What Happened to Mark Hopkin's Mansion in San Francisco?
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2024
- Have you ever heard of the Mark Hopkins Mansion? Built in 1878, it topped our San Francisco’s skyline, but what happened to it? Let’s explore the history of this lost mansion in this short video.
Location: San Francisco California
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What Happened to Mark Hopkin's Mansion in San Francisco?
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My family has been in the same house in SF for the past 81 years.
That’s wonderful! Hang on to it!
Want a cookie?
@@W.Vanderbilt Why you giving them out?
You'd have to hold a property for that long in SF to pay it off, I feel like. Unless you're a tech genius or trust fund kid, no one is buying property in SF these days. But I'm just a jealous poor person, so I could be wrong about that.
@@lbatemon1158 in today's market yeah lol back then it was so much more affordable
That earthquake did so much damage. It's ashame San Francisco lost all those amazing buildings and mansions. Another great historic video, as always Ken!
The fire destroyed so much more than the earthquake itself.
Yes, it's truly ashame.
@@kennixox262
The Army using black powder explosives to make kindling did not help. Given the equipment of the time they were SOL. The Camp Fire and others like it show that even today we have poor control of how a fire can act. A good book of the disaster is “ the complete story of the San Francisco Horror “ by Richard Linthicum. Bonanza Inn is another good book on San Francisco history.
Remember that most damage was from the fires that burned out of control for days. Not the quake itself
@@gotsloco1810 They had no choice. The fire was out of control. Since the water mains were all broken, dynamiting buildings in it's path was their only choice. By dynamiting the houses on Van Ness Avenue they saved Pacific Heights, Richmond, and western San Francisco.
The house burning down is a great loss to the cultural heritage of San Francisco.
All that construction & stunning craftsmanship, just - gone. One fire is all it takes to erase all that was gained & achieved. This is very sad!!
I've been aware of this house for some time, and thinks it's absolutely spectacular. Bad enough it's gone, but to think it was less then thirty years old makes it especially tragic. It's a shame that these houses weren't/aren't extensively photographed inside and out for posterity. Thanks for the interesting information pertaining to its origins.
It is absolutely sickening! Fine old buildings can last 400 years with ease!
Yes, it’s sad, but remember that photography was still in its relative infancy in those days, too. It’s amazing that *any* of it was photographed.
@@777jones Just imagine that dude who had it built then, was more “foreword thinking” & instead, had implemented its construction with steel & concrete at least 3 stories below ground.. it “might” have withstood the ‘06 quake & subsequent fires. So often during that timeframe, where massively ostentatious mansions built for various tycoons, barons, aristocrats & such.. a complete and total waste of several old-growth forests’ equivalent of lumber; so many of which have either burned down, been demolished &/or, abandoned over the past century. THAT’S sickening
@@wendyannh That's true, it wasn't until the 1920s that photography was much more common (this house being gone by then). I lived near a town called Plainfield, which was in the state of NJ. It's amazing how many houses were photographed at that time. I think the main problem was that people from the 20s and onward, didn't value these houses. They were considered out of date and were often altered to "modernize" them. Finally now, we realize what we had.
@@777jones well, not ones stuck in an 8.1 quake and massive conflagration.
I own two monumental vases from the library of the MH mansion. Many objects from the house survived the fire because Mrs. Hopkins bought the Senator Latham mansion down in Menlo Park at a Bancruptcy auction and moved into it with her new husband, Searles, the designer from Herter Brothers the NYC design interior firm that designed both mansion’s interiors and took several pieces from the Nob Hill mansion with her. The vases weigh about 100 pounds each and are French and made from California white onyx together with gilt bronze ormolu in a Chinoiserie style. A tall inlaid sideboard from the dining room was heavily featured front and center in the library in the movie My Fair Lady
We have a bedroom suite from the Hopkins mansion here at Heidelberg Hall, an 1876 second empire in Schaefferstown, PA. It was used previously in Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Notorious,” with Cary Grant. We just acquired a missing bedroom suite from James C Flood’s Menlo Park residence at Linden Towers. It’s made of primavera wood, mahogany and rosewood and designed by Pottier & Stymus. Flood paid $78,000 for the suite in 1879.
The Hopkins home is my favorite of all homes. I believe my grandmother was in it when she and her mother visited San Francisco in the 1890’s.
