courts and ball rooms were the theater for historic events. Then came the fire, and three years later the new Palace, representing an investment of $10,000,000. The doors of the New Palace were opened December 16, 1909. The golden key was tied to three toy balloons and set adrift. The entire city took part in the rejoicing. Thousands of visitors were permitted to go through the whole establishment. More than 1200 people had dinner there that evening, and at the opening banquet in the great Marble Court 700 guests sat about the banquet boards. Notable as this banquet was, there have been others as great. One such took place when President Taft visited San Francisco and laid the cornerstone to the Exposition. Another of almost equal brilliance was that tendered to Elihu Root. How the Palace handles such a banquet forms a chapter in itself in hotel management. When Colonel Kirkpatrick, out of his long experience, planned the interior arrangement of the new Palace he considered all these things, and the result is a service to guests which, by its perfection, has been a great factor in the success of the Palace.
The great kitchen, which is the heart of the "Back of the House,” is on the main floor, located directly back of three main dining and grill rooms. on the west side of the building, with its windows on Annie Street. All the special banquet halls are arranged south of the kitchen, so that the courses can be served directly to the guests by the corps of waiters with the least possible loss of time.
Here are some figures which tell more quickly than a lengthy description something of the magnitude of the Palace establishment, and what it requires to conduct it: Number of people employed by the Palace, 600. Number of waiters employed, 100. Kitchen crew, 100. Laundry crew, 50.
Linen rooms, 24. Number of rooms, 900. Number of guests cared for 25,000 to 30,000 a month. Crockery and table equipment on hand to serve at one time 4,000 people. Amount of fuel consumed dally, 90 barrels of crude oil. Ice consumed, 130 tons a month. Wine room stock on hand, valued at $40,000 to $50,000.
Besides making its own electricity, power and heat, the Palace Hotel engine room supplies heat arid electric light to the Sharon building across the street, and heat to The Call building. The hotel is artificially ventilated with great blowers which suck out the stale air, and the fresh air which rushes into the rooms is all filtered through water, which takes out every impurity. The laundry in the basement not only provides all the clean linen used by the hotel, but launders all the clothes of the guests. Cleanliness is the watchword of the hotel on every side, and there is only one room in all that great establishment where either dust or cobwebs are permitted. And in that room dust and cobwebs are welcomed. They become an asset. They gather about the bottles, and so are carried from the wine cellar to the very tables, glistening with white napery and silver, proof to the particular guests and the wine connoisseur that the goods before him have the required age. The wine cellar of the Palace is an interesting spot, with its French Burgundies. and its German Steinwein in the funny fat German bottles. Five great casks, holding 120 gallons each, are there filled with the choicest whiskies. A cold storage room is filled with beer, and with such wines as must be cooled before served. Only one or two bottles of each brand are kept ready for use.
The Palace makes all its own ice,130 tons last month, which was a high ice month. In fact, the ice plant is a veritable business barometer for the institution. Last January it made 86 tons of ice. Since then the consumption has been going steadily up. Besides making all the pure ice used In the hotel, the plant runs all the numerous refrigerators for the meats and the food. To bring order out of the chaos of details which exist to the hotel a very thorough system of checking and counter checking is maintained. Every plateful of food is accounted for. Every banquet is charged up with everything that goes to make it, from the pepper and the seasoning to the linen and the electric light, although the linen comes from the Palace laundry, and the light Is made by the Palace electric plant, with its three enormous 400-horsepower engines.
