Pedestrian Tale: Nob Hill

Story and Photos by Glen Brewer

Valarie Huff delights and informs visitors on walking tours of San Francisco's historic neighborhood.

San Francisco's grandest mansions were built on Nob Hill. But they were all doomed. A disastrous earthquake struck San Francisco early in the morning of April 18, 1906 causing death and destruction. Gas lines and water lines were severed. A fire swept across the core of the city, and little water was available to fight it. Nob Hill was not spared.

Valarie Huff, founder of Hobnob Tours, leads walking tours through the neighborhood. She greeted each of her six participants as we gathered, at the edge of today's Nob Hill, outside the entrance of the grand, old, Beaux Arts, Fairmont Hotel. Inside, we toured the public rooms, then found seats in the plush, colonnaded lobby while Valarie told us of the nabobs: a silver barron and four partners who built the Central Pacific Railroad. It was for them, and their mansions that Nob Hill was named.

Directly across Mason Street from the Fairmont, we could not miss seeing the 42 room brownstone mansion of James C. Flood. Flood had made his fortune in Nevada's Comstock mines. Sandstone for the building was quarried in Connecticut, cut in New Jersey and shipped around Cape Horn to San Francisco. Only the Flood mansion and the still unfinished Fairmont survived the fire. Both buildings were completely gutted but were rebuilt.

As Valarie led us west, past the Flood mansion, to Huntington Park, California Street Cable Cars clanged and clattered past us. We found seats by a fanciful fountain while she told us of the mansion that once occupied the site. Originally built by David Colton, a Central Pacific attorney, the massive, white, wooden structure was eventually acquired by one of Central Pacific's "Big Four", the real brains behind the railroad empire, Collis P. Huntington. Huntington, who spent most of his time in the east, had at first disapproved when his partners built ostentatious palaces just when public criticism of their wealth and business tactics was reaching a feverous pitch. Mrs. Huntington still lived there at the time of the earthquake. She donated the land to the city as a park for all the people to enjoy.

Across Taylor Street, west of the park, stood the home of Charles Crocker. Crocker was used to having his way. He had successfully commanded the disparate troops of men who built the Central Pacific from Sacramento, over the high Sierras, to a meeting with the Union Pacific at Promontory Summit, Utah. The transcontinental railway connection was completed, years ahead of schedule, on May 10, 1869. In his book, "The Big Four", Oscar Lewis, commented that, "Crocker's egotism grew with his years and weight, and business associates found him increasingly gruff in manner, dogmatic in upholding his views, and intolerant of opposition."

A single house stood in his way: a corner home owned by Nicholas Yong, a stubborn German undertaker who lived there with his family. Young refused Crocker's every offer. A contemporary photograph clearly shows what happened next: Crocker ordered a rude board fence built around his neighbor's house. The fence, twelve meters high, enclosed the building on three sides, plunging the family home into perpetual gloom. Only the chimney tops of the unfortunate Young's house can be seen.

Of course, the hapless Young eventually gave in. His house and the fence were removed, and Crocker could finally call the whole block his own. His mansion stood complete with a four story tower from which the view of San Francisco and the bay must have been grand.

After the fire, the property was donated by the family. On the spot now stands the French Gothic style Grace Cathedral. It is known for its main doors cast from original molds for the Gates of Paradise in Florence and for its labyrinths, stained glass, carillon, organs, and choir. Valarie stood by as we leisurely explored the interior wonders of this third largest Episcopal cathedral in the United States.

Backtracking along California Street, we walked to the Big Four Restaurant. Inside, on rich, wood paneled walls, is a fine collection of historic photographs of Nob Hill and the nabobs who lived there.

Continuing east on California Street we visited the Mark Hopkins and, finally, the Stanford Court Hotels. The land where these two noteworthy hostelries stand was the first property acquired by the nabobs. Leland Stanford, figurehead president of the Central Pacific Railroad and former governor of California, bought the land along California Street on the then treeless, wind-swept and hopelessly steep slope. Not coincidentally, Stanford was a major financier of the California Street Cable Railway. Thanks to Andrew Hallidie's new cable cars, Nob Hill was about to become a popular place to build. The cable cars easily traveled up steep hills that were a real effort for a horse with a wagon or a carriage. Stanford shared his whole block purchase with another of the four, Mark Hopkins, treasurer for the partners.

Actually, Mary Hopkins was the chief instigator and planer of their ornate, forty room mansion complete with torrents and towers; Mr. Hopkins was a quiet, reserved man, not given to ostentation. Reluctantly, he indulged his wife. He never had to live in the highly elaborate wooden structure though; he died in 1878 before the house was finished.

In lobby of the Stanford Court, beneath the trademark Tiffany glass dome, we said our goodbyes entertained, educated and even exercised.

More Information
Valarie Daum Huff is founder of Hobnob Tours of San Francisco. She is a Director of the San Francisco Opera Guild and a member of the California Historical Society. Hobnob has a web site at http://www.hobnobtours.com. She may be reached, toll free, at (866) 851-1123 or fax her at (650) 851-1123.

Photo captions

1. In the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel, Valarie Huff explains how Nob Hill got its name.

2. Huntington Park and the James C. Flood mansion. This was the only mansion on Nob Hill to survive the earthquake although it was badly gutted by the subsequent fire.

3. A California Street Cable Railway car on the ascent to San Francisco's Nob Hill.