Unofficial Historical Website for the Palace Hotel, San Francisco.
Unofficial Historical Website for the Palace Hotel, San Francisco.
January 11th, 1919: Rudy Seiger Will Direct Palace Hotel Concerts. Rudy Seiger, director of amusements for the Linnard Hotels in California, will assume the leadership of the “pop” concerts at the Palace Hotel this Sunday evening. The orchestra will be enlarged to twenty-five men and the program will run from 7 o'clock until 9.
January 20th, 1919: Dutch Nobleman Dies While on Visit in S. F. After an illness of only four days, Cornelius Mario de Pauw, banker, mining man and member of the Dutch nobility, is dead today. He died in his apartment at the Palace Hotel from pneumonia following influenza. His widow has departed for Los Angeles with the body. They had been in San Francisco about a week.
February 4th, 1919: Harry Annan noted as being assistant manager at the Palace Hotel.
February 10th, 1919: Efforts were made today by army officials to locate relatives of Captain Axel Gustafson, Artillery. U. S. army, who ended his life by shooting in his room in the Palace Hotel, while brooding over the death from influenza of his bride of three months.
February 11th, 1919: New Palace Manager Drums Up 60 Guests But Hotel Is Filled. The progressiveness of Halsey W. Manwaring (right), new manager of the Palace Hotel, is likely to be turned into near tragedy when he arrives here tomorrow on the steamer Venezuela. Manwaring, who for the last ten years has been manager of the Grand Hotel at Yokohama, has evidently been strictly on the job since the boat sailed. He has lined up more than sixty reservations for the hotel. Fine business! But when the wireless announcing the reservations was received at the Palace this morning it all but threw the management into a panic. For the last three days rooms have been at a premium. Guests have been haunting the lobby for hours, waiting for someone to check out. And it is much the same way at the other large hotels. What is going to be done when Manwaring and his sixty odd guests arrive tomorrow is causing lots of comment around local hostelries.
March 7th, 1919: Colonel S. A. Dillingham, wealthy manufacturer of New York and Cincinnati, who was on his way to the Orient on a business trip, died last night in the Palace Hotel of pneumonia. He was 52 years of age and came from an old Vermont family.
April 22nd, 1919: Palace Waiter Views Parade, Perched on Hotel’s Electric Sign. A waiter in tuxedo and white apron left the dining room of the Palace Hotel when the siren announced the parade had started. He took the elevator to the roof, but that wasn't high enough. With the agility of an acrobat, he climbed up the framework of the huge electric sign on the roof of the hotel. There he perched, one foot resting on the letter “A,” the other supporting his weight on the letter "L.” “He looks like a Goldberg cartoon.” said a man in the crowd below. “What would happen if someone should put in an order for soup?’’ croaked another. The waiter saw it all— the parade, not the joke. He saw it all, from A to L.
Elmer Cox is now an assistant manager at the Palace Hotel.
May 5th, 1919: Halsey Manwaring, manager of the Palace Hotel, has moved out in front with his entire staff. Manwaring has taken over the alcove by the New Montgomery Street entrance, where he can keep his eye trained on the front desk and at the same time be in position to met his guests personally when they come in.
July 2nd, 1919: “Especially memorable will be the great cabaret and banquet given Monday night in the Palace Hotel, when Resident Manager Halsey Manwarlng, acting for D. M. Linnard, was host to the visitors.”
September 3rd, 1919: LINNARD PLANS TO INSURE EMPLOYES. Marking a new epoch in the relations between employer and employe, Daniel M. Linnard, president of the Hotels Company, of which the Palace Hotel and Hotel Fairmont are a part, announces that all employes, or coworkers as he calls them, of the hotels shall be insured by the company. The insurance will not cost employes anything. Under Linnard’s plan every worker who has been with the company two years automatically will become insured.
September 11th, 1919: Claude Parks Huff, who registered at the Palace Hotel September 2 from South Carolina, ended his life in Room 8123 of the hotel last night by sending a bullet through his heart. Little known of Huff here. He was about 32 years old.
September 17th, 1919: President Wilson arrives at the Palace Hotel. PALACE BANQUET ROOM HOLDS EPOCH CROWD. The Palace Hotel main dining room, said to have the largest seating capacity of any dining room in the world, was decorated for the women’s luncheon to President Wilson with flags and bunting. Dr. Hugh Tevis and Golden West Dahlias, with larkspur, were used for the decorations of the speakers’ table. On every table were two stands of American flags. The doors leading into the breakfast room were thrown open, making it possible for 3400 persons to be served within hearing of President Wilson. This made the largest banquet hall in the world. The meal was served by 225 waiters, directed by twelve captains. O. Haeberli, for twenty-five years in charge of the Palace Hotel dining room, was in direct charge.
October 18th, 1919: Two hundred and fifty rooms will be added to the Palace Hotel just as soon as the steel strike is settled and materials can be secured, according to announcement made by Halsey E. Manwaring, resident manager of the Palace. The additional housing space will be given over almost entirely to duplex apartments and suites. Among other alterations, the ballroom roof will be raised to the second floor. It will be equipped with a portable stage and will be arranged for the construction of boxes on the four sides. On the Jessie Street side a private entrance for permanent guests will be erected.
October 27th, 1919: The funeral of Thomas L. Johnson, for many years associated with his brother, C. R. Johnson, in the lumber business in San Francisco, was held today. Johnson died late Saturday afternoon in his apartments at the Palace Hotel. He leaves a widow, Mrs. Aimee Johnson; three brothers, Charles R. Johnson of San Francisco, Otis W. Johnson of Racine, Wis., and Francis J. Johnson of Chicago, and two sisters, Mrs. H. S. Abbott and Miss Janette Johnson.
November 3rd, 1919: Mount Lassen has had another eruption, such a violent one that the whole top of the peak was knocked off. The eruption was visible only from the lobby of the Palace Hotel, the scene, in fact, of the eruption. The California Automobile Association has a big relief map of California on one of the walls of the Palace. The other day the top of Mount Lassen was knocked off and at the cigar counter they assert a disturbance, probably volcanic, is responsible.
November 6th, 1919: H. C. Handy, auditor of the Palace Hotel.
November 27th, 1919: Six Palace Employes Get Promotion as Thanksgiving Gift. Halsey E. Manwaring, resident manager of the Palace Hotel, today gave Thanksgiving presents in the way of promotions to six employes of the dining room department of the hotel, with corresponding increases in salary, effective December 1. Otto Haeberli, 25 years in the service of the Palace and for many years maitre d’hotel, becomes assistant manager of the Palace; Otto Gabel, captain in the Rose Room, becomes superintendent of the Rose Room; Victor Canuto, assistant maitre d’hotel, becomes assistant to Haeberli; F. M. Sanderock, captain, private stand, becomes superintendent of room service; A. Bach, captain in the Palm Court, becomes superintendent of the Palm Court, and Julius Janetsky, captain in the grill, becomes superintendent of the grill.
PINK TEA IN BAR “Cocktail Route” Days Replaced by Epoch in Palace Hotel History. NEW OASIS FOUND.
Shades of —well, almost any one of the millionaires of the days of ‘49 will do—draw nigh and shudder. Prohibition has many things to be responsible for, but here is the most diabolical yet. Next Monday afternoon Halsey E. Manwaring of the Palace Hotel proposes to stage a "pink tea” in the old Palace barroom, sacred to the memories of days that were real days—the days of the "cocktail route.” The tea affair is to be for the one afternoon only, yet, nevertheless, tea will be served the fair daughters of the city in the Palace barroom unless a general “strike” on the part of the old habitues of the Palace bar takes place. The Palace bar, known in the early days of California as the one spot in the city where, sooner or later, every big business proposition was brought for consummation, the one and only place of this kind where a real society tea could be staged. The old Palace bar was more of a club than a bar in those days, and to be well known in these sacred precincts was to be assured of social distinction. Now all this is changed. The days of old, the days of gold and the days of the bouquet of the vine are gone, and even the memories are to be taken away from the fast-fading coterie of goodfellows who followed the “cocktail route” to the Palace bar. The tea in the Palace bar Monday is being arranged as a sort of introduction for the Ambassador Royal Marimba Band, which is coming to the Palace for the holiday season to play in the Rose Room for the dansants. The tea will be a sort of appetizer for the opening program Monday night.
December 16th, 1919: Linnard Control Of Palace and Fairmont Hinges Upon Meeting. Whether D. M. Linnard will continue in the executive management of the Palace and Fairmont Hotels for the full year his agreement is said to call for, will be determined at a conference here this afternoon or tomorrow between Linnard and owners of the two hotels. Linnard's action yesterday in disposing of his managerial interests In the Huntington, Maryland and Green hotels in Pasadena to a syndicate headed by J. B. Coulston, vice president of the former Linnard chain of hotels, is scheduled to be followed by similar action in regard to the Fairmont and Palace. It has been no secret for months that the Sharon estate wants to regain the management of the Palace Hotel, which the Sharon heirs own. Frank G. Drum, president of the Palace Hotel Company, said today no announcement could be made until after the conference with Linnard. If the Sharons do regain the hotel, Halsey E. Manwaring, resident manager, will be retained, it was said. Samuel F. B. Morse of Del Monte heads a group of capitalists who are trying to buy the Fairmont.
December 18th, 1919: D. M. Linnard, master hotel manager, today said he is “the happiest man in the world.” At the Fairmont, the last hotel under Linnard's control, the Palace Hotel yesterday having been taken over by the Sharon interests of which Frank G. Drum is president, Linnard said he was happy because now he can spend “more than half” his time in San Francisco.
January 17th, 1920: REAL ESTATE REVIEW
WHERE THE PALACE NOW STANDS.
This is the site of the Palace Hotel as it appeared in 1856 in the days when the pioneers of California were paving the way for the present glories of the “Path of Gold.” San Francisco’s growth has been so rapid that “old timers” can still be found remember Market Street as depicted here.
January 31st, 1920: Ignacio Mott noted as Assistant Manager of the Palace Hotel.
March 20th, 1920: Mentions Colonial and Italian rooms in the Palace Hotel for dances.
April 30th, 1920: J. W. Sheppard noted as assistant manager of the Palace Hotel.
May 7th, 1920: At right are pictured Charles Seiger, director of the Palace Hotel Rose Room Orchestra, and members of the noted company of jazz exponents.
May 24th, 1920: They were on their honeymoon. He carried a wicker suitcase to which little white ribbons were tied. She wore a traveling suit such as brides have worn since honeymoons were invented. Every time she nodded her pretty head, rice dropped from the petals of the flowers on her hat. Blushingly he edged up to the desk at the Palace Hotel "I-er-ah, rather we, want to get a room,” he stammered. "What will a room cost here?” The clerk briskly told him he had some rooms left for as low as $6 a day. The young husband turned a shade pinker, if possible. "Guess we can’t stop here, Mabel,” he said to the pretty little woman. "More’n we should pay." “I’m sorry," said Mabel. “For I did want to stay at the Palace on our trip." Halsey E. Manwaring, manager of the Palace, overheard the conversation. He stepped up to the young husband and laying a friendly hand on his shoulder, made him a wedding present. “We’ve got a big suite on the second floor that won’t be occupied until tomorrow,” he said. "The Palace would be pleased to have you and your wife occupy that as the guests of the hotel.” And the happy little bride had her wish after all. She and her husband occupied a suite of rooms that a big railroad magnate today is paying $75 a day for.