One department which the casual guest never thinks about, but which is very important in the establishment, is the baggage room and the porter service. Here the trunks are checked in and out, the hotel assuming all responsibility. Nearly a dozen porters are employed. Another big item is the weekly luncheons furnished to clubs. The Commonwealth Club, the Home Industry League, the Jovian League hold weekly luncheons in the Palace. The Civic League, a woman’s organization, holds a monthly luncheon. Parlors are maintained for the sole purpose of meeting, where the delegates, or directors, may have their luncheon served and transact their business in private. Among San Franciscans who have had the welfare and success of the Palace Hotel closely at heart may be mentioned William H. Crocker, John Drum, Senator Franois G. Newlands, Mr. Harry L. Tevis, William Sharon. To them the new Palace Hotel policy and popularity is a matter of deep satisfaction and great gratification. They as other pleasure loving San Franciscans, see in the dinner dances which are to be a feature of the social season a great boon to society, as well as to the general public, who is invited, as the dances are not confined exclusively to the guests of the hotel, but are open to anyone who wishes to spend a delightful evening amidst a congenial setting and among congenial and delightful people.
November 18th, 1915: KITCHEN WAR TALK BANNED. “No war talk!" reads a sign on the wall of the Palace Hotel kitchen. It was put there because Roy Carruthers, assistant manager, believes in “safety first.” Employed in the kitchen are Germans, French, English, Italians, Austrians and Russians.
Obadiah Rich, general manager of the Palace Hotel, signing petition presented by Miss Psyche Knowles.
Clubwomen are canvassing the city getting signatures to the petition to preserve the Palace of Fine Arts and the art treasures at the Exposition. Photo by International Film Service.
November 26th, 1915: CARRUTHERS IS PALACE MANAGER. Following the resignation of Obadiah Rich, Roy Carruthers, who was formerly assistant manager of the Palace Hotel, has been appointed manager of the Palace Hotel Company, which controls the Palace and Fairmont Hotels. This change was announced yesterday by Roy Bishop, representing the board of directors, which adopted a resolution voicing its appreciation of Rich’s services. Obadiah Rich has been connected with the Palace for more than thirty years. He expects to leave for his home in Salem. Mass., about the middle of December. Carruthers aimed to make the Palace Hotel the social center of the city. He introduced the after dinner and danner dansants which have become so popular with society, and the number of banquets and gala halls which have been given at the hotel since he directed his efforts toward making it a social Mecca, hears out the fact that he was successful in his aim. During the Exposition year he prepared for and met the greatest influx of visitors which San Francisco has ever experienced.
December 11th, 1915: The new Dixie Club, organized to bring Southerners of the hay region together socially, inaugurated a series of winter affairs with a Ku-Klux Ball at the Palace Hotel Tuesday evening. The function was attended by more than 1000 members arid friends. Several hundred persons were costumed in the historic white robes of the clansmen, and formed a unique spectacle in the grand march, led by John Dicks Howe, president of the club, and Mrs. Charles S. Fitzsimmons, treasurer.
December 14th, 1915: MANY AUTOS ON DISPLAY ST PALACE. The initial automobile show held in San Francisco since 1911 under independent management was thrown open to the public yesterday afternoon when forty-two cars were placed on display at the Palace Hotel. Although the Motor Car Dealers’ Association of San Francisco placed the ban upon the show and declined to permit its members to exhibit their cars, there are three participants who are listed among their members. This act on their part promises a little aftermath of interest to the motoring public. Midst beautiful surroundings in the ballroom, parlors and concert hall on the main floor of the Palace Hotel, the most up-to-date and newest models received from the factory by the twelve dealers exhibiting, were artistically arranged. Sumptuous settings and fragrant flowers added a further touch of class to the show.
December 15th, 1915: D. S. Coleman Assistant Manager of Palace. Roy Carruthers, manager of the Palace Hotel, has been given a new assistant in Dupont S. Coleman, who for six years has been in charge of the information bureau of the Palace. Previously Coleman was for many years identified with baggage transfer companies. He established the information bureau at the Palace.
January 1st, 1916: PALACE HOTEL SUBWAY IS ASSURED. Roy Bishop, assistant to the president of the Palace Hotel Company and president of the Oil Industry Association of California, returned to San Francisco this morning after an extended trip to the East primarily in the interests of oil. Bishop made two announcements of first interest to the city. One was the expression of confidence that the oilmen would obtain the relief from the Taft withdraway order which they have been seeking. The other is that the Palace Hotel Company has definitely determined upon the construction of a subway under Market Street opposite the main entrance of the Palace Hotel. The subway is designed for the convenience of pedestrians and is made necessary primarily by the increased congestion on the thoroughfare that has come with the jitneys. The tunnel will have entrances within the lobby of the Palace, on the sidewalk in front of the main entrance and on the north side of Market Street, west of the Crocker building.
