Palace Hotel

Under a glass ceiling held on slender iron ribs, lunch is served in a room that began life as a carriage court. The Garden Court is the heart of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, which the banker William Ralston conceived and which opened on Market Street on 2 October 1875 as the largest hotel in the world.

History

Ralston, the driving force of the Bank of California, poured much of his fortune into the project. In August 1875 the bank failed, and Ralston drowned in the bay the next day, weeks before the opening. His partner William Sharon completed the hotel. It had 755 rooms, hydraulic lifts and a central court into which carriages drove to set down their passengers, and it became the first stop for visiting presidents, singers and financiers.

On 18 April 1906 the tenor Enrico Caruso was staying at the Palace when the earthquake struck. The building withstood the shaking, but the fire that followed destroyed it. The owners rebuilt to designs by the New York firm Trowbridge & Livingston, and the new Palace opened in December 1909, its carriage court enclosed as the Garden Court. President Warren G. Harding died in a suite here on 2 August 1923. The same year the kitchen created Green Goddess dressing in honour of the actor George Arliss, then appearing in a play of that name. The Japanese company Kyo-ya has owned the hotel since the 1970s and restored it at the start of the 1990s, and it is now part of Marriott's Luxury Collection.

Architecture and design

The 1909 exterior is restrained, a block of brick and stone with a corner on Market Street. The interiors carry the drama. The Garden Court is a long, tall room under a ceiling of leaded and stained glass, lit at night by crystal chandeliers, with marble columns along its sides. Off the lobby, the Pied Piper bar takes its name from the mural by Maxfield Parrish, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, painted for the reopening in 1909. In 2013 the owners removed it with a view to selling it; after a public outcry the painting was restored and returned to its place above the bar.

Dining

The Garden Court serves breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea under the glass, and its Sunday service has been a San Francisco custom for generations. The Pied Piper bar serves drinks and meals beneath the Parrish mural, and Green Goddess dressing is still on the menu.

Wellness

The hotel has an indoor swimming pool under a skylight, with a fitness centre beside it, an unusual feature in a downtown building of this age.

Weddings and events

The Garden Court is one of the most sought-after rooms in the city for weddings and gala dinners, and the Gold Ballroom and a series of smaller rooms serve receptions, conferences and meetings.

Location

The hotel stands at Market and New Montgomery Streets, where the Financial District meets South of Market. Montgomery Street station, served by BART and Muni, is beneath Market Street at the door, and BART runs direct to San Francisco International Airport in about 30 minutes. Union Square is a few blocks west, SFMOMA a block or two south, and the Ferry Building lies at the foot of Market Street. Among the luxury hotels in San Francisco, none has a longer claim on the city's history.