June 21st, 1920: MCDONNELL OPENS PALACE HOTEL OFFICE. McDonnell & Co. opened its handsome new brokerage offices in the Palace Hotel comer at New Montgomery and Market Streets formerly occupied by the Southern Pacific and one of the best known locations in the city. The offices, which are finished in mahogany, are the most elaborately equipped broker’s suite west of Chicago.
July 30th, 1920: Sheppard Promoted At Palace Hotel. W. J. Sheppard, office manager of the Palace Hotel, was promoted today by Manager Halsey E. Manwaring to assistant manager of the Palace. Sheppard will be in charge of the main floor during his hours on duty. His promotion carries with it a substantial increase in salary. "Eddie’’ Roberts, confidential secretary to Manwaring, also was promoted today. He becomes office manager, succeeding Sheppard. Hobart Handy, for three years chief auditor of the Palace, tendered his resignation today and will leave within a few days for New York, where he will enter the employ of the L. M. Boomer hotels as an auditor. Willard N. Rose, who has been assistant auditor, will succeed Handy as chief auditor.
January 22nd, 1921: ‘Long Farewell’ Spoken as Palace Bar Expires. The Palace Hotel bar succumbed last night, to be recreated today as a business men's lunch room. In the nearly 70 years that there has been a Palace Hotel, in its various homes, more men of note had touched glasses there probably than in any other drinking room in the land; more noted Californians dropped in day by day than anywhere else in town. It’s gone now. The bar itself —the Maxfield Parrish “Pied Piper"— the $3500 silver draining board —remain, but they are monuments only, and to a dead past. “Gus” Ranzulo, head barkeep for a half dozen years, will not be behind the mahogany. He succeeded Sid Melourne, now at Gobey's. Herman Riedelb, wine steward for twenty-one years, will not be needed—at least in that capacity. Major Sven Christenson — he holds that title now in the Q. M. C. R , United States Army—opened the present bar, and virtually designed it. By an odd coincidence, he also dropped in just in time to help close it.
June 28th, 1921: Victor Geoffrion, new director of Rose Room orchestra at Palace Hotel.
August 12th, 1921: John Maddrill, Superintendent of the Palace Hotel Printing Dept.
September 23rd, 1921: Asst. Manager L. Van Order is now in the same role at the Pennsylvania Hotel. He was at the Palace for 2 years.
November 18th, 1921: CHEF EMIL BURGERMEISTER of the Palace. Palace Hotel’s Famous Professor of Good Eats Gives Call Readers' Menu for Thanksgiving Feast. The Call asked Chef Emil Burgermeister of the Palace Hotel to fix up a menu for Call readers and he fixed one. Listen: Tomato Surprise, Roast Turkey With Dressing, Cranberry Sauce, Sweet Potatoes, Southern Baked Squash, Plum Pudding, Nuts, Coffee, Raisins. The remainder of the article tells how to prepare each.
November 24th, 1921: Palace Employes Get Turkey Dinner. Halsey E. Manwaring manager of the Palace Hotel, today gave a typical Thanksgiving turkey dinner to employes of the Palace. Souvenir menus were presented to employes in the hotel's help dining room, and the tables were decorated with flowers and baskets of fruit and nuts. The menu included cream of tomatoes, fried sanddabs, boiled potatoes, roast California turkey with gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, Clear Lake string beans, lettuce salad, mince pie, fruit, nuts, raisins and coffee.
November 29th, 1921: Palace Rose Room To Be Reopened on Thursday Night. The Rose Room of the Palace Hotel, which has been closed for several weeks, during which extensive alterations and entirely new decorations have been made, will be formally reopened Thursday night. Ray Tellter's orchestra of jazz artists will provide the music for the dancing. Tellter and his players are regarded as one of the best dance orchestras in the country. They made a great hit recently in concert at the California Theater. The orchestra will henceforth be called the Rose Room orchestra. Entertainment will be a feature of the new Rose Room bowl. Only acts of the highest order will be engaged, according to Halsey E. Manwaring. manager of the Palace.
February 18th, 1922: Charles Percy Smith, former manager of the Palace Hotel, was found dead today in his London apartment, a bullet in his head, apparently self-inflicted, according to International News Service, advices received here. It was stated that Smith had feared approaching blindness. Smith was brought here from England in 1889 to manage the Palace Hotel. He remained until 1893, when he returned to London. He was known here as Captain Smith. Old employes of the Palace remember that he always wore a huge chrysanthemum in his coat.
April 20th, 1922: Funeral plans were underway today for Harry C. Hervey. 45, representative of the Samarkland Hotel at Santa Barbara, who committed suicide in his room at the Palace Hotel here yesterday. Ill health and despondency over financial reverses were blamed for his suicide.
July 26th, 1922: BAY DEATH OF PALACE MANAGER'S WIFE, FEAR. Believed to have committed suicide by leaping from the steamer Monticello, the body of Mrs. Yvonne Manwaring, wife of Halsey E. Manwaring, manager of the Palace Hotel, was sought in the waters of the bay today by the police patrol boat. Mrs. Manwaring, who had been ill and melancholy, slipped from the hotel last night without being noticed. She took the 8 o'clock boat for Vallejo. She was not among the passengers when the Monticello arrived at Vallejo. Later her hat, purse and rosary were found on the deck. Her identity was established through cards and other articles found in the purse. Friends believe she jumped into the bay. The Manwarings had been married twenty-three years. Mrs. Manwaring had been ill for a long time. She was 41 years old. Manwaring had not been told today of the finding of his wife's effects. Mrs. Manwaring was prominent socially. Her husband is one of the best-known hotel men in the United States.
October 3rd, 1922: Wealthy Hat Dealer Dies in S. F. Hotel. George Kerlinger, 52, wealthy hat merchant, widely known on the Pacific Coast, died today at the Palace Hotel from an attack of acute indigestion. Kerlinger was the owner of hat stores in Seattle and Spokane and Western representative of a Philadelphia hat company. Kerlinger lived at the Palace Hotel since coming to this city eight years ago from Baltimore. He is survived by three adult sons, all living in the East.
October 14th, 1922: Halsey E. Manwaring, manager of the Palace Hotel, which has reached forty seventh year of existence. (Photo below).
October 18th, 1922: BIG CROWD SEES MOVIE IN MAKING. An interested throng of spectators crowded about the New Montgomery Street entrance of the Palace Hotel for two hours last night while actors, director, cameraman and a score of assistants made the first of a series of scenes to be “shot” here for “Her Price," the first feature picture of the Belasco Productions. The action of the scenes made last night and which will be concluded tonight is laid, as now written, in San Francisco, with the Palace Hotel as the center point. The particular incidents transpire, actually in the story and as they will be seen on the screen in the completed picture, at the entrance, in the lobby and in the rose room bowl of the Palace. The action calls for a society atmosphere, which will be provided by San Francisco society people, who will be at the tables and on the dance floor of the rose room bowl tonight. This will give a realism to the scenes seldom found in the movies, particularly since the familiar figure of “Hughie,” for so many years footman at the Palace, will be seen at his regular duties directing the taxies to their position. Members of the company taking part in the scenes last night were Miriam Cooper and Forest Stanley, leads; Richard Tucker, the "heavy,” a score of extras, and “Hughie.”
Forest Stanley (top) and Miriam Cooper, leads, and Dallas M. Fitzgerald, director of the Belasco Motion Picture Company, which is making scenes in San Francisco.
October 27th, 1922: Mrs. W. D. Harris, known to the stage as Marguerite Calvert, dancer and singer, committed suicide early today in her apartment at the Palace Hotel. The police are investigating conflicting stories as to the events immediately preceding her death.
November 2nd, 1922: Palace Chef Quits; Served 30 Years. After thirty years’ service as maitre d'hotel of the Palace Hotel, Otto Haberli, one of the best-known hotel men of California, was retired today from active service. Haberli was retired on a pension from the Sharon estate and Palace Hotel Company. In his thirty years’ service he never took a tip. Religious scruples prevented him from accepting gratuities, he said. Haberli’s successor is Victor Reiter, formerly connected with the Palace Hotel.
February 22nd, 1923: Count Uya Tolstoy, son of Leo Tolstoy, is at the Palace Hotel.
July 22nd, 1923: Waitresses at the Palace. The Palace Hotel has installed waitresses. This was done from choice some time ago by some of the hotels that do not class with the Palace, but it has been done in this instance from necessity. It is explained that men are preferable, but are not to be had at this time of year on account of their hegira to summer resorts, where wages are higher for the season and the tips more liberal. Besides, there Is a scarcity of this class of help. Those who are looked to for information are unable to say whether the change is likely to be permanent. They represent, however, that the ranks of high-class men waiters are not replenished as they used to be, by immigration, while the American born are disinclined to engage in this line of work. The tendency is a permanent shortage, while there are always plenty of waitresses, especially for high-class positions.
July 31st, 1923: WITH PRESIDENT HARDING, PALACE HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO, July 31. Belief that the statement promised by physicians attending President Harding for about 4 p. m. today may show the crisis in the President's illness passing or passed was gradually growing at noon today. The morning passed with only optimistic reports coming officially and unofficially from the sick room.
August 1st, 1923: There is a cheerful atmosphere on the eighth floor of the Palace Hotel today as one bulletin after another testifies to the fact that the President's condition is improving. Doctors and nurses are waylaid by newspaper men and others as they leave the rooms of the distinguished patient, and are found willing to give satisfactory assurance that all is well. Five rooms entirely filled with flowers and fruit of the most exquisite California Hue and fragrance testify mutely to the fact that Warren G. Harding occupies a foremost place in the hearts of the people of this commonwealth.
August 3rd, 1923: President Harding Dies at the Palace Hotel. At 9 o'clock the President's flag, which usually files 24 hours a day, was hauled down from the Palace Hotel and an American flag run up at half-mast. Flags all over the city were put-up at half-mast. Thousands of people assembled in the street outside the hotel, walking along up and down uncertainty, watching the dim lights in the presidential suite on the eighth floor. The news of the President's House apartments, to the thousands of Americans who visit there each year, and the thousands of others who have attended the official receptions of the presidents. Thousands of Americans will remember the great crystal chandelier with its myriads of cut glass pieces and electric, bulbs and the rich but somberly-decorated walls, with the portraits of former presidents looking down upon them. At the capitol the catafalque will in his party and others who had come to the city to greet him were being entertained by prominent Californians.
May 25th, 1924: Reference to the Colonial Ballroom at the Palace Hotel.
