| The Westin St. Francis | |
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  Westin St. Francis Location within San Francisco Show map of San Francisco Westin St. Francis Westin St. Francis (California) Show map of California Westin St. Francis Westin St. Francis (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Former names | St. Francis Hotel |
| Hotel chain | Westin |
| General information | |
| Location | United States |
| Address | 335 Powell Street San Francisco,California |
| Coordinates | 37°47′16″N122°24′30″W / 37.7877°N 122.4084°W /37.7877; -122.4084 |
| Opening | 1904 (Landmark Building)1970 (Tower Building) |
| Cost | US$2.5 million |
| Owner | Anbang Insurance Group |
| Management | Marriott International |
| Height | 60.35 m (198.0 ft) 120 m (390 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 16 (Landmark Building)32 (Tower Building) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Walter Danforth Bliss William Baker Faville William L. Pereira & Associates |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 629 (Landmark Building) 566 (Tower Building) 1,195 (Total) |
| Number of suites | 24 (Landmark Building) 35 (Tower Building) 59 (Total) |
| Number of restaurants | Michael Mina Restaurant The Oak Room Restaurant Caruso's Clock Bar |
| Website | |
| www | |
| [1][2][3][4] | |
The Westin St. Francis, formerly known asSt. Francis Hotel, is ahotel located on Powell andGeary Streets inSan Francisco, adjacent to the whole western edge ofUnion Square. The two 12-story south wings of the hotel were built in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913, initially as apartments for permanent guests.[5] This section is referred to as the Landmark Building on the hotel's website. The 32-story, 120 m (390 ft) tower to the rear, referred to as the Tower Building, which was completed in 1972, features exterior glass elevators that offer panoramic views of the bay and the square below, making the St. Francis one of the largest hotels in the city, with more than 1,254 rooms and suites.[5]
The St. Francis Hotel was begun by the trustees of the estate ofCharles Crocker, one of "The Big Four" railroad magnates who had built the western portion of thetranscontinental railway. It was built as an investment for Crocker's two young grandchildren,Templeton Crocker and Jenny Crocker.[6] It was originally meant to be called The Crocker Hotel, but instead it took the name of one of the earliestCalifornia Gold Rush hotels, the St. Francis.
It was designed by Bliss and Faville in the style of Chicago architectLouis Sullivan, with a relatively bare facade for San Francisco.[7] The hotel opened on March 21, 1904, and, along with the older Palace Hotel on Market Street, immediately became one of the city's most prestigious addresses.
TheSan Francisco earthquake of 1906 badly frightened the guests, but did no structural damage to the hotel. John Farish, a mining engineer staying at the hotel, described the experience: "I was awakened by a loud rumbling noise which could be compared to the mixed sound of a strong wind rushing through a forest and the breaking of waves against a cliff...there began a series of the liveliest motions imagineable, accompanied by a creaking, grinding, rasping sound, followed by tremendous crashes as the cornices of adjoining buildings and chimneys tottered to the ground."[7] ActorJohn Barrymore was also staying at the hotel at the time of the quake reveling with a young woman over champagne.[8] He remained drunk in his evening clothes the following day, searching amidst the chaos for a bar with whiskey.[9][10]
The earthquake lasted 55 seconds. A hotel page described the pandemonium inside the hotel: "I found the floor crowded with screaming guests running every which way. As the elevators were all out of order the guests headed for the marble stairs, which were broken and cracked and falling below." The hotel manager, James Woods, wearing his bathrobe, tried to calm the guests, but most of them rushed outside onto Union Square. Later in the morning, opera singerEnrico Caruso andAlfred Hertz, the conductor of theSan Francisco Symphony, who was hosting a tour by Caruso, who were both staying at the nearby Palace Hotel, fled the Palace and came to the St. Francis, where the restaurant was still open for breakfast. Caruso carried with him a signed photograph of PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, and swore he would never return to San Francisco; he never did, having died in 1921.
The earthquake did not cause major structural damage to the hotel, but it did begin a series of fires along the waterfront which began to sweep west across the city. It also broke the water mains, so firemen were unable to fight the fires. An hour after midnight the fire reached Union Square and gutted the hotel.
When the fire was finally extinguished after three days, it was found that the St. Francis had suffered little serious damage. The copper cornice had warped, and some of the enamelled facing bricks had fallen off in the heat, but otherwise the building was intact. Reconstruction began almost immediately.[11] A small temporary hotel, the little St. Francis, with 110 rooms, was built in the middle of Union Square, to house temporary guests. The hotel re-opened in late 1907.
After its re-opening, the St. Francis hosted dozens of celebrities who came to San Francisco for thePanama–Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) of 1915, ranging fromHelen Keller, three-time Presidential candidate and oratorWilliam Jennings Bryan, who came to San Francisco to speak against American involvement in the First World War, and former baseball player and evangelistBilly Sunday, who came to San Francisco to denouncesin and thetheory of evolution.[7] The exterior of the hotel appeared in theKeystone Studiosnewsreel/documentarytwo-reeler,Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco, which followed the studio's biggest stars,Mabel Normand andRoscoe Arbuckle, as they toured the city and the PPIE. Former PresidentTheodore Roosevelt stayed at the hotel in July 1915, (about midway through the nine-month-long PPIE) and used the occasion to denounce his bitter enemy, PresidentWoodrow Wilson, and to call forAmerican entry into World War I.