January 4th, 1916: NEW YEAR’S SHELTER DANCE WILL BE ANNUAL FUNCTION
Benefit Friday Night Proved a Great Success; to Become Social Institution
The New Year's Eve supper dance for the benefit of the Infants' Shelter, which was inaugurated Friday night, henceforth will be an annual social institution like the famous Mardi Gras balls of San Francisco. The function took place at the Palace Hotel, and was one of the most successful affairs of the kind that the city has held. More than 2000 persons attended, and the amount netted with which to carry on the excellent work of the shelter approximates $4000.
Scene at the New Year’s Eve supper dance for the benefit of the Infants’ Shelter and (top left) Mrs. Harry Umbsen, one of the directors of the shelter, (right) Mrs. W. D. Fennimore, among those who entertained parties, and Roy Carruthers, manager of the Palace Hotel, where the function was held.
January 7th, 1916: Palace Hotel Employe Dies While at Work. F. C. Ambridge, employed in the control department of the Palace Hotel, is dead at his home, 1308 Taylor Street. Heart failure caused his demise while he was at work. He was formerly auditor of the Napa and Calistoga Railroad and at one time an employe of the Southern Pacific.
January 25th, 1916: MOTOR TRUCKS ON DISPLAY AT PALACE. The three-day motor truck show at the Palace Hotel opened this morning, with many types of the motor vehicle on display. Among the exhibits are light delivery wagons as well as the large trucks.
April 3rd, 1916:
August 19th, 1916: First mention of the Presidential Suite in the Palace Hotel.
August 25th, 1916: F. G. Drum President Of Palace Hotel Co. Frank G. Drum has succeeded Frederick Sharon as president of the Palace Hotel Company, which conducts both the Palace and Fairmont. Sharon died in July, 1916.
January 1st, 1917: HAPPY NEW YEAR! San Francisco Gives Gay Young 1917 Its Usual Noisy Greeting. In the Palace Hotel, nearly 3,000 guests greeted the New Year with a benefaction and danced for the Infant Shelter charity.
January 13th, 1917: Du Pont Coleman noted as assistant manager of the Palace Hotel.
January 16th, 1917: Ninety-eight thousand California oysters were swallowed on New Year's Eve at the Palace Hotel, according to a statement published today. There were 2,200 diners and 94,000 pieces of silverware, china and glass were used. Eighteen hundred chickens, 7,000 cakes, 50 gallons of ripe olives and 150 pounds of coffee were consumed. The average monthly consumption at the Palace Hotel is 5,000 gallons of milk, 2,000 gallons of cream, 10,000 pounds of butter, 56,000 pounds of flour, 18,000 loins and ribs of beef, 3,000 pounds of coffee and 1,200 gallons of ice cream. More than 20,000 eggs are consumed every month and the loaves of bread used on the table every thirty days, if stretched in a line, would reach from the ferry to Market and Powell Streets and back.
January 24th, 1917: J. H. Heid, two years a member of the lower house of the Alaska Legislature, and re-elected, died at the Palace Hotel early today of Bright's disease.
March 5th, 1917: Ludwig Van Orden noted as assistant manager of the Palace Hotel.
May 12th, 1917: Studebaker Six, which will head the motor car caravan of the San Francisco Ad Club in the “On to St. Louis” trip, being officially entered at the Palace Hotel.
July 9th, 1917: BARRED FROM WAR YOUTH ENDS LIFE. Norman Poetter, a young man of Franklin, Tex., who had come here in the hope of getting into the officers' reserve training camp, committed suicide in his room in the Palace Hotel last night by drinking poison. The knowledge that he had consumption and would not be accepted was the cause of his act. He left a note to his father and another to his sweetheart.
