RON HENGGELER

The Big 4 celebrates the big 4-0.

During the first week in October, Monday through Friday, the Big 4 will be celebrating every night.

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

Newton Cope Sr. and his wife Dolly Fritz were the former owners of the Huntington Hotel (now called the Scarlet Huntington Hotel) who created the Big 4 Restaurant in 1976.

Newton passed away in November 2005

Carl Nolte in the San Francisco Chronicle wrote this article at the time.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Newton-Cope-the-nabob-of-Nob-Hill-2592321.php

Dolly Fritz

The San Francisco Chronicle reporting on the Grand Opening of the Big 4 Restaurant on October 7th, 1976.

To view the large readable version of this article, go to:

http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Nob_Hill3/nob_hill_index12.html

The Oakland Tribune reporting on the Grand Opening of the Big 4 Restaurant on October 7th, 1976.

To view the large readable version of this article, go to:

http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Nob_Hill3/nob_hill_index12.html

In 1959, Newton Cope Sr. purchased an old firehouse in Sacramento and undertook a major facelift on the building, converting it into a small bar and restaurant reminiscent of the Gold Rush Era. This was the first building renovation of the new Old Town sacramento Historic District.

The official opening day in 1960 was a showcase of Victorian art and elaborate antiques all housed within our elegant surroundings. The Firehouse Restaurant was an immediate success and has since attracted millions of patrons including politicians, diplomats, sports and entertainment celebrities, international business people, tourists, and locals. As governor, Ronald Reagan held both of his inaugural dinners there, and they've hosted every governor of California since.

For more on the Firehouse, see:

https://www.firehouseoldsac.com/about/our-history/

Sixteen years later, Newton and Dolly opened the Big 4 Restaurant on Nob Hill in San Francisco.

Acclaimed Anthony Hail was the interior designer of the Big 4 Restaurant that opened in 1976

For more on Tony Hail

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Anthony-Hail-impeccable-designer-2487600.php

http://www.thestylesaloniste.com/2013/09/the-grand-gesture-all-hale-anthony-hail.html

Andy Warhol and Anthony Hail

The name of the Big 4 Restaurant comes from the four men who built the western side of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1960’s: Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Collis Huntington
These four men began as merchants in Sacramento during the California Gold Rush, but by building the railroad, became four of the richest men in the United States by the 1870’s. Once they had come into these fortunes, all four men built mansions on Nob Hill within a block radius of where the Big 4 Restaurant is located.

The Great Event, with the driving of the Golden Spike . . . completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.

A poster announcing the joining of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10th,1869 hangs in the bar of the Big 4 Restaurant.

Leland Stanford

In the 19th century, the Stanford mansion was located on Nob Hill at California Street and Powell. (Note the Mark Hopkins mansion under construction on ther right.) The mansions burned in April 1906. The Stanford Court Hotel now stands at this site.

This column in front of the Stanford Court Hotel is original to the Stanford mansion the burned in 1906.

Mark Hopkins

The Hopkins mansion stood on Nob Hill at California and Mason where the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel is located today. The mansion cost 3 and a half million dollars in 1878, about 95 million in today's money.

 

 

Charles Crocker

The Crocker mansion took up the whole block on Nob Hill where Grace Cathedral is now located.

 

Collis Huntington

The Huntington mansion that burned in 1906 is now Huntington Park across the street from the Big 4 Restaurant. For more on the Huntington mansion and Huntington Park, and to see relics from the mansion that I discovered last year, go to:

http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Newsletters/2015/10.25/Newsletter.html

The bird's eye view of Huntington Park as seen from the rooftop of the Huntington Hotel at 1075 California Street at Taylor. The small Flood Fountain is in the lower right of the photo. The park was originally the site of a mansion, lived in by Collis and Arabella Huntington, until the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the home. Arabella deeded the land to the city in 1915.

The fireplace in the Big 4’s bar with the bronze statue “Arab on a Horse” by French sculptor Bayre.

 

 

Among the many works of art on the walls in Big 4 Restaurant's dining room, bar, and banquet room are 24 San Francisco Wasp cartoons. The Wasp was a weekly satirical magazine based in San Francisco.

For more about the San Francisco Wasp, go to:

https://thomasnastcartoons.com/west-coast-view/the-san-francisco-wasp/

http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=WASP:_Racism_and_Satire_in_the_19th_Century

 

Wild Game Week at the Big 4 Restaurant in November 2008.

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

The Big 4 dining room decorated on New Years Eve 2005

 

The private CPRR Banquet Room has several Thomas Nast illustrations on display.

For more about Thomas Nast

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nast

 

Wild Game Week at the Big 4 Restaurant in May 2008.

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

Alongside the host podium at in the Big 4 is a small bronze of a Pony Express Rider.