In September 1919, PresidentWoodrow Wilson stayed at the St. Francis as he toured the country as part of his unsuccessful effort to win support for American entry into theLeague of Nations. The 1920Democratic National Convention was held in San Francisco, and several presidential candidates stayed at the St. Francis, including another visit from William Jennings Bryan.
During the 1920s, the St. Francis became the fashionable place to stay for celebrities and film actors coming from Hollywood. St. Francis guests included silent film starsCharlie Chaplin,Douglas Fairbanks,Mary Pickford, cowboy starTom Mix,Mabel Normand,Fatty Arbuckle, and directorsD.W. Griffith andCecil B. DeMille. Other guests included novelistSinclair Lewis, the first American to win theNobel Prize for Literature, circus impresarios theRingling Brothers, dancerIsadora Duncan, songwriterGeorge M. Cohan, andDuke Kahanamoku, the champion swimmer of the world, who popularized the sport ofsurfing.
One of the appeals of the St. Francis was its jazz orchestra, led by a young musician namedArt Hickman. His band, which in 1914 includedBert Kelly, played in the Rose Room of the hotel, before going on to greater fame at theNew York Biltmore Hotel and the roof garden of theNew Amsterdam Theatre. During his time at the St. Francis, he helped popularize such musicians asPaul Whiteman andFerde Grofe who, after leaving the St. Francis orchestra, went on to compose theGrand Canyon Suite.
Part of the fame of the St. Francis was because of its legendary chef,Victor Hirtzler. Hirtzler learned to cook inStrasbourg, France, and then cooked for royal courts across Europe. According to Hirtzler, he had created a dish for KingCarlos I of Portugal, calledLa Mousse Faisan Lucullus, a mousse of Bavarianpheasant's breast andwoodcock flavored withtruffles, with a sauce ofcognac,Madeira andchampagne. The dish was so expensive, and the King ate it so frequently, that he bankrupted Portugal twice. King Carlos was assassinated in 1908 followed by the downfall of Portuguese monarchy in 1910. Hirtzler then moved to New York, became the chef of the Waldorf Hotel, and then was persuaded by the manager of the St. Francis, James Woods, to move to San Francisco.[7]
In 1916, Hirtzler again cooked a dish which had political consequences. The Crocker family were fervent Republicans and hosted a dinner at the hotel forCharles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate for President of the United States, who was locked in a close race with incumbentWoodrow Wilson. Twenty minutes before the banquet began, the waiters, who were members of the culinary workers union, went on strike. Hughes wondered if the banquet should be canceled, but Hirtzler insisted upon it going ahead, and served the meal himself. When the union learned that Hughes had crossed a picket line and eaten the dinner, they distributed thousands of leaflets denouncing him as anti-union. On election night, Hughes went to bed believing he had won the election. The next morning he awoke and learned that he had lost California by only 3,673 votes, and by losing California had lost the election to Wilson. The margin of his defeat was less than the turnout of union voters in San Francisco. By saving the dinner, Hirtzler had lost the election for Hughes.[7]
In 1921, the St. Francis was the scene of Hollywood's first great scandal. The silent film comedianRoscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, whose fame at the time rivaled that of Charlie Chaplin, and a number of friends were guests in rooms 1219, 1220 and 1221. On September 5, 1921, they had a party in their suite, with friends and acquaintances from Hollywood. One guest was a young actress from Hollywood namedVirginia Rappe. In mid-afternoon Arbuckle summoned a house doctor and reported that Rappe was sick, and the young woman was taken to another room and put to bed. Arbuckle himself went to a personal appearance at a movie theater, and returned to Hollywood the next day.
A few days later Arbuckle learned that Virginia Rappe had been taken to the hospital and had died, and that a friend of the young woman, Maude Delmont, who had been at the party, claimed to police that Arbuckle had assaulted and raped her. (Delmont's testimony was later regarded as unreliable by the police, when it was discovered Delmont had a lengthy prior record of extortion. She was not called as a witness.) The story was soon in the headlines of newspapers around the United States.
Arbuckle was tried for manslaughter in November 1921 in a highly publicized trial. In December, after over 40 hours of deliberations, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Arbuckle's second trial in January–February 1922 the following year also ended in a hung jury, but in his third trial in March–April 1922, the jury found him not guilty after only five minutes of deliberations.
Arbuckle was free, but his career was ruined. His films were withdrawn byWill H. Hays, the President of theMotion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, and what became known as theHays Office began the systematic censorship of American motion pictures.[7]
The 1939 World's Fair onTreasure Island, in San Francisco Bay, attracted many celebrities to San Francisco and to the St. Francis.Salvador Dalí posed for newspaper photographers in the bathtub of his hotel room, with a lobster on his head, holding a cabbage in one hand, and wearing a pair of emerald-green goggles, andCary Grant stayed in the hotel, entertaining friends with scenes from Noël Coward's playPrivate Lives.
