Occidental Hotel

Construction of the hotel occurred in three stages between 1861 and 1869, and it opened upon completion of the first section on the southeast corner of Montgomery and Bush Streets, under the direction of architect Caleb Hyatt. Hyatt designed an Italianate, four-story building, and the style was preserved by subsequent architects.{{cite news | title =Occidental | newspaper =Daily Alta California | location =San Francisco | pages =1 | publisher =Frederick MacCrellish | date =September 27, 1861 | url =http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DAC18610927.2.2 | access-date = February 18, 2015}} Along with the nearby Masonic Hall, the Occidental towered above all other buildings in its vicinity and was visible from outside the city. Its accommodations were elegant and spacious.{{cite news | title =The Montgomery Street Buildings | newspaper =Daily Alta California | location =San Francisco | pages =1 | publisher =Frederick MacCrellish | date =December 3, 1861 | url =http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DAC18611203.2.2 }}

The second phase of construction was directed by architect Thomas Johnston, and the third phase by architect William Mooser.{{cite book | last =Smith | first =James R. | title =San Francisco's Lost Landmarks | publisher =Word Dancer Press | date =July 1, 2005 | pages =iBook, 556–557 | isbn =978-1884995446}}

During an investigation into the construction of the former San Francisco City Hall in the early 1870s, Johnston testified that the Occidental was constructed with foundation rocks quarried from Angel Island, built with wood floors and joists, and reinforced with iron bands used for structural stabilization. Another architect, Stephen H. Williams, estimated the construction costs of the hotel to be between sixteen and eighteen cents per square foot.{{cite book | title =Testimony and Proceedings of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Conduct of the Board of Commissioners of the City Hall of San Francisco | publisher =State of California | series = Appendix to the Journals of Senate and Assembly of the Nineteenth Session of the Legislature of the State of California | volume =IV | date =1872 | location =San Francisco | pages =78, 82 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CKFCAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA78}}

Theatrical agent and author Edward Peron Hingston described the hotel in 1863,

:An air of sumptuous splendor and easeful comfort strikes us immediately as we enter the doors, as being characteristics of the house. Newly built, only a portion of the intended edifice completed, and the grand staircase not yet opened, the Occidental is but an incomplete sample of that which it is intended to be. The interior fittings are those of a first-class hotel; the bedrooms are airy, the beds soft and large; the salle-a-manger is a spacious hall, with elaborate embellishments and columns of noble proportions. There are breakfast rooms and supper rooms, hot and cold baths for everybody, well-carpeted stairs, elegant drawing rooms for the use of the ladies, pianos of the best manufacture, and lounges and rocking chairs of the most luxurious construction. The attendance is far better than in most English hotels, with none of that bowing and scraping servility among the waiters which constitutes the most offensive form of attention. Our two dollars and a half per day includes attendance.{{cite book | last =Smith | first =Andrew F. | title =Food and Drink in American History | publisher = ABC-CLIO | date =October 28, 2013 | location =Santa Barbara | pages =1229 | isbn =978-1610692328}}

Hotel service included vases of flowers and platters of fruit delivered to guestrooms when a new guest arrived.{{cite book | last =Kahn | first =Edgar Myron | title =Cable Car Days in San Francisco | publisher =Stanford University Press | date =1944 | location =Oakland | pages =4}}

Some of the guests who stayed at the hotel included Robert Louis Stevenson, Lillie Hitchcock Coit, and Mark Twain. In his notebook from February, 1865, Twain wrote, "26th{{dash}}Home again{{dash}}home again at the Occidental Hotel."{{cite book | editor-last =Anderson | editor-first =Frederick | title =Mark Twain's Notebooks & Journals | publisher =University of California Press | volume =I | date =1975 | location =Oakland | pages =[https://archive.org/details/marktwainsnotebo0000twai_i3u6/page/82 82] | isbn =978-0520023260 | url =https://archive.org/details/marktwainsnotebo0000twai_i3u6/page/82 }} Ralph Waldo Emerson stayed at the hotel while on the lecture circuit.{{cite book | last =Rusk | first =Ralph L. | title =The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson | publisher =Columbia University Press | volume =6 | date =October 15, 1939 | location =New York | pages =149 | isbn =978-0231007245}} The hotel attracted authors and intellectuals at least partly because The Golden Era, a weekly literary magazine, was headquartered there. Joaquin Miller described the magazine's offices as gaudily carpeted and gorgeously furnished.{{cite book | last1 =Foster | first1 =Michael | last2 =Foster | first2 =Barbara | title = Dangerous Woman: The Life, Loves, And Scandals Of Adah Isaacs Menken, 1835-1868, America's Original Superstar | publisher =Lyons Press | date =February 1, 2011 | location = Guilford, Connecticut | pages =162 | isbn = 978-1599216027}} Union Army general Henry Morris Naglee died at the hotel in 1886 {{cite news |title=General Naglee Dead |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DAC18860306.2.9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-------- |access-date=20 October 2023 |issue=40 |publisher=Daily Alta California |date=March 6, 1886}} and British-born American missionary, Harriet G. Brittan, died at the hotel in 1897.