July 23rd, 1917: Indoor Shade Trees For Summer Guests At the Palace Hotel. The Palace Hotel has just installed what it considers the latest thing in service. These are hot days in San Francisco and many of the guests have expressed a desire to be in the woods, where there is shade and big trees. Not being able to send the guests to the woods or to move the hotel, the Palace has placed in the palm court several of the largest bay trees obtainable, and under each of them comfortable settees have been put. Now the guests may have indoor woods and shade.
July 25th, 1917: Whale Meat Served Now at Palace Hotel. "Whale Meat a la Creole,” was the new offering of the Palace Hotel menu, last night. This is the first time that whale meat has been served here. The portions were large and juicy, delightfully seasoned and cost 75 cents each. The new food has come to stay, according to the hotel experts. It is a wartime food resource of the United States that has been overlooked. Many tried It and pronounced it good. The whale meat is supplied by a sea products company which has bought property at Moss Landing and will establish a packing-house there. The meat resembles beef in appearance, texture and flavor. There is no fishy taste about it. The Pacific Ocean has an unlimited supply on hand.
August 21st, 1917: William R. Taylor Jr., assistant manager of the Palace Hotel, leaves today to assume his duties as a commissary steward in the United States Navy.
September 10th, 1917: PALACE CASHIER RESIGNS. After twenty-eight years' service Frank C. Martin, cashier of the Palace Hotel, has left his position and is at present living at his home in Oakland. According to the hotel management Martin resigned because he felt that he had deserved retirement.
September 19th, 1917: Soldier clubrooms, known as the Canteen, are set to be open in the Palace Hotel.
October 29th, 1917: S. F. RESTAURANT MEN TO HELP SAVE FOOD. The Restaurant Men's Association of San Francisco stands behind Hoover today. A meeting was held in the association's headquarters in the Pacific building, at which 150 restaurants and cafes were represented. It was voted to follow the lead of Roy Carruthers, general manager of the Palace Hotel, who has devised a meatless, nearly wheatless menu for that establishment. The food pledge was signed by all present and sent to the food administration's headquarters. The first signboard that ever has appeared on post office property stands today at the Seventh and Stevenson Streets entrance to the post office. It is an electric sign, illumined with the Stars and Stripes, and urges all to stand behind the food administration.
December 6th, 1917:
March 1st, 1918: HOTEL WAR MENUS - Behind Scenes at Palace KITCHEN ARMY AT WORK. By CAROLINE SINGER.
The 700 or 8OO members of the Chamber of Commerce who answer the call of the military band in Market Street every day at noon and mobilize for luncheon in the Palace Hotel to discuss community war service have no corner on the subject. While they swap opinions and exchange the latest thing in advice a great deal of community war service in the form of conservation is in action “behind the scenes.” Once a waiter carried into the dining room a little silver pitcher filled with cream for your coffee. There was always enough and then some. Today the cream is kept in a nickel-plated container. You press the faucet. There is a “glub-glub” and exactly two ounces of cream is released for a patron’s use. Automatically the stream ceases. This machine is saving ten gallons of cream a day.
The cutting of butter has been reduced to a question of mathematics. For these luncheons fifty-eight squares are cut from two pounds. Each guest is dealt one roll, which weighs exactly one ounce. As there is a two ounce limit, though 25 per cent of the flour used is a wheat flour substitute, a few extra rolls were tossed about on separate plates for those who insist upon being “gluttons.” Those which come back to the kitchen are melted up and used over by some Hoover process. When the made-over bread comes back, then—well, it is neatly packed into cans and sold for chicken feed.