After the attack onPearl Harbor, San Francisco became a major transit point for soldiers and sailors going to the Pacific Theater of the War. The shops in the lobby of the St. Francis were turned into small rooms for military officers. Hundreds of soldiers, sailors and officers danced in the Mural Room of the St. Francis to the big band music ofHarry Owens and the Royal Hawaiians, and his vocalist,Hilo Hattie. Swiss headwaiter Ernest E. Gloor ran the Mural Room for a quarter of a century with an iron hand. AsMaître d'hôtel, he would "dress" his room with theFashionable up front.[12][13][14]
In April 1945, the St. Francis played host to twenty-seven delegations attending the founding meeting of theUnited Nations, held in theSan Francisco Opera House. The St. Francis was host to the delegations from Iran, Canada, Turkey, Egypt and France, represented by French foreign ministerGeorges Bidault, who stayed in the same suite where the Fatty Arbuckle scandal had taken place. The St. Francis also hosted several Latin American delegations, along with the U.S. Under Secretary of State for the Americas,Nelson Rockefeller. The Soviet delegation, led by Soviet foreign ministerV.M. Molotov, and theSoviet ambassador to the United States,Andrei Gromyko, also stayed at the St. Francis.
In April 1951, the St. Francis hosted GeneralDouglas MacArthur, who received a tumultuous welcome when he returned fromKorea after having been dismissed from command byPresident Harry Truman. EntertainerAl Jolson died while playing cards in his suite at the St. Francis on October 23, 1950—Jolson had just returned from entertaining the troops in Korea.
The St. Francis was still owned by the Crocker family until the end of World War II, when the Crocker family sold it to hotel magnate Ben Swig, who then sold it to Edwin B. DeGolia. In 1954, the hotel became the twenty-third property in the Seattle-basedWestern Hotels chain, which eventually became Western International.
With its acquisition by Western Hotels, the hotel was changed from a home of elderly San Francisco socialites, some of whom lived in large suites, to a modern hotel focusing on tourism and especially conventions. The old Mural Room, decorated byAlbert Herter in 1913 with seven murals comprisingThe Pageant of Nations, a banquet and ballroom which had hosted many of America's famous big bands, was replaced in 1970 by a six hundred room tower, designed to help the St. Francis compete withThe Fairmont, its rival on nearbyNob Hill. ArchitectWilliam Pereira designed the new building, which was completed in 1972. The murals were rolled up and removed to storage. In September 1975, the hotel's MacArthur Suite was rented byMOS Technology to sell their then brand-new6502 processors that the nearby Wescon trade show didn't permit them to.[15]
The St. Francis became the hotel where Republican presidents stayed when in San Francisco, while Democratic presidents usually stayed at theFairmont. PresidentGerald Fordwas almost shot while leaving the hotel on September 22, 1975 by a woman namedSara Jane Moore. A former Marine,Oliver Sipple, moved her hand so that Ford was not hit.[16]PresidentsJohn F. Kennedy andRonald Reagan were guests of the hotel. The St. Francis also hosted many world leaders, including QueenElizabeth II andEmperor Hirohito of Japan.
When Western International became Westin Hotels in 1981, the hotel was also renamed, becoming The Westin St. Francis.
In March 2016,Anbang Insurance Group, aBeijing-basedChinese insurance company, purchased the property as part of a $6.5 billion deal involving the St. Francis and 15 other luxury hotels and resorts.[17]
In April 2018, the hotel completed a four-year renovation of its landmark building at a cost of $45 million. Work included redecorating guest rooms and corridors, enlarging some bathrooms to include walk-in showers and upgrading the elevator systems to usedestination dispatch.[18]
Beginning in November 2009Unite Here Local 2, representing San Francisco hotel workers, asked the public to boycott the Westin St. Francis Hotel because the hotel's owner,Starwood had not renewed a previously settled contract with workers with respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions.[19][20] The hotel was one of eight in San Francisco boycotted, and was scene to many protests including picketing.[21] and even aflash mob.[22] In April 2011, the union reached an agreement withStarwood.[23]
In September 2024, workers at the Westin St. Francis Hotel went on strike.[24][25] As of December 2, 2024, the strike remains ongoing and slated to last past the upcoming holidays.[26]
The hotel is distinctive for a historic lobbymaster clock, the first in theWestern United States, andcelebrity chefMichael Mina's Bourbon Steakhouse restaurant, which replaced his self-named restaurant and was formerly the Compass Rose and before that the Patent Leather Bar, designed byTimothy L. Pflueger.
The hotel displays a small collection ofphotographic prints produced byAnsel Adams to advertise the former Patent Leather Bar, and keeps some old traditions such as an official hotelhistorian and the industry's only remaining coin cleaning service for guests.[27]
A collection of hotel memorabilia is on display in the lobby, arranged by decade and featuring items such as vintage keys, dining ware, room service bills, photographs, and media articles.
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