Adolph B. Spreckels

Spreckels was born in San Francisco, California. His parents were Anna Christina Mangels and Claus Spreckels, founder of the Spreckels Sugar Company. At the age of 12, Adolph studied abroad in Hanover, Germany, for two years, returning to San Francisco to finish his studies.

When the company was founded in 1881, he was named a vice-president. Spreckels succeeded his father as company president upon the latter's death in 1908. In 1884, he shot Michael de Young, the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, over negative coverage of his family’s business. This act made people aware of the unchecked privilege of the wealthy elite in the late 19th century.{{cite news | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/11/20/103627417.pdf | title="MIKE" DE YOUNG SHOT.; ATTEMPT AT MURDER BY A MAN WHO DIDN'T LIKE CRITICISM | work=The New York Times | date=November 20, 1884 }} Spreckels pleaded temporary insanity to the charge of attempted murder and was acquitted.{{cite news | url=http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/color-it-gone/Content?oid=2132474 | title=Color It Gone | work=SF Weekly | first=Ellen | last=McGarrahan | date=October 4, 1995 | accessdate=2015-02-05 | df=mdy-all | archive-date=2015-09-19 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919121550/http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/color-it-gone/Content?oid=2132474 | url-status=dead }}

The California Palace of the Legion of Honor was championed by his wife, and paid for from the Spreckels fortune. It was merged with the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in 1972 and became the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/04/arts/art-view-to-france-via-the-golden-gate-bridge.html | title=ART VIEW; To France Via the Golden Gate Bridge | work=The New York Times | date=June 4, 1989 | first=John | last=Russell | accessdate=2008-01-14|df=mdy-all}}

Spreckels was president of the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway, vice-president of the Western Sugar Company and the Oceanic Steamship Company, and was a director of the Sunset Monarch Company. He served as a San Francisco Park Commissioner and was involved in the development of Golden Gate Park. Spreckels Lake is named after him.{{cite book | title=Press Reference Library (Southwest Edition): Notables of the Southwest | year=1912 | work=Los Angeles Examiner | page=341 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hy_aN5xSCisC&q=adolph+spreckels&pg=PA340}} Spreckels Organ Pavilion in San Diego's Balboa Park, housing the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world, was built by Spreckels and his brother, John. John commissioned Spreckels Organ in the Palace of the Legion of Honor in tribute to Adolph, who died before it was completed.{{cite web | url=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/bpbuildings/organ.htm | title=The Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park | publisher=San Diego Historical Society | first=Richard | last=Amero | accessdate=2008-01-10| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20071231035645/http://www.sandiegohistory.org/bpbuildings/organ.htm| archivedate= 31 December 2007 | url-status= live|df=mdy-all}}

Spreckels owned and bred race horses, including Morvich, the first California-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby in 1922, in a time of 2:04.60.{{Cite web |last=Hall |first=Tom |date=September 1, 2021 |title=Morvich Became First Cal-Bred to Win Kentucky Derby – Look Back Colt enjoyed an 11-for-11 juvenile season in 1921 |url=https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/252881/morvich-became-first-cal-bred-to-win-kentucky-derby |access-date=February 1, 2024 |website=BLOODHORSE For More Than 100 years |publisher=Blood-Horse LLC.}}

He and Alma de Bretteville were married on May 11, 1908, after a five-year courtship. They had three children, daughter, Alma Emma, son, Adolph Bernard, Jr., and daughter, Dorothy Constance. His grandson, Adolph Bernard Spreckels III, better known as Bunker Spreckels, would become a well-known surfer in the 1960s and 1970s.

After the birth of his last daughter, Spreckels' health began to deteriorate due to syphilis he had contracted before his marriage. He had kept the disease secret from his wife, but during most of their marriage it had been in a latent, non-contagious state. Spreckels died in 1924 from pneumonia.

{{Main|Spreckels Mansion (San Francisco)}}

The family's mansion, located at 2080 Washington Street in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, was designed by George A. Applegarth and Kenneth A. MacDonald Jr. in the French Baroque style.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Spreckels-Mansion-s-limestone-is-hidden-by-hedge-5044941.php|title=Spreckels Mansion's limestone is hidden by hedge - SFChronicle.com|date=2013-12-08|website=www.sfgate.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-14}} The chateau was designated as San Francisco Landmark #197 on June 9, 1990.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.sfcta.org/sites/default/files/content/Programming/OBAG/reference/historic%20landmarks%20list.pdf|title=SAN FRANCISCO PRESERVATION BULLETIN NO. 9: SAN FRANCISCO LANDMARKS|date=January 2003|page=18}}{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

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Adolph B. Spreckels

Category:Businesspeople from San Francisco

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:American sugar industry businesspeople

Category:American racehorse owners and breeders

Category:Philanthropists from California

Category:1857 births

Category:1924 deaths

Category:Deaths from pneumonia in California

Category:People acquitted by reason of insanity