August 4th, 1924: A mention of the Palace Hotel Company, which I did not believe was still around at this point.
February 26th, 1925: Famous Palace Hotel barber, “Pop” Bernhard, passed away in his sleep. He was with the Palace since 1875, for 50 years. He no doubt told funny stories to Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding, and made 'em listen. If they failed to appreciate the barber shop humor they got a hotter towel or a quick twist of the head for not laughing. Such is the barber's power and position. "Pop" may have withheld telling funny stories to John L. Sullivan, one of his patrons, for fear of consequences, but we doubt if he overlooked giving Enrico Caruso a long drawn out massage on that rotund face of his.
April 6th, 1925: Mention of luncheon in the Blue Room of the Palace Hotel.
April 13th, 1925:
April 15th, 1925: PROMINENT KERN CO. MAN DIES IN CITY. SAN FRANCISCO. Henry A. Gastro, a prominent landowner and banker of Kern County, died at the Palace Hotel here today, where he had been visiting his daughter, Mrs. Max Koshland. Gastro is a former president of the National Livestock Association and head of the California State Fair Association for many years. He was 75 years of age.
August 18th, 1925: Patrons Carry Food In S. F. Waiters' Strike. Buffet luncheon "a la cafeteria” was an innovation introduced today at the Palace Hotel when 150 waiters walked out fifteen minutes before the noon hour. The thousand or more guests who participated in the game of juggling one's own tray enjoyed the novelty and declared it was a big lark. The walkout at the Palace was coincident with a walkout at the St. Francis and was the result of the sudden breaking off of wage increase negotiations between the members of Waiters Union Local, No. 0, and the management of the two hotels.
*Newspaper articles of mention begin drastically dropping off in the 1920s. Most articles have vague information about banquets and concerts.
January 23rd, 1926: William E. Sharon, Palace Hotel Owner, Dies.
February 2nd, 1926: The Sharon Estate Company, which owns the Palace Hotel, has decided to add two stories to the building at a cost of $300.000.
February 13th, 1926: BANK TELLER DIES AFTER MAKING SPEECH SAN FRANCISCO. Charles Henry Smith, a teller in the Anglo-London and Paris Bank, died from a sudden heart attack in the Palace Hotel last night while attending a banquet of alumni of the Lincoln Grammar School. Smith had just spoken to one of his lifetime friends while walking to the banquet hall, where a hundred guests were assembling for a dinner in honor of the memory of Abraham Lincoln, when, unnoticed, he stepped into a vacant room adjoining. He was found dead on a sofa fifteen minutes later by a hotel employe. Coroner's deputies, on examination, said that death was due to a severe heart attack. Smith was 67 years of age and was born in Marysville.
May 22nd, 1926: A man who had signed the hotel register as "N. O. Body," New York, shot and killed himself in the Palace Hotel here last night or today, after writing two rambling letters to Edward W. Browning, wealthy real estate man of New York and his wife, "Peaches" Heenan Browning, in which he willed them all his money and property. He left nothing to identify himself and no directions as to how the money or property could be obtained. The man was small, swarthy looking, and registered at the hotel last night and went at once to his room. His body was found today reclining on the bed with a bullet hole in the head and a pistol nearby.
October 22nd, 1926: Earthquake Startles San Francisco Region. Windows Broken in Palace Hotel and Emporium. The American National Bank building and the Merchants' Exchange building, which stand close together, were moved four inches by the temblor, while the Market Street wall of the Palace Hotel was cracked and eight plate glass windows on that street were-broken. Plaster fell from the ceilings and small cracks appeared on the lobby floor.
November 5th, 1926: Mrs. Amelia Ostroski died a week ago at the Palace Hotel.
November 6th, 1926: The estate of Walter D. Mansfield, formerly of Napa, who died recently at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, is valued at $200,000.
April 2nd, 1927: Harry Annan, who has been manager of Hotel Rafael for the past three years, has accepted of the position of Leavington Hotel, Oakland, and he assumed his new duties last week. He went from the position of assistant manager of Palace Hotel, San Francisco, to take charge of Hotel Rafael upon the reopening of the latter, after it had been closed for some years.
English Room in the Palace mentioned.
April 8th, 1927: Eli T. Sheppard, who is 85 and lives at 5855 Chabot Road had an article written about the rare artifacts he’s accumulated during his life. One memento was the chair used by Grant at a banquet at the original Palace Hotel.
May 4th, 1927: Big Hotel Is Among Those Favoring Gas. The kitchen of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco is the service center for nine dining-rooms on the main floor and 12 dining-rooms on the second floor. It prepares meals for 52 service clubs and kindred organizations weekly, as well as caring for the hundreds of patrons who register daily. The total number of meals served from this great kitchen are 1,642,500. This is a practical illustration of the economy and efficiency of gas as fuel, for if there were a better medium for supplying heat than gas, the Palace Hotel would have it. The kitchen of a hotel differs from the kitchen in the average home in this respect that in catering to the taste of the multitudes a great variety of dishes must be prepared and prepared to serve in the shortest space of time. The reason that while guests may be particular and more or less arbitrary in their desires, the handling of service clubs is a matter of time, for the members of service clubs are busy business men. They attend their weekly luncheons, expecting not only to secure a palatable meal, but also to listen to speakers of national note, and the meal must not only be served quickly and efficiently, but must be out of the way so that the speaker may have his 30-odd minutes undisturbed, by the noise of dishes. The Palace Hotel is but one of the great institutions that use gas as fuel.
August 10th, 1927: JOHN E. SEXTON, railroad builder and mining man, familiar with many in high positions in the political and financial world, died yesterday in his rooms in the Palace Hotel, San Francisco.
September 17, 1927: 2,500 San Franciscans crowded into the Palace Hotel’s Palm Court to listen to Col. Charles Lindbergh discuss the need for airport development across the country.
November 19th, 1927: The first mention I’ve found of the Green Goddess salad dressing from the Palace Hotel in a recipe section: Green Goddess Salad Dressing (Palace Hotel). One cup mayonnaise, thinned with French dressing. Mix with a little chopped tarragon, parsley, chives, 1 young onion, 4 filets of anchovies, chopped. Mix well and add about one-half teaspoonful garlic oil. Chef - Philip Roemer.
December 24th, 1927: THIRTY-FIVE YEARS OF SERVICE REWARDED. In recognition of thirty-five years of continuous public service in the employ of The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, T. J. Corcoran, foreman in the construction department, has been awarded a five-starred, gold service emblem by the company. The first star represents fifteen years of service and each additional star five years. Corcoran installed the first private branch exchange telephone switchboard in the old Palace Hotel, in 1896; and has been engaged in telephone work in this city since 1892.
January 17th, 1928: Harry Annan returns to the Palace Hotel as Assistant Manager.
February 13th, 1928: Police began an investigation today of the mystery "death leap" of Charles H. Say, Spokane Insurance man, who plunged from his fourth story room at the Palace Hotel during a party yesterday morning.
February 25th, 1928: The bay cities' first automobile salon opened at noon today at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and continues for one week, the hours being from noon to 11 p.m. each day.
April 18th, 1928: In an article about the anniversary of the earthquake and fires, it is noted that “At the Palace Hotel, the bartender gave away champagne he could not save and sliced turkey sandwiches for the asking. The city was burning.”
August 20th, 1928: Mary O’Kane dies at the Palace Hotel.
October 26th, 1928: Harry Annan, former manager of the Hotel San Rafael, one of the best known hotel men on the Pacific Coast, with friends in this city, died early Thursday morning In New Orleans, a victim of pneumonia, following an attack of influenza. For six months Annan has been assistant manager of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, and was making a tour of the large hotels in the east when stricken. Since his appointment as assistant manager at the San Francisco hotel, Annan had made his home in San Rafael. Mrs. Annan, the widow, unaware of the death of her husband, left Thursday for New Orleans.
May 22nd, 1929: James A. Moore died suddenly in his suite at the Palace Hotel, S.F.
June 12th & 26th, 1929: Ads for the Palace Hotel which appear almost daily in papers.
February 13th, 1930: Conference at the Palace of engineers and specialists to study final designs for Golden Gate bridge construction.
April 30th, 1930: A gas explosion was reported in the cellar of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. No other details are available.
May 17th, 1930: The paint-up, clean-up, fix-up campaign is making splendid progress. San Francisco’s world-wide known hostelry, the Palace Hotel, was the first to respond to the urge of the campaign. This magnificent structure, which covers a square block, and which is known throughout the world for its splendid accommodations, immediately started a large crew of painters on the work of cleaning its exterior. The result of the efforts of the painters has been like magic. The coating of grime, dust and dirt, which had accumulated for the past few years on its brick and terracotta front, was quickly washed away. The upper terracotta ornamentation was given a coat of paint. What a magical transformation! This great structure now looks like a new building and seems to challenge the neighborhood buildings to paint up and clean up also.
September 25th, 1930: The widow of former Palace Hotel manager John C. Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth, died yesterday. She was 74.
December 29th, 1930: Paul Oesting, who once owned a drug store in the old Palace Hotel, died December 8th at 75 years of age.
No articles of note this year.
February 9th, 1932: C.Y. Wilmarth died Friday in his room in the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, where he was assistant manager.
April 26th, 1933: Mention of a “Sharon Room” at the Palace Hotel.
June 7th, 1933: Palace Hotel Lost $321,957 Last Year. The Palace Hotel of San Francisco reports a loss for 1932 of $321,957 after all charges. The report has been issued in connection with the plan submitted to the holders of its $2,500,000 5 per cent bonds for deferment of interest until business improves.
June 26th, 1933: Manwaring of Palace Hotel Dead. A later article stated it was a heart attack.
July 26th, 1933: Governors assembled at the Palace Hotel in their 25th annual conference. Noted as a gala “gold plate” banquet, likely using the hotel’s Gold Service.
August 19th, 1933: Archibald H. Price To Manage Palace. Archibald H. Price is the new manager of the Palace Hotel, it was announced today by the board of directors. For 14 years, Price was purser of the Royal Mall Steam Packet Company of London. For four years he was in South America as managing director of an English merchandising firm. Later, returning to this country, he was connected with banks here and in Chicago. Price is honorary president of the Association of American Bank Travel Bureaus, which he organized. In 1928 he was decorated by the King of Italy with the order of Cavalier of the Royal Order in recognition of his work as honorary secretary of the Italy-American Society.
October 15th, 1933: California and Sharon Rooms mentioned in the Palace Hotel.
December 29th, 1933: George Hoffmann noted as pastry chef, Palace Hotel.
July 4th, 1934: Widow Manwaring remarries to Hugh Mackenzie.
July 17th, 1934: H.B. Klingensmith noted as assistant manager of Palace Hotel.