The restaurant and bar at the hotel were among San Francisco's informal meeting venues for political and business discussions. Bartender Jerry Thomas claimed to have invented the Martini at the Occidental, although other origins have been suggested.{{cite book | last =Conrad III | first =Barnaby | title =The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic | publisher =Chronicle Books | date =April 1, 1995 | location =San Francisco | pages =[https://archive.org/details/martiniillustra00conr/page/20 20] | isbn =978-0811807173 | url-access =registration | url =https://archive.org/details/martiniillustra00conr/page/20 }} Developing drinks there, in other major cities, and in four saloons he operated in New York City in the late 19th century, Thomas is considered the "father of American mixology."Pete Wells, [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/dining/21cocktail.html Frost on the Sun: Summertime Cocktails], New York Times, June 21, 2006. In 1863 he was earning $100 per week at the Occidental, higher pay than the vice-president of the United States.William Grimes, [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/dining/31cock.html The Bartender Who Started It All], New York Times, October 31, 2007.

The day of the San Francisco earthquake, Henry Pittock, publisher of The Oregonian, was a guest in the hotel. Although not injured by falling debris, Pittock said that his suitcase was "flattened like a pancake."{{cite news | title =H.L. Pittock's Narrow Escape | newspaper =The Oregonian | location =Portland | pages =5 | publisher =Henry Pittock | date =April 22, 1906 | url =http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83045782/1906-04-22/ed-1/seq-5/ | access-date = February 18, 2015}} Journalist Ashton Stevens was also a guest, and he wrote, "When the ceiling came down on the top floor of the Occidental Hotel we fled with barely enough clothes for panic modesty."{{cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nIlGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA110|title=Human Kindness in Wrecked San Francisco|last=Stevens|first=Ashton|date=May 5, 1906|newspaper=The Public (reprinted from Coast Seamen's Journal, April 25, 1906)|access-date=February 18, 2015|publisher=Louis F. Post|location=Chicago|pages=110}} Author Gertrude Atherton had stored some of her belongings at the hotel, and when she arrived to claim them after the earthquake, all she could find were 40,000 words of the yet unpublished manuscript, Ancestors.{{cite book | last =Leider | first =Emily Wortis | title =California's Daughter: Gertrude Atherton and her Times | url =https://archive.org/details/californiasdaugh00leid | url-access =registration | publisher =Stanford University Press | date =1991 | location =Oakland | pages =[https://archive.org/details/californiasdaugh00leid/page/207 207–208]| isbn =9780804718202 }}

The hotel was damaged in the earthquake, and it was immediately evacuated. The ensuing fire that destroyed much of San Francisco also claimed the Occidental, and the remaining structure soon was demolished. Salvage estimators valued the earthquake-damaged hotel before the fire at $285,000 and after the fire at $15,000, a loss of $270,000.{{cite news | title =Large Losses Reported | newspaper =San Francisco Call | pages =44 | publisher =John D. Spreckles | date =September 9, 1906 | url =http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19060909.2.166&srpos=61 | access-date = February 18, 2015}} By comparison, the property had been appraised eleven years earlier upon the death of owner Joseph Donohoe whose half interest in the hotel amounted to $481,250, making the total value of the hotel in 1895 worth almost a million dollars. Using the pre-earthquake figure, the loss was about $950,000.{{cite news | title =J.A. Donohoe's Estate | newspaper =San Francisco Call | pages =13 | publisher =John D. Spreckles | date =November 2, 1895 | url =http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18951102.2.148.3&srpos=153 | access-date = February 18, 2015}}

In 1870, Laura Fair stayed at the Occidental Hotel with the Crittenden family prior to murdering Alexander Crittenden.{{cite book | last =Haber | first =Carole | title =The Trials of Laura Fair: Sex, Murder, and Insanity in the Victorian West | publisher =University of North Carolina Press | date =August 1, 2013 | location =Chapel Hill | pages =35 (figure 1.10) | isbn =978-1469607580}}

The Occidental Cigar Club in San Francisco's Financial District takes its name from the Occidental Hotel.{{cite web | title =Occidental Cigar Club History | publisher =Occidental Cigar Club | url =http://www.occidentalcigarclub.com/history.htm | access-date = February 18, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131126222207/http://occidentalcigarclub.com/history.htm | archive-date = November 26, 2013}}

• History of San Francisco
• Hotel

File:Occidental House, San Francisco, Cal, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg

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{{commons-inline|Occidental Hotel (San Francisco, 1861-1906)|Occidental Hotel}}

• [http://www.twainquotes.com/18640623t.html Mark Twain], "...verily the Occidental Hotel is Heaven on the half shell."
• [https://archive.org/stream/sanfranciscoinr00alligoog#page/n68/mode/2up Photograph] of Montgomery Street after the earthquake and fire that claimed the Occidental Hotel.

Category:Hotels in San Francisco

Category:Buildings and structures burned in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

Category:Defunct hotels in California

Category:Demolished hotels in California

Category:1861 establishments in California

Category:Commercial buildings completed in 1869

Category:1906 disestablishments in California

Category:History of San Francisco

Category:Burned hotels in the United States