FANCY CUTS GONE Have you missed the fancy cuts of toast from the menus? They don’t serve them anymore. You must take your toast, plain and simple, or go without. You must not scorn the crusts which once were trimmed off. Be thankful you have them to chew. Toast which is not served in triangles, stars and circles is just as palatable, if not so “pretty.” Do you remember those luscious steaks dripping with juice which sprawled luxuriously over the platter? You ate and ate and then set aside the last bits because you could not master them. The hotels and restaurants have been asked to cut down the portions of meat. In the ice chest were orderly platoons of steaks ready for cooking. The one party steaks weighed exactly one pound. The two party steaks weighed exactly two pounds. That is the way they are tailored this season. You can’t get any other models in steaks out of those refrigerators. Every scrap of fat has been trimmed off and reserved.
SPECIAL LUNCHEON MENU The menu for the special luncheon included cosmopolitan salad. Four cooks had been working all morning. Talk about your rolling hills covered with green verdure! Talk about springtime and all that sort of thing! Did you ever see 800 salads at once? Certainly, there should have been a sign, “Keep off the grass.” The four cooks did splendid teamwork. One spread out the lettuce. The next one decorated the lettuce with one slice of tomato. The third dabbed a few string beans on the side. Then the fourth came and sprinkled on a few shreds of crab meat. Not one inch of lettuce or one slice of tomato too many was provided. There was exactly enough of everything and no waste. Because garbage cans seem to be the accepted topic of conversation even in the best families a visit was made to an underground passage of the hotel, a subterranean storeroom. There were the newspapers thrown away by the guests upstairs, the love letters tossed into the wastebaskets, the wrapping paper which came around hundreds of packages, all bound into bales piled ceiling high. Regularly a salvage man comes to buy. He also carries away the old rags, which include everything from the blouse discarded by some woman to the scraps from the linen room.
GROUND GLASS You’ve been hearing a great deal about ground glass appearing mysteriously in foodstuffs. Sh! There were several barrels of it in the basement of the Palace Hotel. It might have been a plot, but no! The broken glass is bought by a local glass company and used again in the manufacture of glassware. Everything is not lost when the busboy stubs a toe and goes down among the splinters of wine glasses. Chipped water and wine glasses are no longer thrown away. The ugly notches are ground down. When you discover that the goblet set at your place is unusually thick, then understand it has been Hooverized. “Is there any difficulty in getting the kitchen people to cooperate in this business of war conservation?” was the question which made S. Hoedemake, controller of catering, laugh. “Difficulty!” he exclaimed. “The only difficultly is in seeing that they don’t overdo it. The men are all French and Italian. They think they are fighting the war right here in these kitchens.”
March 7th, 1918: WOMEN EXPLORE PALACE HOTEL SANCTUMS. Practically every member of the Home Industry League of California who attended the "Palace Hotel Day” luncheon this noon was accompanied by a woman relative or friend keen to take advantage of the chance to see the inside workings of the kitchens, bakeries, laundries, linen rooms, pantries, wineries, servants' quarters and other departments of the biggest hotel in San Francisco. "Personally conducted" tours by the assistant managers of the hotel showed how great a task is the "housekeeping” end of the Palace Hotel. The bigness of the “housekeeping” task of the Palace, compared with the work of the average housekeeper who has only the meals of an average family to look after, was pointed out by the personal conductors in the facts that the Palace Hotel serves nearly 1,000,000 meals a year; has 700 rooms in operation and 300 more in preparation; served 150,000 meals for clubs which met in the hotel during 1917; employs 325 persons in the preparation of its meals: used last year a total of more than 50,000 pounds of butter, 160,000 pints of cream, 100,000 pounds of sugar, 50,000 pounds of turkey, 200,000 pounds of beef and some 35,000 pounds of coffee. The laundry of the hotel takes care of 8,500,000 pieces of linen per year, requiring 13,500,000 gallons of water. The stock of eatables and drinkables which the Palace keeps constantly on hand runs up to $100,000, while the cost of the food bought by the hotel during 1917 was more than $1,000,000. The light and heating and telephone plants of the Palace Hotel are equivalent to that for a city of 15,000. The luncheon, which was one of the most largely attended affairs of the Home Industry League for the year, was featured by the attendance of nearly fifty of the most prominent members of the Purchasers’ Association of the state and of an unusually strong representation of members and wives from Oakland and the bay cities.
