Fairmont Hotel (Fairmont San Francisco)
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Just nearing completion at the time of the 1906 earthquake and fire, the Fairmont Hotel's exterior walls survived. A reconstruction was completed in one year under the design of Julia Morgan, the first licensed female architect in California. In 1945, international delegates met in the Fairmont to lay the groundwork for the United Nations (UN). The UN's charter was signed in the hotel's Garden Room. In the Fairmont's Venetian Room, Tony Bennett first performed his famed signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." A statue of Mr. Bennett now stands in front of the hotel near the corner of Mason and California streets. The Fairmont is also on the National Register of Historic Places and is a San Francisco Landmark.
Images
2009 view of The Fairmont San Francisco, looking across intersection of California and Mason streets (Bobak Ha'Eri)
Close-up of front entrance to the Fairmont, a projecting granite portico (Kiernat 2001)
Interior view of restored ornate finishes in main lobby of Fairmont Hotel (Kiernat 2001)
Interior view of Laurel Court Restaurant in Fairmont Hotel (Kiernat 2001)
2010 view of lobby of Fairmont Hotel (Dan Martin)
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The Fairmont Hotel was built--almost--in 1906, for sisters Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, who wanted to honor their father, U.S. Senator James Graham Fair (1831-1894). The architect was Reid Brothers. The structure was nearly complete at the time of the 1906 earthquake, and although the building itself survived, the interior was destroyed by the three-day-long fire that followed.
The building then underwent a year-long repair and renovation, which was led by Julia Morgan. At a time when it was virtually unheard of for women to enter the profession, Morgan became the first licensed female architect in California and would later design the Hearst Castle. Morgan was chosen to rebuild the hotel because of her expertise with reinforced concrete, and a year to the day after the earthquake, the Fairmont Hotel finally opened.
Since that time, the luxury hotel has witnessed plenty of history. It was here, in 1945, that international delegates met to lay the groundwork for the United Nations (UN). The UN's charter was signed in the hotel's Garden Room. And every U.S. president since Harry Truman has stayed at the Fairmont Hotel, in the presidential suite. It was also in the Fairmont--in its lovely Venetian Room--that Tony Bennett first performed his famed signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."
The Fairmont Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 for its Beaux-Arts Classical architecture and its role in the United Nations; it became a San Francisco Landmark in 1986. The historic steel-framed, reinforced concrete building on a rusticated granite base began as six stories, clad in white terra cotta; a seventh floor and penthouse were added in 1927, set back from the main facade, behind the parapet. The cornice and parapet also were originally clad in white terra cotta; to comply with earthquake codes, they were removed in 1984 and reproduced in glass fiber reinforced concrete. Excluded from the building's significance was the 29-story Fairmont Tower, built in 1960 to contain more hotel rooms, on the northeast corner of the block occupied by the hotel. The main public interior spaces were restored to their 1907 appearance in 1999 to 2000.
Sources
http://www.historichotels.org/hotels-resorts/the-fairmont-hotel-san-francisco/ Retrieved 9 May 2017.
Kiernat, Carolyn. NRHP nomination, Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason St., San Francisco, CA. National Register of Historic Places. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2001.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_San_Francisco#/media/File:2009-0722-FairmontSF.jpg
National Park Service (NPS): https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/02000373
NPS: https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/02000373
NPS: https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/02000373
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lobby_Fairmont_Hotel,_San_Francisco,_Feb._1,_2010.jpg