Every Christmas as a child my grandma would take us there to stay for a few days. They would have a huge tree and a walkway through gingerbread house.
I've always thought this was the greatest mansion. Such a shame it's gone. Would loved to have seen all of San Francisco before the earthquake and fires. Years ago I read a book called "The houses of San Francisco" and it was all about the mansions and how they lived in them. Great book.
By Erin Feher? That is a wonderful book, I have a copy of it on my bookshelf.
That’s “Great Houses of San Francisco.”
So sad that beautiful house was lost. Thanks for the video. Really like these old house tours.
Thank you for your dedication to the beautiful older home!
The house wasn’t damaged much at all by the earthquake. None of them were. They were built to last. The fire did them in. Even the Flood home was burned out entirely inside. It now has two half rotundas one on either side to support the outer walls. The interior is all new as of the Pacific Union Club.
Its sad that the house burned in the fire, the architecture both inside & out looked amazing!
you should do a video on Filoli House and garden in Woodside, CA... built in 1917 ,the estate was over 600 acres ....it is stunning
What a wonderfully crafted home! Thank you for sharing these amazing photos and history. FYI everyone: the epicenter of the 1906 "San Francisco Earthquake" was about 72 miles NNW in the middle of downtown Santa Rosa, Ca. There was more loss and devastation in San Francisco because back then it was far more populated and "modern" complete with new gas pipes, gas lines and modern gas appliances. Those gas lines were shaken up by the quake 72 miles away and start huge fires that will difficult to extinguish.
Wow! That was one awesome building. It looked like you could get lost inside of it. It's too bad architecture with class will never come back.
This is so good, thank you! I live down the street and walk past the Mark Hopkins hotel often, will you do more on Nob Hill mansions? There were so many other ones that also were lost to the 06 fire…. And the top of the mark is still great!
Very interesting and very well done. It's amazing that nothing lasts forever but, in some cases, for such very short periods of time!
The discovery of an old postcard in a house in South Carolina lead me to read up on the legendary hotel. I knew nothing about the structure that preceded the hotel. The postcard is an illustrated view of SF from the hotel. Since it includes the Golden Gate Bridge, it’s post 1937. It’s probably no more recent than 1950. I’m glad that the hotel is still in operation.
I stayed at the Mark Hopkins Hotel once. Was super swank but the sidewalk alongside it has some pretty steep inclines.
Uh...did you leave a "maid tip" ! ??
Day is MADE🤩☺️
Me TOO!! Me TOO!!!
The hotel is gorgeous. They did a great job making a new building!
Thank you.
A San Francisco native. 1954
To build it today would cost a lot more than 20 million dollars. More like 100 million, IF you could find the craftsmen and first growth wood and other materials.
So much work and the exactness that had to go into all of the architecture and the work. Gorgeous mansion! Terrible that this had to have a fire!! The hotel is fabulous as well.
This is a very interesting video. wish I had known these facts when last time visiting Mark Hopkins hotel. What a beautiful home to be lost by fire.
I'm a San Francisco native. The earthquake and fire of 1906 caused the destruction of many beautiful buildings. Some were even dynamited to create fire breaks to stop the inferno. This ultimately worked, but still much of the city burned.
Over 80% of the city burned. Out of a population of 400, 000, almost 300,000 lost their homes, and an estimated 3,000 lost their lives.
So much wood with all those open flames for heat and light. An out of control fire waiting to happen. This was the fate of so many old mansions.
The broken gas mains actually started and fed the fires.
What a beautiful home. Now they build huge monstrosities that look like cold crips and call them wonderful and classy. They ate cold, hideous waste of space. This mansion was tasteful warm and full of craftsmanship.
What cost $70000000 in 1871 would cost $1639441704.34 in 2021.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2021 and 1871,
they would cost you $70000000 and $3370709.89 respectively.
Thank you for this video! I've been intrigued with the Hopkins mansion for years. Something that may now be lost in history is what the colors were for the outside of the house. I wonder if there are any written descriptions or if there might be painting of the house somewhere.
I've read that Shirley Jackson who wrote "The Haunting of Hill House" was originally from California and that her great-grandfather (?) was an architect. I wonder if Shirley Jackson's relative had any connection with the design and building of the Hopkins mansion and if the mansion may have provided some of the inspiration for the Crain mansion in the novel.