March 8th, 1918: A man giving his name as J. W. Vail, his occupation as a stock broker, is held by the police today, charged with the theft of twenty-four towels from the washroom of the Palace Hotel. He gave his address as 1460 O'Parrell Street.
March 13th, 1918: PLANTER KILLS HIMSELF WHILE GUESTS WAIT. The depressing aftermath of tragedy today pervaded the quarters of the Transportation Club in the Palace Hotel, where Louis Barkhausen, retired sugar planter, took his life last night while dinner party guests waited for him a short distance away and a fashionable audience gathered for the symphony concert in the palm court. Seated in a chair in the club's library, Barkhausen's body was found by club members a few moments before one of his dinner guests entered in search of the missing host. He had shot himself in the head with a revolver. Barkhausen had given no intimation of his purpose.
June 3rd, 1918: William J. Sheppard, room clerk at the Palace Hotel, has been made office manager of the establishment in place of Dupont Coleman, for many years assistant manager. Sheppard has been “behind the desk” at the Palace since the present building opened in 1909.
September 25th, 1918: Roy Carruthers Goes To New York Hotel. Roy Carruthers, manager of the Palace Hotel, is today in receipt of both congratulations and regrets from scores of acquaintances and business associates, following his announcement that he is to become manager of the New Pennsylvania Hotel in New York. The New York establishment, which is to be opened January 1, is the largest hotel in the world. It is twenty-two stories high with 2,500 guest rooms. Before taking the Palace management several years ago Carruthers was manager of the Cliff House. He will leave for New York in sixty days.
October 3rd, 1918: Four Taken In Raid For Hotel Robberies. Believed to be an organized band of hotel robbers, Jean Toelle, curtain hanger; George Strobl, waiter; his wife, Mrs. Lutge Strobl, and Carl Huver, cook, are booked at the city prison today on charges of burglary and grand larceny, following their arrest in a raid by the police at the St. Paul Apartments, 454 Larkin Street, last night, in which loot valued at $2000 was taken, A cluster ring was identified as the property of Mrs. M. Marks, and a diamond pin the property of Mrs. E. Epstein, guests at the Palace Hotel. Hotel linen, silverware, clothing and other articles, almost all the property of the Palace Hotel, where the accused four were employed, were recovered.
October 14th, 1918: Palace Hotel Puts Waitresses to Work For the First Time. Women were put to work as waitresses in the Palace Hotel today for the first time since its establishment in 1875. Assistant Manager Van Orden stated that the women, sixteen in number, were not being used to take the places of the regular waiters, but to make up for a shortage of male help.
October 30th, 1918: MYSTERY DEATH AT PALACE HOTEL. Under mysterious circumstances that are baffling the police, George James Shoup, one of the best-known mining engineers of Nevada and a cousin of Paul Shoup, president of the corporate interests of the Southern Pacific, was found dead in bed in his room at the Palace Hotel today. That Shoup may have ended his life is the theory on which the police and attaches of the coroner's office are working. According to Deputy Coroner M. J. Brown, an empty glass, from which an odor of cyanide of potassium was detected, stood on a table near the bed.
November 18th, 1918: D. M. Linnard, managing director of the Fairmont Hotel and president of the California Hotel Company, has taken over the lease of the Fairmont property from the Palace Hotel Company.
December 31st, 1918: LINNARD ADDS PALACE HOTEL TO STRING. Marking one of the most important hotel deals in the west in years, the Palace Hotel today is under the executive management of D. M. Linnard, head of a chain of hotels, including the Fairmont of San Francisco, the Maryland, Green and Huntington of Pasadena and the Ambassador of Atlantic City. Allan Pollok, manager of the Palace Hotel, will assume the position of business manager of the six hotels in the chain. Halsey Manwaring becomes resident manager of the Palace. Manwaring was with the Bellevue-Stratford of Philadelphia for years and was manager of the Grand Hotel at Yokohama for ten years.
