{"id":988,"date":"2020-11-03T15:31:43","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T20:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stanleyturkel.com\/wp\/?p=988"},"modified":"2020-11-03T15:31:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T20:31:43","slug":"nobody-asked-me-but-no-238-the-fairmont-hotel-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stanleyturkel.com\/wp\/uncategorized\/nobody-asked-me-but-no-238-the-fairmont-hotel-in-san-francisco\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 238: The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nobody Asked Me, But\u2026 No.\n238: Hotel History: The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stanley Turkel | October 13, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"https:\/\/www.hotel-online.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fairmont-San-Francisco.jpg\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

by Stanley Turkel, CMHS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hotel History: The Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, CA (592 rooms)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The luxurious Grande Dame atop Nob Hill in San Francisco was\nnamed after U.S. Senator James Graham Fair (1834-1894) by his daughters,\nTheresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt. When the silver king James\nFair purchased the site back in the late 1800s, his interest was to build the\nlargest mansion in the neighborhood. However, when he died in 1894, the lot was\nstill undeveloped until 1907 when his daughters commissioned the architectural\nand engineering firm of Reid & Reid to design a large hotel in Italian\nRenaissance style. The Reid brothers: James (1851-1943), Merrit (1855-1932) and\nWatson (1858-1944) designed a 600-room, seven story building made of gray\ngranite, cream marble and terracotta stone. Before the new hotel could open,\nthe 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire gutted the structure. New\nowners Herbert and Hartland Law, makers of a popular patent medicine, undertook\nthe major effort to rebuild the Fairmont. They hired Stanford White of the\nprominent architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White. Unfortunately, White\nwas involved in a love triangle and was shot and killed by multimillionaire\nHarry Thaw. The Law brothers then hired local architect Julia Morgan, the first\nwoman graduate of the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (and the genius\nbehind the grandiose Hearst Castle). One year later, on April 18, 1907, the\nFairmont Hotel opened and in 1908, Theresa Fair Oelrichs reacquired the\nrestored hotel. The Fairmont quickly became San Francisco\u2019s most famous hotel\nattracting families for long stays of two to three months. The Fairmont\nprovided a thoroughly-equipped school featuring music, dance, art and a\ncomplete curriculum of subject matter. In 1926, the eighth floor was added\nincluding the 6,000 square foot Penthouse Suite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1917, D.M. Linnard assumed the management and in 1924 bought\nthe controlling interest from the Oelrichs family. In 1929, he sold the\nFairmont to George Smith, a mining engineer who had just completed the Mark\nHopkins Hotel. Smith undertook a major renovation and installed an indoor pool,\nthe Fairmont Plunge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For eleven weeks in 1945, the Fairmont was the Capital of the\nWorld hosting delegates from more than forty nations representing eighty\npercent of the world\u2019s population to write the United Nations Charter. On June\n26, 1945, President Harry Truman signed the new Charter. At about the same\ntime, financier and philanthropist Benjamin Swig purchased fifty-four percent\nof the Fairmont for $2 million which he described as follows: \u201cWhen I bought\nthe hotel, it was obsolete. It was more of an apartment house for the extremely\nrich, many of whom were characters in the true sense of the word. It was\nrundown and neglected. The plumbing was bursting \u2013 we had ten to fifteen leaks\na day \u2013 there was no carpet on the floor and the whole thing was just an old\nladies home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swig quickly learned that the Plunge pool was not a money maker.\nHe decided to convert it into a restaurant and bar called the S.S. Tonga after\nMel Melvin, MGM\u2019s leading set designer found an old four-masted schooner by\nthat name rotting in the mud near Martinez. Guests were soon dining on Chinese\nfood, enjoying exotic drinks on the schooner\u2019s deck, gazing into the blue water\nof the former Plunge now featuring a floating stage for the orchestra in the\nTonga Room. The ambiance was heightened by staged tropical storms, complete\nwith lightning and misty rain falling from concealed sprinklers. Swig hired\nDorothy Draper, the famous decorator, to transform the lobby and the public\nareas. The million dollar modernization program was completed in 1950. The\nSan Francisco Chronicle<\/em> reported that almost six miles of fabric and\nthree miles of carpeting had been used in the renovation. One critic raved that\nDraper had \u201ccaptured the spirit of the past, the romantic glamour of the\nChampagne days, the traditions of the city blended with the modern.\u201d She added\nthe \u201cDraper Touch\u201d to the Venetian Room Supper Club which opened in 1947 with\n400 seats. It attracted top-flight entertainers like Ethel Waters, Nat King\nCole, Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner, Sammy Davis, Jr., Lena Horne, Red Skelton,\nJames Brown, Judy Collins, Tony Bennett (who sang \u201cI Left My Heart in San\nFrancisco\u201d for the first time here in 1962) and the Ernie Heckscher Band that\nplayed for 36 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1961, Ben Swig built an adjoining 23-story tower with the\nCrown Room on the top floor and a glass elevator on the outside of the tower\nwith the best views of the city. He also added the Merry-Go-Round Bar to the\nfamous Cirque Lounge with its wild animals murals and wrap-around bar designed\nby Art Deco architect Tim Pflueger in 1933.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The famous 1983 television series \u201cHotel<\/em>\u201d based on the\nbest-selling novel by Arthur Hailey was filmed in the lobby of the Fairmont for\nthe fictional \u201cSt. Gregory Hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Swig family sold the hotel in 1994 to Maritz, Wolffe &\nCo. and Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talel who operated 94 hotels\nworldwide under the Raffles, Fairmont and Swissotel brands. In 2012, Oaktree\nCapital Management and Woodridge Capital Partners acquired the Fairmont San\nFrancisco for $200 million after Maritz, Wolffe & Co. failed to win\npermission to convert part of the property into residences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, it was reported that the Fairmont\u2019s Tonga Room, the\nvenerable tiki bar, which opened in 1945, might be demolished to make room for\na condo conversion in an adjacent tower. The New York Times<\/em> reported\non April 3, 2009 that \u201c\u2026 San Franciscans have rallied around the Tonga Room.\nThey\u2019ve written letters, signed petitions and defiantly consumed more than\ntheir fair share of deep-dish drinks in this temple of tropical kitsch at the\ntop of Nob Hill\u2026.one of the finest examples of faux Polynesian paradise\naround.\u201d As of May, 2016, the Tonga Room has enjoyed a resurgence and there\u2019s\nbeen no decision as to its ultimate fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Oaktree and Woodridge sold the Fairmont San Francisco\nfor $450 million to affiliated companies of Mirae Asset Global Investments, a\nlarge financial services company based in Seoul, South Korea. Since 2011, the\nfirm has acquired commercial real estate properties valued over $8 billion\nincluding the 317-room  Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, the 531-room Four\nSeasons Hotel Sydney, the 540-room Fairmont Orchid Hotel and the 282-room\nCourtyard by Marriott Seoul Pangyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fairmont San Francisco was added to the National Register of\nHistoric Places on April 17, 2002.  It is a member of Historic Hotels of\nAmerica, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My New Book \u201cHotel Mavens Volume 3: Bob and Larry Tisch, Curt\nStrand, Ralph Hitz, Cesar Ritz, Raymond Orteig<\/strong>\u201d has been published.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Other Published Hotel Books<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n