September 1st, 1934: Ad:
December 20th, 1934: Pied Piper Comes Out Of Exile With Return Of Liquor. The Pied Piper, his flutes piping a merry tune, came back from Elba today to adorn once more the bar of the Palace Hotel. The Piper, central figure of a famous painting by Maxfield Parrish, was exiled in 1920 when prohibition closed the bar at which kings, presidents and lesser folks had stood. He saw strange things in his exile, for he was placed in the hotel “Gold Room” where a new generation frolicked to the jazz tunes and bathtub gin of the post-war era. Few of the dancers paused to notice the lonely figure looking down at them in apparent reproof of their secretive draughts of forbidden beverages. But today he came back home. Law exiled him and law brought him back. With appropriate ceremonies the painting was restored to the bar room which today, for the first time since the prohibition amendment became effective, was permitted to serve hard liquor by the drink. The return signalized the effective date of California's new liquor control law, which makes legal what many persons and a number of places have been doing openly and unrestricted since prohibition repeal last December. The principal provision of the new law permits hotels, restaurants and other “bonafide eating places” to serve liquor with or without meals. Saloons are outlawed. Bars are permitted only where they are used for the primary purpose of serving food and then they must be equipped with stools. None may sell packaged liquor on the same premises where liquor is served by the drink. Drinks may be poured at the table in eating places, where before it was illegal to drink or bring anything stronger than beer or wines. A constitutional amendment approved last November provided the new system and brought back to the old familiar stand the Pied Piper whose companion piece is the painting of King Cole Parrish did for the Knickerbocker Hotel bar in New York.
February 24th, 1935: The Chamber Opera Group will hold its first social function of the season with the opening of the new cocktail lounge at the Palace Hotel, at which the members will act as hosts the first two opening days, Monday and Tuesday, March 1 and 2. On Tuesday, March 2, the group will not only act as hosts in the cocktail lounge during the afternoon, but will assume the same duties that evening at the performance of "The Girl of the Golden West." "Happy Valley," the name given the cocktail room, is the term applied to the section where the Palace Hotel is now located. The room will be done in the old California style of architecture, with heavy furniture, murals of early California characters. Large pictures of Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree in heavy gilt edged frames such as were in keeping with the time of those famous women, will adorn the paneled walls. The old swinging saloon doors will be in vogue again in this new "cocktail rendezvous."
June 24th, 1935: NOTED BRIDGE ENGINEER DIES. Charles F. Swigert will not take part in the dedicatory exercises that mark the completion of the San Francisco-Oakland and Golden Gate bridges, whose construction he largely directed. The 71-year-old Portland, Ore., engineer died in his sleep. Two associates, Philip Hart, vice-president of the Pacific Bridge Company, and Charles A. Shea, president of the J. F. Shea Company, found his body when they entered his room at the Palace Hotel. For 54 years,- Swigert had been active in bridge building work on the Pacific Coast. He was president of the Pacific Bridge Company and the Transbay Construct Company, builders of the piers for the Golden Gate and San Francisco Oakland bay bridges. The huge caisson supporting the west tower of the bay bridge is named after him.
January 16th, 1936: Father Trinchieri was at Mayor Rossi’s inaugural celebration at the Palace Hotel when he fell over dead of a heart ailment just as the dinner had ended.
October 9th, 1936: Palace Hotel's New Rose Room Bowl. San Francisco’s smart set signified their interest in the Palace Hotel's new Rose Room Bowl by entertaining at dinner and dancing at the opening last night. Structurally of glass, the bowl represents an architect’s vision of a new trend in construction. Set in a distinguished atmosphere, the new bowl is like a crystal terrace reflecting a myriad of soft lights. Bernie Cummins and his orchestra keep things at top “speed.”
May 1st, 1937: Palace Hotel workers went on strike.
May 5th, 1937: Hay for Barn Dance Held Fire Hazard. Hay hauled to the Palace Hotel for Saturday night's "barn dance" must be removed because it constitutes fire menace, Fire Chief Charles J. Brennan ruled today. It was later canceled due to the strike.
June 4th, 1937: PICTURESQUE PROMOTER SUICIDE REASON SOUGHT. Detectives, passing back and forth through strike picket lines around a famous hotel, sought a reason today for the violent death of Colonel J. J. Munsey, 82, picturesque mining promoter and Indian fighter. A police inspector, Alvin Torassa, said Munsey had committed suicide in the strikebound Palace Hotel. There was a bullet wound in the head, and on the floor was a .32 pistol.
August 2nd, 1937: Hotel strike ends and the front doors of the Palace Hotel have been thrown wide open again.
January 10th, 1938: Philipp Roemer, 55, chef of the Palace Hotel for 23 years, died after a brief illness at his home.
January 11th, 1938: S. F. Hotel Man to Head Beaulieu Co. Beaulieu Vineyards, north of here, will be under the head of Lorenzo M. Fabrini, it was learned here through dispatches late today from San Francisco. Fabrini, assistant manager of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, resigned his position today to take over the managership of the Rutherford establishment.
June 2nd, 1938: Historic Relics Are Displayed By California Historic Groups. …The solid ivory poker chips were made especially for the gold bonanza kings who frequented the Palace Hotel. Each chip represented $1,000 and each player started the game with $75,000 worth. Among the players were Fred Sharon, Louis Sloss, William Ralston and John Livingston.
September 17th, 1938: NEW HOME FOR KSFO. Remarkable Radio Station on Roof of Palace Hotel. KSFO, the Columbia Broadcasting System's station in San Francisco, has moved into new headquarters —a two-story steel and concrete building on the roof of the south wing of the Palace Hotel. Erected at a cost of about $250,000, the establishment is a remarkable radio plant. The first floor contains twenty-six offices and seven broadcasting studios; on the second are the chief engineer’s quarters, an electrical workshop, sponsors’ galleries and rest rooms. An amazing feature of the new station is that each studio is floating—a room within a room. The floor, ceiling and walls of the inner structure are six inches from those of the outer, held in place by steel springs. This construction provides the best conceivable isolation from outside noises. Additional guarantees against alien sounds are lead-lined doors that weigh 600 pounds apiece and two-inch pads of fibre glass in the walls and ceilings. The master control room has a thousand and one buttons, switches and regulating devices. From his dispatching desk the operator looks down into four of the seven studios and with the flip of a key directs a show over the entire Columbia network. By pressing another he can simultaneously broadcast and record a performance. Electricity not only runs the broadcasting equipment in KSFO’s new home, but has many other roles. It operates an air conditioning system, several water coolers, teletype machines and electric typewriters. The men’s washrooms have outlets for electric razors.
October 27th, 1938: Taylor New Manager Of S.F. Palace Hotel. William P. Taylor Jr., was named manager of San Francisco's Palace Hotel today, succeeding Archibald Price, who resigned 10 days ago. Taylor comes to San Francisco from the National Hotel in Havana, Cuba. He has managed hotels in Los Angeles, Seattle and Beverly Hills. He was an assistant manager at the Palace from 1910 to 1917.
February 7th, 1939: Herman Steger, who was credited with manufacturing the original hardware in the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, was struck and killed by an automobile at 93.
May 10th, 1939: Someone stole 20 bales of hay from the Barn Dance at the Palace Hotel. Police detectives are still investigating.
September 8t, 1939: Tony Ranzulo noted at the bar manager of the Pied Piper in the Palace Hotel.
September 17th, 1939: Following the publication here of a story concerning Emma Nevada and the message sent her by E. Clampus Vitus, I am reminded that the forthcoming book of Oscar Lewis and Carroll D. Hall, "Bonanza Inn" will devote considerable space to the great singer. "Bonanza Inn" is an account of the famous old Palace Hotel of San Francisco and its celebrated guests. It covers the period from 1875 to 1906. Kings, emperors, actors, opera stars and "all sorts of people" stayed at the Palace and made it impressive, picturesque and lively. It was, as much as anything, the symbol of the pre-fire city. Publication date is set for December 1st.
September 29th, 1939: Berkeleyan Drops Dead in S.F. Hotel. Robert J. Long, 70, of Berkeley, president of a San Francisco lumber firm, dropped dead today while entering a brokage office in the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. Long was pronounced dead upon arrival at Harbor Emergency Hospital.
February 8th, 1940:
April 20th, 1940: Will P. Taylor has resigned as manager of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, it was announced today by the hotel's board of directors. His resignation leaves the management in the active control of Mrs. William B. Johnston, a member of the Sharon family long connected with the business. Taylor plans to go into business for himself, he said.
** Oddly enough, I cannot find any references as to when Edmund A. Rieder started his role as manager. The earliest mention of him as the Palace manager was August 28th, 1941.
December 6th, 1940: Clark Mathews mentioned as assistant manager of the Palace Hotel.
June 12th, 1941: Noted that the Sharon Estate still owns the Palace Hotel.
October 24th, 1941: Noted that the Presidential Suite at the Palace Hotel costs $25.00 a day to stay in.
December 16th, 1941: Injuries suffered December 4th in a traffic accident, yesterday claimed the life of Archibald H. Price, 87, former managing director of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
April 13th, 1942: KSFO Moves to Top o’ Nob Hill. After four years, KSFO vacates its studios at the Palace Hotel this weekend to move into temporary quarters on the 17th floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel, atop San Francisco’s famed Nob Hill, pending completion of its permanent studios at the same location.
April 29th, 1942: Monte Saber, who supplied cigars and cigarettes to presidents and princes, and hundreds of other visiting celebrities during his 27 years as manager of the Palace Hotel tobacco stand, died suddenly today while chatting with a fellow employee. A heart ailment was blamed.
March 27th, 1943: Madam Chiang Kai-shek visits the Palace Hotel.
June 1st, 1944: In a “memories” section: One hundred cases of champagne were opened at the Palace Hotel reception when General Grant visited San Francisco in 1879.
July 5th, 1944: The kitchens of San Francisco's Palace Hotel can feed 5,000 persons at a time.
August 25th, 1944: Palace Hotel Sued On OPA Charges. The historic Palace Hotel was named in an OPA injunction suit today. OPA Enforcement Attorney Thomas C. Ryan said the Palace had disregarded warnings and was charging 20 to 50 per cent over ceiling prices on certain dishes.
November 1st, 1944: PALACE HOTEL GETS COURT BAN AGAINST FOOD OVERCHARGE. The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. was permanently enjoined by Federal Judge Louts E. Goodman yesterday, from, overcharge on various items on its menu. In the first of similar complaints filed against several San Francisco hotels to be brought to trial, attorneys for both the hotel and the court will confer and recommend prices that should be charged in special services.
November 3rd, 1945: CONTRACTS AWARDED. Taylor & Goricke, 55 New Montgomery St., San Francisco, contract for interior remodel of Palace Hotel, San Francisco. Cost $5,000.
December 24th, 1945: Bandits Rob S.F. Jeweler of $51,000. Two armed men held up a jewelry store in the Palace Hotel building today and escaped into the throng of Christmas shoppers on Market Street with $1,500 in cash and an estimated $50,000 worth of rings and gems.