Interesting thought. Now I wonder that, too! Shirley Jackson - what a writer!
My Grandmother lived on Nob Hill as a child , The family home was destroyed in1906 quake & fire too. She lived in tent city for more than 2 years
We are all lucky there are as many photos as there are of these beautiful buildings. That earthquake, and the fires that followed, wiped out most of San Francisco. There are bits of old film footage you can find online, and several documentaries, which are fascinating. Earthquakes are definitely an issue here.
Let's hope they don't experience more disasters! I haven't even been to San Francisco yet!
@@twistoffate4791 I've been 3 times...SFO is great: art, architecture, shopping, museums, sea food, Ghiradelli chocolate, and Boudin sourdough bread (the Turtle loafs...so cute). California has earthquakes practically every day, though most can't even be felt. The 1906 Quake was a big one, at a time when most buildings were not supported by structural steel, and most people lived in wooden houses. My Mom's friends lost their house in the 1970 Sylmar quake (they considered themselves lucky, since they were the only people on their block who could get their car out of the garage!!). We had retrofit earthquake brackets installed to prevent our single story 1931 house from sliding off its foundation. Fortunately, we haven't had to test them yet. :O
@@SpanishEclectic They say there are pros & cons to every place a person can live. I think they might have something there!! San Francisco does sound like a fun destination.
Mark Hopkins moved from my old hometown of St. Clair,Michigan , to California as a young man. The family home still stands there on a hill over looking the St.Clair River. It is a large,Victorian home with turrets, still in very good repair, as it is occupied to this day. The family was prominent in town in their day.
Beautiful. Inspiring. Sad.
please do more videos on more historic mansions of other US states
What an amazing building. Such a shame it was destroyed. 😢
That was so cool. I loved my stay in the Mark Hopkins.
Please give us more San Francisco buildings. Thanks.
One of the problems they had siting the MH Hotel is the foundations for the mansion were very difficult to remove, everything was tried, including dynamite. They ended up making do incorporating & building around them
2:19 that’s the same swanky building that Kim Novak’s character lives in *Vertigo*. She parks her green Hudson outside when Scottie is following her around the city.
Why can't architects today build as good and beautiful good as those from 1600 to 1800s?
homie i truly love your viiibe and the content!!! thank you for making all of this history a present reality💜👁️💜
We don’t build mansion like that anymore!
The architect that designed the building or hotel or whatever they called it, must be under commissions to demolish the entire mansion to the ground.
They can put as many golden art inside to raise the value, but still unequal to the majesticity of the mansion that was destroyed. Another lost to humanity.
The mansion burned to the ground in the great earthquake and fire of 1906. There was nothing left of it. The property was sold and the hotel was built there.
Wow, this thing gave Downton Abbey a run for its money!
Dood that’s pretty awesome you found video of the original architect drawing out the floor plan brah
Have you ever considered covering the Winchester Mansion?
Thank you for the suggestion!
Love these videos. Congdon Mansion (Glensheen) in Duluth, MN would be a cool one to cover too. Beautiful place with a tragic history. Still stands and is open too. But the beauty is uncomparable.
You may already know about this but just in case: Glensheen was used in the movie "You'll Like My Mother" starring Patty Duke. The house could be said to be one of the characters in the movie. I became an admirer of Glensheen watching the movie.
@@andrewbrendan1579 I did know that, but it is a little known fact. I grew up in Duluth, so know some info myself, but it is such a stunning place it should be shared. Thank you for the reminder on that. Did you know the author Wendy Webb loosely based one of her books on Glensheen? She changed the estate name, but there is no mistaking its location and splendor.
@@kridder1018 This is news to me! What is the name of the Wendy Webb novel with the estate based on Glensheen?
@@andrewbrendan1579 It is called "The Vanishing." Its kinda trippy but good. All of Wendy Webb's books are based in Minnesota tho, which is cool.
@@kridder1018 Thanks!
WOW! The house is amazing!
Do the other Railroad Robber Barons' houses! I heard the Stanfords had an exceptional house near Hopkins' house? It's a shame so much was lost in the fire...
The Stanford Mansion was next door to the Mark Hopkins Mansion. And it was a beautiful house. There was a central atrium with twelve marble pillars that went up all the way to the roof. And on the ground level there was a large ballroom with windows looking down to the city below.