This is the model for the monumental bronze that stands in Old Town Sacramento

The bronze statue of the Pony Express Rider in Old Town Sacramento

Old Sacramento

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=497

http://oldsacramento.com

Wild Game Week at the Big 4 Restaurant in November 2009.

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

 

Detail of the fireplace mantel in the Big 4's cocktail lounge

Two 19th Century terracotta sphinxes with the faces of Madame du Barry and Marie Antoinette stand on each side at the front door of the Big 4 Restaurant. The sphinxes are probably by the artist Gustave Deloye (1838-1899). Deloye was probably the most distinguished pasticheur of 18th century sculpture working in 19th century France. In the 1860's he made a name for himself with sculptures which were inspired by the achievements of the great 18th century masters, in particular Falconet and Clodion. Later in his career, in the 1890's, he was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II to execute a large number of garden sculptures for the gardens and parks of the Russian Royal Palaces.

 

Thanksgiving Day decorations in The Big 4 dining room, November 2015

Wild Game Week at the Big 4 Restaurant in November 2011.

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

One of the two Candelabra that I created for the dining room credenza that are displayed each year during the December holiday season

 

Wild Game Week at the Big 4 Restaurant in November 2006.

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

The Bar and Lounge of the Big 4

 

Photo triptych of the Stanford family in the Big 4 dining room

Leland Stanford, Leland Jr. and Jane Stanford

An oil portrait of Leland Stanford hangs on the wall to the left of the Big 4's front door.

The oil portrait of Mark Hopkins that is displayed on the right side of the front door of the Big 4 Restaurant. This oil painting once hung inside the Mark Hopkins mansion that burned in 1906.

I have a photo of it hanging on the wall inside of the mansion, but I've never been able to find out how it survived the fire.

To see the photo of the painting hanging in the mansion, go to:

http://www.ronhenggeler.com/the_big_4/1-9.htm

Wild Game Week at the Big 4 Restaurant in November 2007.

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

 

A rare enamel on metal advertisement for the A.P. Hoteling Company hangs on the wall in the Big 4's bar. Hoteling's whiskey warehouse survived the 1906 Fire, whereas all the building around it burned. For decades afterwards, the company's catchy ad limerick asked the question:

If as they say God spanked the town

for being over frisky,

Wwy did he burn the churches down,

and save Hoteling's Whiskey?

Decorations for Senator Dianne Feinstein's Birthday party in the private CPRR Banquet Room at the Big 4, 2008

Thanksgiving Day decorations in The Big 4 dining room, November 2011

The full-length portrait of the actor Walter Pidgeon near the piano in the bar.

The portrait is from a Broadway play that Pigeon starred in titled The Happiest Millionaire and the image was used on the program's cover.

The portrait was painted by Belgium artist Alfred Jonniaux (1893-1969)

For more about Alfred Jonniaux

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Jonniaux

The private CPRR Banquet Room at the Big 4 Restaurant

The famous (14ft long) 1878 Muybridge Panoramic View of San Francisco is on display in the Big 4’s banquet room. Eadweard Muybridge is considered the Father of Cinema. Around the time that Muybridge made this panorama of San Francisco, he and Leland Stanford, proved with cameras that when a horse is galloping, all four hooves leave the ground.

For more on Eadweard Muybridge and the panorama, go to:

http://www.ronhenggeler.com/History/Muybridge/muybridge_index.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eadweard-Muybridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYKZif9ooxs

Among the many works of art on the walls in Big 4 Restaurant's dining room, bar, and banquet room are 24 San Francisco Wasp cartoons. The Wasp was a weekly satirical magazine based in San Francisco.

For more about the San Francisco Wasp, go to:

https://thomasnastcartoons.com/west-coast-view/the-san-francisco-wasp/

http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=WASP:_Racism_and_Satire_in_the_19th_Century

Wild Game Week at the Big 4 Restaurant in November 2009.

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

The Big 4 dining room with 1600 balloons on New Years Eve 2010

Among the many works of art on the walls in Big 4 Restaurant's dining room, bar, and banquet room are 24 San Francisco Wasp cartoons. The Wasp was a weekly satirical magazine based in San Francisco.

For more about the San Francisco Wasp, go to:

https://thomasnastcartoons.com/west-coast-view/the-san-francisco-wasp/

http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=WASP:_Racism_and_Satire_in_the_19th_Century

 

Glass tables in the Big 4 bar's cocktail lounge

The Big 4 Restaurant celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2001

Graphic by Ron Henggeler

Thanksgiving Day decorations in The Big 4 dining room, November 2011

Thanksgiving Day decorations in The Big 4 dining room, November 2015

November/December holiday decorations in The Big 4 dining room, 2011

 

The centerpiece stained glass window on the south wall of the CPRR Banquet Room in the Big 4 Restaurant

The brass plaque to the left of the front door of the Big 4 Restaurant on Nob Hill at California Street at Taylor Street