July 23rd, 1947: P.O. Peterson died at the Palace Hotel while attending a conference with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He collapsed and died while attending one of the meetings in the doorway to a conference room.
September 17th, 1947: Barber Shop in Famed Palace Hotel S.F. Moves and Recalls Past.
The historic Palace Hotel barber shop, where notables such as President U.S. Grant, Enrico Caruso, John L. Sullivan, and John Drew have had their locks clipped, has moves across the street. The establishment, now known as “Original Palace Barber Shop” has taken with it all the historic flavor along with the barbers, manicurists, bootblacks, and shiny chairs in which have sat presidents, kings, and celebrities galore. The word “hotel” has been dropped from the name, for the change of location came to escape a condition of several years during which the hotel kept the shop owners dangling with 60-day leases. The hotel, in turn, is now operating its own barber shop in the old location.
George Bernhard opened the original shop in 1877 and shortly thereafter, President Grant was a customer. Theodore Roosevelt and Warren G. Harding were two other presidents who had their hair cut there. Hawaiian bellies waved tapa cloth as King Kalakaua of the islands squirmed while the hand clippers of the old days plowed up his royal neck. Among fighters who relaxed were James J. Corbett, Jim Jefferies and Battling Nelson. Others under towels in the famous shop notables included John Barrymore, Sir Henry Irving, and Lord Talbot Clifton.
George M. Bernhard, son of the founder, bequeathed the shop last year to his head barber, Charlie Ackerland, and the cashier, Hazel C. Bradford. Ackerland has been with the shop since it was rebuilt 38 years ago after the great San Francisco fire and earthquake of 1906. As the shop moved its equipment across the street, the last 17 personal shaving mugs - remaining relics of a collection that once numbered several hundred - went along. “Of all those mugs - owners of the mugs, I mean.” Ackerland said, “only one is still alive.”
September 30th, 1947: Suites at the Palace Hotel run from $14 to $30 a day.
No articles of note this year.
December 5th, 1949: LEAPS TO HER DEATH. A woman identified as the ex-wife of Bill Boni, Seattle newspaperman and former war correspondent, leaped to her death yesterday from the eighth floor of San Francisco's Palace Hotel. Police and the coroner's office made a check leading to her identification as Mrs. Whitley Boni, about 27. Boni said in Seattle that the victim's description fitted that of his former wife. They were divorced in 1945, he said. The woman, who was not a guest at the hotel, climbed through a corridor window and over a protective railing to plunge to the sidewalk on Annie Street, south of Market Street. Her purse, which contained no identification or money, was found on the window ledge. A notebook in a pocket of her clothing contained the name of Boni and that of the Park Hotel, 325 Sutter Street. There, the desk clerk told police, Mrs. Boni had resided at the hotel for two years, but left in October. Police said Central Emergency Hospital attendants recognized the victim as a woman who appeared at the hospital earlier in the day. At her request, they related, she was given an injection to sooth her nerves. She left a suitcase of clothing at the hospital saying she was going to visit a friend at the Palace.
April 22nd, 1950: Nion Robert Tucker, 64, investment broker, socialite and one of the owners of the San Francisco Chronicle, died here today. Tucker, whose home was in Burlingame, Cal., had been ill for several months. Death came at his Palace Hotel suite, where he lived while on business In San Francisco.
July 29th, 1951: The Covered Wagon Ranch of Amos Elliott, beyond Healdsburg in the heart of wine country, has one bedroom that boasts furniture from the Palace Hotel Presidential Suite purchased years ago.
November 16th, 1951: The crystal chandelier from the Presidential Suite of San Francisco's Palace Hotel, under which Warren Harding died, is now the central lighting fixture of the upstairs bathroom in Lucius Beebe and Chuck Clegg's unbelievable Virginia City abode. Its co-fixtures include a barber chair, three slot machines, a portable bar, and a rack that holds a hundred magazines. Explains Lucius, "The bath was formerly a bedroom and we felt we had to fill it with something."
July 1st, 1952: Once-Famous Hotel Man Found Dead In Cabin At Yountville. Funeral services for Charles Stanley Sackett, one-time manager of the Vanderbilt Hotel In New York, and the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, will be held Thursday at 2:30 p. m. at the Simic Funeral Home in Calistoga. Mr. Sackett a resident of Napa County for several years, was found dead Sunday night in his cabin, a short distance north of Yountville. Born in Illinois 63 years ago, Mr. Sackett at one time was one of the outstanding hotelmen in the world before coming to San Francisco before the war. He had not only been manager of the Vanderbilt Hotel in New York, but had been connected with the Madison, Lombardi and Elyssee hotels there. He numbered among his acquaintances countless personages of this country and Europe. He was the original of "The Colonel", the chubby figure made famous by Peter Arnos cartoons. Mr. Sackett was at one time a member of the Veterans Home, first entering here in December, 1948, and coming back for stays of various lengths until a few months ago. He was found Sunday afternoon by Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Barber of 1436 I Street, friends of long standing. Mr. Sackett had been in the habit of either calling them or visiting with them on Saturday, and when he failed to appear or telephone they became worried and went to his cabin. There they found him dead, lying on the floor. Death apparently was due to a heart attack, according to Charles Burchell, coroner, who said that Mr. Sackett had been suffering from a heart condition for some time.
*Oddly enough, there is no mention of him anywhere as to when he was the manager of the Palace. I have one brochure with his name as the manager. Based on my research, he was likely manager between May 1st, 1940 and August 1st, 1941.
October 7th, 1952: S.F. Hotel Man Dies Suddenly. Charles C. Keach, 43, assistant manager of San Francisco's Palace Hotel, was pronounced dead by an ambulance steward last night a few minutes after he slipped and fell on a marble floor. The fall occurred in the apartment of Miss Virginia Pickering at 1767 Union Street in San Francisco, where he and Miss Pickering had been having a late snack of cold chicken. He got up from the table and started across the floor when suddenly he fell to the floor, Miss Pickering said. Hospital attendants said they learned from the resident nurse at the Palace that Keach had been under treatment for high blood pressure for several months, and that death might have been due to a stroke. They added that preliminary examination indicated death was not due to injuries suffered in the fall.
November 10th, 1952: USC FINALLY STOPPED COLD-BY S.F. POLICE. The University of Southern California was finally stopped cold Sunday by the San Francisco police. USC partisans celebrating their team's victory Saturday over Stanford attempted to overturn a cable car in front of the St. Francis Hotel. Police arrested James Bole, 18, of Long Beach. Fellow enthusiast Ivan Rose, 22, of Los Angeles, was also arrested, police said, when he instigated a rescue attempt to save Bole. After being charged with disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, they were freed on bail. Bole was also charged with battery. Celebrators also caused an estimated $500 damage at the Palace Hotel, Ray Eymard, assistant manager, reported. He said some of the visitors dropped potted plants down stairwells, ripped telephones and bulletin boards off the walls, shattered sand receptacles and tore down signs. One lobby chair was missing.
November 20th, 1952: Noted that the chef of the Palace Hotel is Roy Keyes.
December 30th, 1952: Ship Line Head Dies at Banquet. Rasmus Hansen, 69, president of the East Asiatic Steamship Company, a firm which he joined in Copenhagen in 1903, died of a heart attack at a Palace Hotel banquet in San Francisco last night.
March 9th, 1953: The late Eugene Gonsolin noted as the “Chef de Garde de Manger” at the Palace Hotel SF.
October 20th, 1953: Republicans hold a $100 a plate dinner party at the Palace Hotel. With inflation, the 2024 rate would be $1,182.00!
November 12th, 1953: Iles Brody author of the best-selling “Gone With the Windsors” died suddenly at the Palace Hotel yesterday apparently of natural causes. He was 54.
April 18th, 1954: Two pedestrians passing the old Palace Hotel as it started burning.
April 20th, 1954: Palace Hotel Offer Is Made. Hotel-man Conrad Hilton has made a $5,200,000 offer to buy famed Palace Hotel, it was reported here today. Hilton was reported to have offered four millions in cash, plus assuming $1,200,000 in liabilities. Decision on whether to sell is up to Sharock Corp., holder of some 60 percent of stock.
April 24th, 1954: Conrad Hilton's $5,200,000 offer for the Palace Hotel in San Francisco was rejected by the hotel's board of directors yesterday. Control interest is held by the Sharock Corporation of which Mrs. William B. Johnson is principal shareholder. Mrs. Johnson is the daughter of Sen. William Sharon, who built the original Palace Hotel. Mrs. Johnston said after the meeting the Hilton offer was turned down by a "substantial majority."
May 24th, 1954: The PALACE HOTEL IN SAN FRANCISCO announces a new FAMILY PLAN (Children Free) TWO GARAGES with special rates for guests. Single Rooms from $8. Double Rooms (double bed) from $10. Double Rooms (twin beds) from $12.
September 20th, 1954: Sheraton Group Enters Bid For Palace Hotel, San Francisco. The president of the nationwide Sheraton Hotel chain said it had made a bid "in the vicinity of" seven million dollars for the historic Palace Hotel, stopping-place of presidents, millionaires and tycoons of the old west. "We have had some correspondence with them, and if they decide they want to sell we will do business with them," Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corporation of America, said last night.
September 28th, 1954: Palace Hotel stockholders will meet Oct 18 to consider an offer from the Sheraton Hotels to buy the Venerable San Francisco hostelry, Sheraton spokesmen said last night.
September 30th, 1954: Palace Hotel To Be Bought By Sheraton Chain. The stage appeared to be set for the sale of San Francisco's historic Palace Hotel to the Sheraton hotel chain for a price reported at seven million dollars. Officers of the Palace Hotel company and the Sharock corporation, which holds 90 percent of the Palace stock, met yesterday to "begin preparations" for a stockholders' meeting October 18, when the proposal will finally be presented. William Sharon Fair, vice president of the Sharock corporation, said officers of the corporation will recommend that the offer of the Sheraton corporation, second largest hotel chain in the nation, be accepted.
Phones wife, kills himself. Jack Michell, 47, Columbia studio transportation foreman, called his wife in Hollywood from San Francisco at 2:15 p.m. yesterday and shot himself to death when she apparently refused to call off a pending divorce action. After the phone conversation Mrs. Michell called the long distance operator who in turn notified the switchboard operator of the Palace Hotel where he was staying. Mitchell was found dead in his room with a .38 bullet through his head. Michell, 2528½ Verbena Dr, was on location with a Columbia studio company filming a science-fantasy film “Monster of the Ocean Floor.”
October 5th, 1954: Palace Hotel Stockholders Accept Sheraton Corp. Offer. Majority stockholders of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco have agreed to Sheraton Corp. of America offer for their stock, it was announced here today. The same offer will be made to other Palace shareholders at a meeting in San Francisco on Oct. 18, Ernest Henderson, Sheraton president, said. Terms of the Sheraton offer were not disclosed. Henderson added that it is anticipated ownership and possession of the west coast hostelry will take place the week of Oct. 18.
