The original Palace Hotel that stood on this site was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. The current building, designed by architects Trowbridge & Livingston, was completed in 1909. Occupying most of a city block, this nine-story Beaux Arts structure played a significant role in San Francisco’s history. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson delivered speeches in the Garden Court in support of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. In 1923, Warren G. Harding’s term as president ended suddenly when he died at the hotel in room 8064, an eighth-floor suite that overlooks Market Street. In 1945, the elegant Palace Hotel hosted a banquet to mark the opening session of the United Nations.

Don’t miss the Pied Piper Bar & Grill, located inside this hotel. It features a large painting by famed illustrator Maxfield Parrish, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” which was commissioned by the hotel in 1909, for what was then the Men’s Bar. Recently, this painting was scheduled to be placed on auction at Christie’s in New York. But a strong public outcry and six months of restoration saved the painting for San Francisco, and it is back on display above the wood-paneled bar in this grand hotel.

Credits and Sources:

“Palace Hotel, San Francisco.”http://thepalacehotel.org/#GC.

Photographs courtesy of Travel San Francisco, the American Society for Environmental History, and the Library of Congress.