Please do the palace in San Francisco
I love the Mark Hopkins. 🌸
But you didn't tell anybody about all the juicy intrigue and scandal that surrounded the building of that house. You just touched on the fact that Mark Hopkins died before it was finished but the relationship that Mary had with her gay decorator 20 years her Junior , rocked the social world. He was considered a gold digger by many and admitted as such in the lawsuit decades after her death concerning the stepson in Massachusetts. Mary is really just a blip and the giant pocketbook for the buildings free that Edward Searles ensued. All that money came back to New England and produced an amazing array of fine buildings most of which are still standing. After Mary s death the stepson sued the estate in New England since he had been completely cut out of the wil Searles homosexuality provided a lot of interesting gossip and for him deftly handled by his lawyers. Had the lawsuit gone against them and certain facts been proven in court he may have been declared incompetent and lost all of that money one of the largest fortunes in America at the time. This did not happen however hush money was paid to Timothy. The interesting gossip is still repeated near the walls of pine Lodge in Methuen today. I wonder what will happen with that estate once 5he church is finished with it
Wow! I knew of the Hopkins mansion but had no idea there was such a story to go along with it.
Oh wow! Those are some juicy, dare I say, "scandalous" details!
Gay, you say? Well well. I knew she was the richest women America and I'm sure that Searles found that attractive enough.
right, he happened to be gay, in a time when such a lifestyle was maintained closeted and discrete. Their communion was the love of lovely things, architecture and art and of course enabled by her fabulous wealth that he ultimately inherited. I'm sure they both got what they needed
Cool house !!!
As a life long railroad fan, I can tell you that Mark Hopkins hated that house and referred to it as "The Hotel De Hopkins" lol. He hated his wife's need to spend money for no apparent reason.
It's ironic that his property actually became a site for a upscale hotel, after 1906. :D
Amazing how the earthquake did damage, but not NEARLY as much as the fire. Fun Fact, the anniversary of the earthquake was just 4 days ago. Another fact is a lady in hayes valley started a fire, which ended up mixing in with other fires going on at the time to create the largest fire storm in the city after the earthquake, after she tried to light her stove to make ham and eggs.
Thank you for sharing that bit of history, cheers!
It became known as The Ham and Eggs Fire.
I love the Mark Hopkins. It’s beautiful. Top of the Mark used to be a real treat to have a special dinner, now it’s an overpriced cocktail lounge with rude service. You can still get a subpar, overpriced meal downstairs if you’re hungry.
What a tragic ending for such an amazing display of architecture of that period. The new building erected on the site, although very tall like the former building, is very "vanilla" in comparison.
My wife and I honeymooned at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in 1984.
David Robert Jones Bowie (1947-2016) song "1984" from Diamond Dogs album released in 1974
It has an amazing view from the east facing side of the Bay.
I wonder if they were able to save any of the art before the house burned?
Great video.
I just found your channel, I really like it.
Thank you.
Some of the art was saved.
That wasn't even a house, it was freaking gothic castle! Oh well ....better build it out of stone next time.
I read the title as "Mark Hoppus", the singer and bassist from blink 182
I would love to tour his house!
loved it
Thanks! kinda reminds me of Bradbury house in L.A
in Bunker Hill district 😊
Such an ugly building to take the place of a beautiful mansion.
Such a magnificent building to take the place of an ugly Victorian nightmare house.
If not for the earthquake and subsequent fire, San Francisco would be the most beautiful city in the world.
Not to mention the rampant homeless problem, the endless looting, etc
Homelessness and looting are to be expected in any large urban center especially in temperate climates.
There have been poor and desperate people throughout recorded history. It’s just that we now have the radicalized GQP and their media allies to amplify that narrative.
Minus THE DRUGGIES AND LIBERALS
@@sciencerscientifico310 I was waiting for such. It is impossible to have any article on San Francisco without such comments. Some have been priced out of the area. Some just find it to be to the left of their political position. To each his own...
I wouldn’t be so sure about that because after World War Two many cities started their destructive urban renewal programs and most older buildings were looked down upon as decrepit and obsolete which lead to their demolition and clearance. Blank concrete walls and steel and glass boxes were all the rave in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Many of these gorgeous opulent mansions would have ended up with the wreckers ball swung through them and reducing them to a pile of rubble.