October 13th, 1954: $8,500,000 Price Of Palace Hotel. The Sheraton Hotel Corporation, second largest hotel chain in the country, will buy world famed Palace Hotel next Monday for a price reported to be $8,500,000, it was learned today Mrs. William B. Johnston, largest stockholder in the company that owns the Palace, said she and other stockholders will meet Monday to vote the sale. Mrs. Johnston, the granddaughter of Sen. William Sharon who built the original Palace with his Comstock Lode fortune in 1875, said Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corporation, will attend the meeting to make the transfer formal. She said Sheraton officers assured her that they will retain the hotel's present staff of 800. "Now we can only hope that the personality of the Palace will be retained, too”, she said. "If they do redecorate, I hope they won't hurry. All truly great hotels are old and that is their charm. To make ours a modern bleak barracks would destroy it.” Mrs. Johnston said she will retain her suite in the hotel "to watch what happens.” But, she said, she has warned she will leave "if there's any monkey business.”
October 19th, 1954: Sheraton Takes Over S.F. Palace. San Francisco's famed Palace Hotel is under new management today with the old owners expressing the hope it will never become "one of those big juke boxes." The new owners, The Sheraton Hotel Corporation of New York, promised they would move cautiously, but announced free radio and TV for every room; high powered national advertising and a change of name to the Sheraton-Palace. Ownership of the historic hostelry changed hands for $6,100,000 yesterday after Mrs. William B. Johnston, president and principal stockholder and granddaughter of Sen. William A. Sharon, and other family stockholders agreed to sell their 30,000 shares in the Palace for $100 a share or $3,000,000. This gave the Sheraton Corporation a 60 per cent interest in the hotel. An offer to buy the remaining 20,000 shares at the same price which Sheraton officials said was extremely likely would bring the total price tag to $5,000,000. In addition, the new owners will buy up a $1,100,000 mortgage against the hotel held by a San Francisco bank.
October 21st, 1954: Historic SF Palace Hotel To Go Ultra-Modern Under New Ownership. By NORMAN RITTER SAN FRANCISCO (IP) —They are going to put television In every room of San Francisco’s famous old Palace Hotel, and if William Sharon were alive today he probably would approve. Sharon was the gold rush millionaire who built the Palace more than 75 years ago. The Sheraton hotel chain has just bought it for a reported $6,100,000 and announced plans to modernize it with such features as television sets for all the guests. Sharon spent $5,000,000 to build the Palace in 1875 and give the lusty, booming city of San Francisco the most sumptuous hotel west of the Rockies Coast Institution The old Palace was a monument to Victorian extravagance. It catered to the lavish demands of miners and traders and financiers in the gilt-edged era of San Francisco’s rise to commercial prominence. It became a West Coast institution. Opening night crowds on Oct 2, 1875, marveled at the hotel’s Palm Court and strolled over huge French rugs into the main dining room to the strains of a new waltz imported from Vienna, "The Beautiful Blue Danube.” Twelve nights later the Palace threw its first big party, on a scale it was to become famous for. It was a three and a half hour dinner honoring Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan, who had just come home from the Franco Prussian War in which he served as an adviser to the King of Prussia. The continental cuisine was elaborate and plentiful, and guests were regaled with Chateau Y’quern, punch a la romaine, cognac, benedictine, chartreuse and great quantities of champagne. The high point of the evening came when Sheridan, who was a small man, climbed on top of one of the tables to address the crowd. The guest list as the years went by was studded with great personalities. Jenny Lind, the Swedish nightingale, stopped there on her Western tour. The charms of the Palace were duly noted by writers Mark Twain and Jack London. Emperor Pleased. Don Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, the first reigning monarch to visit the United States, stayed at the Palace in 1876 and was reported to have remarked, "Nothing makes me so ashamed of Brazil as the Palace Hotel.” The Palace received only minor damage in the shock of the 1906 earthquake, but the fire that followed reduced it to a framework. The insurance loss was adjusted at $1,302,610, a figure then estimated to be the largest ever paid on a single risk in the United States. The 700-room successor to the original Palace cost $8,000,000, and the hotel at the corner of Montgomery and Market Street continued to be the center of San Francisco’s thriving social and business world. President Warren G. Harding, stricken on a return trip from Alaska, died in a room at the Palace in 1923. Many of the West's biggest stock, mining and land deals were threshed out over the rich mahogany bar at the Palace, and to many admirers the hotel's darkest day came with the enactment of the 19th amendment and the entrance of prohibition. The San Francisco Chronicle caught the spirit in headline: “Palace Bar To Be Ice Cream Shop—Ye Gods!”
October 21st, 1954: AT CREA CONVENTION. John Munholland, second from left, director of the California Real Estate association, and Culver Nichols, right, past president of the Palm Springs Real Estate board, are shown at the entrance of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco where they were in attendance at the CREA’s 50th state convention. Nichols was a speaker at the session. Shown with them are a Palace Hotel doorman and the queen of the convention, Carol King. Munholland and Nichols returned to Palm Springs this week.
January 20th, 1955: HOTEL EXECUTIVES pictured from left to right are, Mr. Edmund A. Rieder, president of the California Hotel association and Mrs. Rieder. Her husband is vice president and general manager of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and has occupied that position for 14 years. Next to Mrs. Rieder is Mrs. Joe E. Hoenig, whose husband Joe E. Hoenig is vice-president and general manager of the Los Angeles Ambassador. He will he chairman of the American Hotel association convention in Los Angeles November 30. December 1, 2, and 3. He is also vice-president of that organization. The picture was snapped at a cocktail party hosted by Frank Bogert and El Mirador Hotel of which Bogert is general manager.
February 16th, 1955: ARSONIST SOUGHT SAN FRANCISCO. Police searched today for an arsonist believed to have set a series of five small fires in and around the famed Sheraton Palace Hotel. There was little damage. Fires flared up in service closets on three floors of the hotel and later in radio station KCBS on the first floor and in an automobile parked behind the hotel. They were first reported at 6:15 pm yesterday.
November 12th, 1955: S.F. Palace Hotel Fire. Fire equipment raced to the Sheraton-Palace Hotel in San Francisco today as a grease fire broke out in the basement kitchen. Firemen estimated damage at $2,500.
March 30th, 1956: Mr. and Mrs. Paul Farris, with their daughter Vicki, residing at 907 Hillcrest Drive, traveled to San Francisco this week where they were the overnight guests of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Aaron. They visited the Macy's Easter Flower Show. The most unusual feature of the affair was the display of the gold service used by the Palace Hotel when they have special guests such as heads of foreign governments, the President of the United States and any other outstanding men. This is the first time the gold service has ever been put on display.
May 2nd, 1956: Raymond Emyard, 36, assistant manager of the Sheraton Palace Hotel, today was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury on charges of embezzling $5,333 from the hotel's credit union.
May 10th, 1956: I was interested in Mrs. Herold's recollections of the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906. I, too, remember it very well. I had been down to San Francisco the Saturday before to dance and had left my overcoat checked at the old Palace Hotel where I always stayed. The earthquake occurred on the following Tuesday and, of course, I never saw my overcoat again! I still have, however, the old brass check for it from the cloakroom.
December 20th, 1956: What is thought to be the first electrically lighted Christmas tree was hung in 1896 in the lobby of San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. It had 500 lights.
March 22nd, 1957: Violent Tremblor Shakes Bay Area. The famed Palace Hotel reported that four plate glass windows were shattered, showering glass along sidewalks and into the lobby.
April 4th, 1957: Noted that the Green Goddess salad dressing was first served at the Palace Hotel in 1915.
April 24th, 1957: Famed Chandelier at S.F. Hotel Crashes. One of the famous crystal chandeliers in the Garden Court of the Sheraton Palace Hotel crashed to the floor as workmen were removing it for cleaning. The famous dining spot was closed at the time and there were no injuries as the 650-pound fixture fell. The chandeliers made were installed in 1909 when the hotel was reconstructed after the San Francisco earthquake and fire.
February 13th, 1958: "The garden was the creation of George Tuner Marsh, another Australian, who founded America’s first Oriental art goods store in the arcade of the old Palace Hotel in 1887."
November 30th, 1958: S.F. Man Leaps From Hotel Roof. William B. Sterrett, 70, a one-time hotel employee, was killed in a nine-story plunge from the Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco yesterday. Police said the shabbily-dressed man slashed his wrists and then jumped from the roof of the building. Sterrett's wife, Mignon, 72. told officer her husband had been employed at the hotel about eight years ago. She said he had been ill for some time.
** A later article from 1968 talks about the death of Palace Hotel manager Edmund Rieder and mentions his service to the hotel for 17 years. This would mean he left around this time, but there are no articles discussing his leaving or who took over as manager. I do have a menu from December 31st, 1958 with Rieder's name on it as manager. Another article online states he "served as the Sheraton-Palace's general manager from 1941-1956, returning again to the same post in 1957 and remaining here until 1959." It is believed that Mr. Harvey Watson, who was manager of the Sheraton Hotel Chain, next became manager.
February 16th, 1959: Retired Chef, 103, Has Tips On Healthy Eating. On his birthday, retired chef Wilberto di Biase offered this advice for healthy eating: "In every 24 hours make sure you eat one vegetable that grows underground and one on top of the ground. Top this with good fruit. Don't mix different meats in one meal." Di Biase, who has followed his own instructions, was celebrating his 103rd birthday. He was head chef at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco for 36 years. He retired in 1914.
July 15th, 1960: On Sunday, His Holiness Vasken I, will perform a pontifical mass at 2 PM in Grace Cathedral followed by a gold service banquet at the Sheraton Palace Hotel at 6:30 PM.
September 21st, 1960: Francis Whitmer, district governor of Rotary International died at the Sheraton - Palace Hotel Tuesday after delivering a speech at a Rotary noon meeting. The 59-year-old Whitmer of 543 Center Drive Palo Alto was a vice president of the American Trust Company The cause of death was not immediately determined the coroner's office said.
February 11th, 1961: The Happy Valley Bar is closed at Palace Hotel this weekend for woodwork refinishing, lighting improvement, and general "spring cleaning." All of the furniture has been reupholstered. The sky light will be reopened (it was blacked out during World War II), and the chandeliers have been restrung and polished. Happy Valley will reopen at 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Feb 14. A luncheon buffet, served from the "Emperor Norton table" will offer an array of food. Waiters will be garbed in the traditional turn of the century uniform black mess jacket with golden broidered Palace Hotel crest on the sleeve and white twill apron from waist to trouser cuffs.
October 31st, 1961: Arsonist Suspected In Eight San Francisco Hotel Fires. "The last fire was reported at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel at around 11:00 pm. Firemen quickly controlled the one alarm blaze."
The arsonist struck several hotels again the following morning, including back at the Sheraton-Palace where two trash cans in the basement were set afire.
November 29th, 1961: Memories of the old Palace Hotel will be rekindled when the California Historical Society and the management of the Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco dedicate the Ralston Room at the Palace at 12:15 p.m. tomorrow. Ralston built the old Palace
Hotel in 1875, a time when the Nevada silver mines were pouring millions of dollars into San Francisco. It typified the color and grandiose extravagance of the whole bonanza period.
March 21st, 1962: According to Mrs. Foucar, the group enjoyed browsing in a gift shop near Anza. Of particular interest there was a phonograph which originally resided in the music room of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The phonograph survived the earthquake and fire which almost completely demolished the bay city. It is designed in the shape of a miniature grand piano.
December 4th, 1962: The Harry Morrill home in Little Tuscany will be opened to the public. Located at 701 Panorama Road in Palm Springs, "Other details certain to capture the interest of tour guests include the iron entrance lanterns, immense in size, that once stood before the old Palace Hotel in San Francisco." A Google map view in 2024 shows these lanterns in place. It appears that these are the original street lanterns that went along the front of the hotel on New Montgomery Street, but by 1906, they were changed out.
May 6th, 1963: The first mention of the next manager of the Palace Hotel, Morgan J. Smith as general manager.
June 7th, 1963: "One of the main focal points will be the bar from the old Palace Hotel in San Francisco. This bar is owned by the (Mr. & Mrs. Gordon) Balls and is located in their gardens."
October 23rd, 1963: Wine Salad Dressing Served at Luncheon. Brother Timothy, of the Order of The Christian Brothers, is the creator of the Riesling Salad Dressing which was a menu feature of the National Wine Week luncheon meeting of the San Francisco Advertising Club today at the Sheraton Palace Hotel. Brother Timothy is cellar master and head wine maker at the Mont La Salle Winery operated by the Order of The Christian Brothers at Napa. Here, he checks with Sheraton Palace Hotel chef Walter Frey regarding his Riesling Salad Dressing recipe which appears in Favorite Recipes of California Winemakers, the new cookbook just issued by the Wine Advisory Board. Other recipes from the book which were featured at today's Ad Club luncheon in San Francisco were Baked Ham-Cherry-Sherry and Port Wine Sundae Sauce served with Vanilla Ice Cream. Brother Timothy, who is most interested in the relation of fine wine to fine food, has a collection of cookbooks. Sometimes in his leisure time he tries out some of the recipes. The Riesling Salad Dressing recipe is an original recipe which he developed ten years ago. CHRISTIAN BROTHERS RIESLING DRESSING Mix 1/2 cup THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS Riesling and 1/4 cup lemon juice with 3/4 cup salad oil. Season with 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper and a trace of garlic salt. Makes 1 1/2 cups.
December 23rd, 1963: Morgan J, Smith, Palace Hotel Manager.
March 7th, 1964: San Francisco Hit By Rights Protest More Than 175 Arrested For Demonstrating. More than 175 young men and women were arrested at the Sheraton Palace Hotel early today in San Francisco’s biggest civil rights protest demonstration. Another 200 demonstrators stretched out on chairs and the carpeted floors to continue their “sleep-in” aimed at forcing the plush Market St. hotel to hire more Negroes.
September 1st, 1965: Radio and TV Highlights. One Step Beyond: A bellhop at the Palace Hotel in 1906 has a premonition of the great earthquake. (Channel 5.)
June 5th, 1966: "About three weeks after the tragic quake and fire the first out-of-town visitors -were permitted into the devastated area. I went with other teenagers . . . Market Street, as far as the eye could see, had been cleared of rubble, the only object in sight being an auto with exhaust vapors apparent, standing in front of the shell that was once the grand old Palace Hotel. Suddenly someone shouted: "Here they come!"
"At that instant I saw four or five men dash out of the hotel ruins, jump into the car and head in our direction. Just before the car reached us it halted, and then the awful purpose of its mission was revealed. With a thundering roar and a great flare of white light, the proud old Palace burst apart like the staves of a weakened barrel. Reverberations echoed through the stilled city, and within minutes smoke-darkened mortar rained down upon us. Everyone was silent. But as the spell of the shock wore off, the ropes of police and military guards that held us back were removed. Each went his own way. I wandered forth to garner such mementoes as the militia approved. Others searched out the focal point of what, to them, was a devastation within itself. All moved about blindly and silently as if steeped in memories."
September 18th, 1966: Hans K. Roth noted at executive chef at the Sheraton Palace.
No articles of note this year.
July 11th, 1968: Owners Protest Palace Hotel Landmark Title. The Sheraton-Palace Hotel, over the objections of its owners, was nominated as a San Francisco landmark Wednesday. The Landmarks Advisory Board unanimously voted to honor the hotel despite testimony from Sheraton-Palace officials that the designation would unduly hamper any possible alterations they might want to make. The Palace was built in 1875, but destroyed by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It was later rebuilt. The hotel was cited by the board for its famous Garden Court Restaurant. Under the landmarks ordinance, six months’ notice is required before the building can be razed. The landmark designation must be approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors before it becomes official.
August 4th, 1968: Hotelman Rieder Dies at Age 67. Baron Edmond A. Rieder, international hotelman and general manager of the Sheraton - Palace Hotel here for 17 years, died yesterday in Concord, Mass. He was 67. Sources here said he collapsed at the home of his daughter, Mrs. John Raker, after going swimming and died of an apparent heart attack.
December 4th, 1968:
No articles of note this year.
April 20th, 1970: 64 Years Later, Survivors Recall San Francisco's Disastrous Quake. Mrs. Hugh Brown, a 22-year-old bride, had come down from Tonopah, Nev., to shop in San Francisco, see the opera and await the arrival of her first baby, due in a few weeks. She and her husband had a room on the fifth floor of the Palace Hotel "I still have the key to that room," says Mrs. Brown. "Tuesday night we attended the opera and afterwards some friends Joined us for dinner in the palm court at the Palace. We went up to our room about 1 am after a wonderful day in the city. A few hours later, the earthquake struck. "It was a terrible, terrible shake," says Mrs. Brown. "I was born here and had been in more than one earthquake, but nothing like that. We crawled out of bed to look out the window. I was simply staggered by what I saw below me. The whole place was just covered with broken glass. I became frightened and spent the next hour in bed, crying. Among others in the Palace that morning was the great singer, Enrico Caruso. The hotel came through the quake with little damage, but was destroyed later the same day by the fire, an inferno that devoured 28,000 buildings. The Palace later was rebuilt on the same spot."
July 27th, 1971: Noted that Joe Carey, who own's a restaurant in Oakland - Ordinary on Manila (near 40th and Broadway), owns the bar from the old Palace Hotel, SF and restored it piece by piece.
No articles of note this year.
April 16th, 1973: San Francisco's Palace Hotel Now Owned By Japanese Conglomerate. The Palace Hotel, California's first and most famous luxury hotel where President Warren G. Harding died, will be sold to a Japanese conglomerate.
The Kyo-Ya Co., Ltd., a Honolulu-based subsidiary of Tokyo's Kokusai Kogyo Corp., said Sunday it is buying the Palace from the ITT -Sheraton group, which will continue to
operate the hotel. The original Palace Hotel was built by mining millionaire William Ralston and opened in 1875.
Kokusai Kogyo had purchased the Sheraton Palace for $5.5 million. It did not include the land, which is rented.
July 12th, 1974: Loveable VW crashes SF Palace Hotel in Disney Film. There’s a tie in with a hotel across the Bay with the feature now being shown at Concord's Sun Valley Cinema and the Pleasant Hill Motor Movies. It’s another family type Disney flick with an improbable yet enjoyable plot. What is a nice little Volkswagen named Herbie doing in a swank hotel like San Francisco's Sheraton Palace? For one thing he is stealing through its ornate Garden Court. The intrusion was for a scene in “Herbie Rides Again’’ Walt Disney Productions’ comedy starring Helen Hayes, Ken Berry, Stefanie Powers, John Mclntire, and Keenan Wynn. The Garden Court, normally off limits to VWs has been a showpiece since 1875. It was rebuilt after the 1906 fire to its present resplendent dimensions: one third the size of a football field and surmounted a dome of amber leaded glass 48 feet above the marble floor. “Herbie Rides Again’’ is about a nice old lady and her loyal VW who tangle with a remorseless business baron. At one point the Beetle eludes the villain by sneaking into a hotel. Herbie’s tiptire through what has been called the most beautiful dining room in the world was fraught with stipulations. His bottom had to be drip-proofed and he moved under battery power in order to eliminate engine noise and emissions. The scene was shot in midafternoon with so little disturbance that some diners stayed at table to be in the picture a sequel to “The Love Bug”.
October 7th, 1974: A bomber, targeting Sheraton Hotels, placed a bomb in the women's bathroom of the Sheraton Palace last Wednesday. An unidentified male caller warned the bomb would be set off, and it later exploded. The bathroom was unoccupied and there were no details of damage or possible injury.
October 20th, 1975: Palace Hotel marks birthday with party.
When it was built a century ago, the Palace Hotel was one of the wonders of the world and helped put the dirt-paved boom town of San Francisco on the map. The Palace claimed to be the largest and most luxurious on the planet. It cost $5 million and its owners bragged of 9,000 cuspidors, 900 marble washstands, 804 marble fireplaces and 755 water closets with flushing silencers for sensitive patrons. At its dedication a century ago, the Palace boasted 8,000 gas jets for brilliant illumination after dark. Times have changed and the Palace now is called the Sheraton-Palace. But nostalgia dies hard in San Francisco, and about 500 revelers, many in period costumes, turned out Saturday night for a big bash to mark the 100th anniversary of a hotel that went down in history. They paid $100 a plate for a dinner that a hotel spokesman said would have cost 50 or 75 cents in 1875, and contributed the proceeds to the California Historical Society.
The Palace was the dream of William Chapman Ralston, who drowned off the North Beach section of San Francisco the day after his bank failed, five weeks before his dream opened. Ralston had bought up forests, jungles and factories just to make the Palaces genuine antique furniture. There were 25 million bricks, 30 miles of steam and gas pipes, four artesian wells, seven grand staircases, bay windows for 1,200 guests and 50,000 yards of carpeting. The advance advertising for the hotels opening was so stupendous that an observer, one Derrick Dodd, wrote with tongue-in-cheek: Santa Barbara is concealed by a high hill to the south. Arrangements have been made, however, to have the hill removed or the town jacked up into the scenery, which will then be perfect. The seven-story hotel was built so soundly that, according to another observer, the status of the Palace in the early hours after the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was as follows: In the lobby, the Chinese servants in their immaculate white duck uniforms were dusting off the furniture. Most of the tourists had undoubtedly turned over and gone to sleep again.
November 4th, 1975: A BIT OF HISTORY: W & J Sloane, the prestigious Bay Area furniture company, is celebrating 100 years in business although few records of the early days in the Palace Hotel Building in San Francisco survive since most records were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of ought six. One of the few souvenirs to survive is an invoice showing that George P. McNear of Petaluma bought three Persian rugs, mahogany curtain rods and 38 window shades in 1887.