Hi sandro marcos thank u so much for letting me in to your house bill thanks so much dear!
Where could I go to get the floor plans for a building this old? Also, was the house clad in wood or stone? I can’t tell from the photos
It was built of wood. When the fire reached Nob Hill the house was burned down to the ground.
His sons builtidentical houses in St Clair Michigan, side by side. They still stand and pretty good shape
Lol she gave it to her new boo 😹
Ooooooh No! I actually flinched when he said it burned! I was hoping he would say it is now open to tourists or something positive. Tragic.
Most of the Nob Hill mansions were built of wood, and they burned to the ground in the great earthquake and fire of 1906. The earthquake broke most of the water mains, and the fires became so intense that 80% of San Francisco was destroyed.
Thank you. I totally did not put that into context! Yes, the 1906 event would certainly explain that. @@SymphonyBrahms
I've never heard of this dude or his mansion before.
Wow.
My wife and I had our honeymoon at the Mark Hopkins
Have you looked at the Wheeler Mansion in Bridgeport, Connecticut?
Didn’t it go down with the earthquake? I believe they replicated this house as part of the set for the movie San Francisco, starring Clark Gable.
The earthquake didn't harm the house. But the fire that followed it burned the house to the ground. The set for the movie was similar to the house.
Are there no photos of this beautiful house? Thanks.
There are photos online.
Back in the day craftsman put their heart & soul into these stately mansions. Today houses are hastily slapped together & last maybe 30 years if that. Not much detail paid to quality, it's quality now. Urban decay with box stores & mass traffic on our decaying infrastructure. Depressing.
At least the house wasnt purpose demolished, it was an acident.
monstrous carbuncle!
It was large enough to be considered a castle.
This is nice but what’s up with the terrible stock footage of “carpentry” and “architecture”? Definitely working against all the other imagery in this.
Please don't start to fill your videos with stock footage. I'd rather study the floor plan for longer than see someone put a piece of wood down.
Love your work
What became of the site between 1906 and 1926, when the hotel was opened? A big vacant lot at the top of Nob Hill?
It was a big vacant lot at the top of Nob Hill.
Hello sir, what was the square footage of this mansion?
The architects that were chosen to complete this task wore modern watches and shirts
The craftsmanship that must have gone into the Hopkins mansion would have been amazing.
Yet I don't fancy many of the 'Guilded age' mansions. They were often over the top and tasteless.
The Stanford mansion was more tasteful. Not as garish and gaudy as the Hopkins mansion was.
A hideous display of perverted wealth and materialism. Absolutely grotesque.
An horrific monument to hubris and excess.
Yep, much like the many mega-mansions of today, and the old, ornate “cottages” of the moneyed class in Newport, RI.
You know it’s interesting with a panoramic photograph - that there are no people out in the streets?
Not many people walked all the way up Nob Hill. It's very steep. However, the cable cars went there.
My brother worked there back in the 80s. He told of the celebrities that came. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was a jerk. Don Johnson, was nice. He told me Lily Tomlin, was gay. Which she wasn't out yet.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I believe they had gas lighting back then. Some places even had chandeliers with duel designs because they knew electric lighting was on its way. It's a shame they didn't have a cistern up high that they could turn on once the fire had started. Maybe I'm being naive about how all that works or could work. I said, "Correct me if I'm wrong""; don't be a hater.
I think by 1906 most wealthy people would have had electricity, but the poor probably still used gas, so it would have been a combination of the two.
Most places had gas lighting. Electric lighting was new and not that widely used back then. And the earthquake broke most of the water mains. There was no water to fight the fires.
You know you're filthy rich when you put a pipe organ in your house! 😆
Very dark!
Compared to that wonderful, beautiful Mansion, the hotel is ugly.
Compared to that ugly Victorian nightmare of a house, the hotel is wonderful and beautiful.
That house was built before then. It was a leftover from the old world
That's false. That whole idea was invented by someone and gullible people have bought it.
Pretty sure you could not build that house on that spot for $20 million today…
Imagine if you will, a city so grand, so expansive, and yet only populated by 150,000 people in 1880. Hmmmm.......?
There were 400,000 people in San Francisco by 1906.
Never heard of him/it.
those paintings are occult
Only in your mind.