April 22nd, 1976: King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden attends a reception at the Sheraton Palace.
October 20th, 1976: Democratic vice-presidential candidate Walter Mondale was stuck briefly in an elevator in the basement of the Sheraton Palace Hotel Tuesday with Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Rep. Phillip Burton. Mondale said they were confined in the elevator for about 15 minutes, and used the occasion to hold a secret, confidential meeting.
No articles of note this year.
No articles of note this year.
No articles of note this year.
March 13th, 1980: Noted that J.D. Ross owned a chocolate shop called Sweet Revenge in the Sheraton Palace Hotel.
No articles of note this year.
No articles of note this year.
April 22nd, 1983: Van Woodworth noted as being the resident manager of the Sheraton Palace Hotel.
July 28th, 1983: The Presidential Suite noted as now being Room #860.
No articles of note this year.
February 12th, 1985: Artist Antonio Sotomayor Dies. Popular local artist Antonio Sotomayor, once described by a critic as the painter who "helped put the smile on San Francisco," has died at 82. Sotomayor, who died of cancer on Sunday, was best known for the giant, colorful murals and paintings he has done on city buildings for the past 50 years. "Why paint if you don't want people to see it?" he once said in an interview. Born in Bolivia, Sotomayor came to San Francisco in 1923. He worked as a dishwasher at the old Palace Hotel and drew caricatures of chefs and co-workers. His employers liked his work and made him the hotel's artist-in-residence. Sotomayor's work has been shown at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, 20 other American cities and several countries in Europe and Latin America. His last piece was a huge 30-panel mural for Grace Cathedral, which he finished while recovering from an operation for cancer in 1981.
April 16th, 1985: Funeral services will be Wednesday for Verna Sherlock who died Sunday. She was 83. A native of Gilroy, Mrs. Sherlock owned a ticket office for 20 years at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco which handled bus tours and theater tickets for stage productions.
November 27th, 1985: Benefit features holiday wines.
The Association for Retarded Citizens of San Francisco will hold its 19th annual Wine Tasting Festival and Wine Auction at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park on Sunday, Dec. 15. Tasting hours are from 1-6 p.m. and the auction begins at 4 p.m. The 1985 tasting features holiday wines, white zinfandel and blush wines from 65 wineries. The International Wine Tasting Festival's $10 admission includes bread, cheese, mineral water and a souvenir wine glass.
Hundreds of wines will be auctioned beginning at 4 p.m. Highlight of the auction will be the opening of a cache of antique wines which was found in the basement of the collapsed Palace Hotel after the 1906 earthquake. Bottles from the cache will be auctioned. Proceeds from the wine tasting and auction benefit the Association for Retarded Citizens of San Francisco programs which include Adult Vocational Programs, Esthe'rs Iron Works Cafe, Margarete Connolly Education Center, Touchstone and Fifth Avenue Independent Living Project. The festival was founded in 1966 by wine industry expert Louis R. Gomberg and was the first public tasting ever held in California. The festival is sponsored by United Commercial Travelers (UCT), a non-profit fraternal benefit society. Tickets to the International Wine Tasting Festival and Wine Auction cost $10 and can be purchased at the door.
August 28th, 1986: Gay Dancers Kick Up Heels at 'Palace'.
February 5th, 1987: Mr. Besau had another question, this one about an item he thought might be something a collector would be interested in. Mr. Besau has a menu circa 1908 from the old Palace Hotel in San Francisco. His father was a manager for the Woolworths company, which had a conference at the hotel. At the conference, his father had the department store chains founder, F.W. Woolworth, autograph the menu. It's something I thought someone might be interested in, Mr. Besau said. It is interesting, said to George Theofiles, a Pennsylvania collector known as the Miscellaneous Man. But despite its novelty, the menu isn't particularly valuable. It's just not rare enough to be of much interest to a collector, Theofiles said. It might be of value to Woolworths. If you'd like to pursue this further, you can write the company at 233 Broadway, New York, N.Y., 10019, or call (212) 553-2000.
No articles of note this year.
May 11th, 1989: Advertisements: Original china from Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Five piece place setting. $20. 707-224-7248.
June 11th, 1989: NEW collection from S.F. estate, early Calif, art, etchings, antiques, plates, china, glass, silver. Furn. and collectibles from the Sheraton Palace Hotel: chairs, tables, desks, chest., lamps, pictures and more! McCulloch Galleries 5959 Commerce Blvd. R.P. 584-4517.
June 27th, 1989: Workers in San Francisco stage their own ballet as they prepare to remove stained glass from the Sheraton Palace Hotel's famed Garden Court ornamental ceiling in a restoration expected to cost at least $1 million. The 8,000-square-foot ceiling is one of the world's largest clear-spans of stained glass.
October 17th, 1989: The Loma Prieta Earthquake hits San Francisco. Oddly enough, there are no articles mentioning the Palace Hotel. Likely because it was closed for renovations during this time. The hotel was seriously damaged and restoration work had to stop. The building was repaired, reinforced, and restoration continued.
No articles of note this year.
January 31st, 1991: Sheraton Palace Reopening. The elegant Sheraton Palace Hotel, which has hosted presidents and kings during its 116-year history, will reopen April 3 after a renovation project that took more than two years and $150 million. “We’re recapturing the glamour and ambiance which has defined the Palace since 1875 while adding contemporary features”, general manager Donald Timbie said Wednesday in announcing the reopening date. More than 400 workers have been involved in the 27-month renovation project, restoring the structures stained-glass ceilings, 100 chandeliers, marble floors, antique furnishings, ornate plaster works and gold-leaf decorations.
February 3rd, 1991: TWENTY-SEVEN MONTHS and $150 million later, a restored Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco will reopen its doors on April 3, hotel officials announced last week. Although the project will be substantially completed by March, General Manager Donald N. Timbie said testing of the hotel's complex fire and life-safety systems will take an additional month, pushing the reopening to early April. Centrally located, the Palace is adjacent to the Financial District and within a short walk of the Moscone Convention Center, the theater district, Chinatown and downtown shopping. The Garden Court, with its $7 million stained-glass ceiling, massive crystal chandeliers, Ionic columns and marble floors, will now serve breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as traditional afternoon tea and cocktails. The Palace Hotel debuted as the world's largest and most luxurious hotel in 1875. It survived the great earthquake of 1906 but was destroyed by the fire that followed. Today's hotel was rebuilt in 1909, retaining many architectural features of the original building. The Sheraton Palace Hotel is owned by Kyo-ya Co. Ltd. and managed by the ITT Sheraton Corp., the worldwide hotel subsidiary of ITT.
February 25th, 1991: Palace Pane
April 4th, 1991: Sheraton Palace Hotel employee Jack Harrison removes a table from the famed Garden Court In preparation for Wednesdays opening. Sheraton Palace open after last-minute rush.
A few hours before bellhops at the Sheraton Palace guided guests through the main corridor on Wednesday, workmen's hammering echoed down the marble passage as finishing touches were put on the hotels $150 million restoration. Despite the tight schedule, everyone from the director of marketing to waiters seemed confident that tasks would be complete in time for the first check-ins since 1989. As many as 500 workmen daily had toiled in the hotel for 27 months to prepare for this day, the second reopening of the Palace. In its early days, it was regarded as the Grande Dame of the world's hotels. At this point, it's out of my hands, Jim Kilroy, director of marketing, said Wednesday. Marble tops were missing from tables outside the Grand Ballroom where more than 700 places had been set for Defense Secretary Dick Cheney's speech to the Commonwealth Club, a public affairs forum, on Wednesday evening. Maxfield Parrish's $2.5 million Pied Piper of Hamelin mural remained wrapped in plastic leaning against a wall. The painting had hung in San Francisco's de Young Museum since the hotel closed for renovations in January 1989.
In the adjacent Maxfields Restaurant, workmen finished installing companion murals by Antonio Sottomeyer while waiters and waitresses folded stacks of starched, white napkins. Waiter Chip Alfred prepared to serve a private birthday luncheon for San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, himself part of San Francisco lore. I waited on the owners of the company yesterday, so I got over the stress, Alfred said. Were pretty excited. It's been 2 ½ weeks of training. Caens menu for his 75th birthday Wednesday included lamb chops Herb Caen, hardwood grilled lamb topped with a mint hollandaise sauce and crab meat concocted specially for Caen by a Palace chef in the mid-1960s. “When will the hotel ever reopen on Herb Caens birthday again?” asked hotel spokeswoman Samara Zuwaylif. In other parts of the 116-year-old hotel, the schedule wasn't so pressing.
The swimming pool had yet to be filled and partitions were not yet installed between stalls in a lobby restroom where nine louvered doors revealed a row of porcelain toilets. In the Presidential Suite, where President Warren G. Harding died in 1923, a workman puzzled how to hang the draperies. But that could wait. No heads of state had yet booked the Palace. The 27-months of painstaking restoration was as much a process of discovery. Craftsmen peeling away a near century of paint and plaster uncovered a forgotten mosaic floor and stained-glass ceiling in Maxfields. The floor had been carpeted over and the stained-glass hidden by a false ceiling. (They) had been damaged and instead of repairing it, they covered it up, Zuwaylif said. In all, more than 500 masons, painters, plasterers and stained glass artisans refurbished stained glass, 100 chandeliers, marble floors, antique furniture and ornate plaster work. It's a whole renaissance of old world crafts. It's very hard to find craftsmen who can replicate what was done in 1909, Zuwaylif said.
November 3rd, 1991: A traditional Shinto ceremony recently opened the Kyo-ya restaurant at the Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco The menu ranges from Asari clams steamed in sake to Kyo-ya Nabe a Japanese bouillabaisse (415) 392-8600.
March 1st, 1992:
April 12th, 1992: Debra Barton is the resident manager of the Sheraton Palace. An article tells of her daughter, Ryan Skaggs, living at the hotel.
No articles of note this year.
August 6th, 1994: One local resident, George Geis, is determined to preserve the history of transportation. George and his wife Ruth are the proud owners of one of the country's largest collections of horse drawn vehicles. For over 30 years George Geis has been collecting these interesting and often elegant transportation pieces. For the first time, a portion of this fantastic collection will be showcased at the 1994 Napa Town and Country Fair. One of George's favorite vehicles is the San Francisco Palace Hotel carriage. The carriage was used to transport guests between - the Ferry station and the hotel from 1896 to 1915. This special carriage survived the tragic 1906 quake and fire.
February 9th, 1995: Tender loving care turns once dilapidated house into an exquisite showcase home. The fireplace—originally the house’s only source of heat—is adorned by an ornamental clock and a spittoon from the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
Some time in 1995, Sheraton Palace dropped Sheraton from their name, reverting back to the Palace Hotel.
No articles of note this year.
No articles of note this year.
August 3rd, 1998: Noted that the Presidential Suite at the Palace Hotel goes for $2,700 a night.
No articles of note this year.
No articles of note during these years. Most of the information on the Palace Hotel transitioned to the internet during this time.
