Mark Hopkins 1814-1878
Sometimes called "Uncle Mark", he was the eldest of the The Big Four and was well known for his thriftiness (it was said that he knew how to "squeeze 106 cents out of every dollar", a reputation that gained him the post of company treasurer. Prior to the railroad, he and Collis Huntington were partners in the operation of a Sacramento hardware store during the California Gold Rush.

The Mark Hopkins mansion stood at California and Mason Streets on Nob Hill in San Francisco. It cost three and a half million dollars to build in 1878. Notice in the bottom left corner of this photo a man is standing at the edge of a deep excavation site shored up with large timbers. At the time of this photo, the hilltop had been prepared for the construction of James Flood’s mansion (now the Pacific Union Club).

This text above was respectfully taken from SAN FRANCISCO Past & Present 
Published by George Ross Jezek Photography and Publishing w/ 6 Months At The Beach Productions 2007
The photo is from the Moulin Studios.  Moulin Archives maintains an active archive of images pertaining to San Francisco history.

In 1878, when the Mark Hopkins mansion was still under construction, the photographer Eadweard Muybridge climbed into the highest top turret with his  cumbersome large plate box camera and spent the better part of the day shooting his now famous panoramic view of San Francisco. To view the panorama, and learn more about Eadweard Muybridge, click here.  http://www.ronhenggeler.com/History/Muybridge/muybridge_index.html

 To see the Hopkins mansion still under construction shortly before the time of Muybridge’s visit, click here.
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/the_big_4/1-15.htm

The rear of the Mark Hopkins mansion viewed looking north from down around Pine Street.  Circa 1890’s

Hopkins may have had the most impressive of all the "Big Four" mansions. It was a castle, built of wood and painted to look like stone, on a scale any feudal lord would envy. The gray towers were illuminated at night and could be seen for many miles south of the City. Hopkins himself never lived there, in fact took little interest in the place as it was being built. He was happy to putter around in his vegetable garden behind the simple home he lived in down the hill. Mark Hopkins just wrote the checks, and his wife Mary, directed the construction. He gave her carte blanche, letting her indulge a passion for fanciful ornamentation that drove several designers to despair. Intricate mosaics, enormous murals, inlaid hardwoods, and lavish furnishings clashed in a wild hodge-podge of styles that could charitably be called “eclectic,”with a price tag of around three million dollars.     Respectfully taken from STREET SECRETS by David B. Eames  Published by Gem Guides Book Company 1995

Interior view of the Mark Hopkins mansion. 
The arrow in the bottom left corner points to a canvas painting. The painting is an oil portrait of Mark Hopkins that survived the Great Fire in 1906 and now hangs just inside the main entrance of the Big 4 Restaurant in the Huntington Hotel at 1075 California Street.

All that remained of the Hopkins mansion after the Great Fire in 1906.
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/History/Red%20cover/atop_hopkins.html

The oil portrait of Mark Hopkins 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.

The previous photo above this one shows it hanging on the wall inside of the mansion, but I've never been able to find out how it survived the fire.

This is a snapshot taken by a young girl who photographed the ruins of the burned-out Hopkins mansion. The people standing in front of the two columns are in the area that is now the entrance to the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel.

The chimney in the center of the painting is from the burned-out Hopkins mansion, and to the left of it is the burned-out Fairmont Hotel. The Hopkins chimney appears in the previous snapshot taken by the young girl.

The artist Charles Rogers painted this oil on location only three months after the earthquake and fire in 1906.   

Charles Rogers is looking east and standing in the stepped garden in the back yard of the burned-out Tobin mansion (now the Huntington Hotel).This stepped garden behind Tobin’s home appears clearly in the 1878 Muybridge panorama of San Francisco. 

The line of scorched trees in the mid ground and on the right of the frame, are the trees that grew along the granite retaining wall on Mason Street from Pine to California. Off in the distance is the East Bay and Oakland.

From the perspective that Charles chose, he painted this scene from around the freight entrance and loading dock of the Huntington Hotel on Taylor Street. 

The iconic and famous Portals of the Past would be standing atop the retaining wall in the upper left corner, but it’s out of frame in Rogers’ chosen perspective. (See more about the Portals below)

The painting is signed in the bottom left corner with the artist’s signature and the date June 1906.

Here is the entry about the artist Charles Albert Rogers in the Hughes’ Compendium of California Artists.

Charles Albert Rogers (1846-1918)

Born in New haven CT on Feb. 26,1848. Rogers studied art in NYC for 15 years and had further training in Rome, Munich, and Paris. After 1877, he was in San Francisco where he painted portraits, landscapes, coastals, and Chinatown genre in both oil and watercolor. He exhibited at the mark Hopkins Institute in 1898 and was active in San Francisco until the 1906 earthquake. His studio at 108 Stockton Street went up in flames, taking with it 150 of his paintings, mostly scenes of the City. He then moved to Los Angeles where he exhibited at the Blanchard Building and Daniell Gallery, and maintained a studio in the Chamber of Commerce Building until about 1913. Rogers painted in Yosemite during the summer of 1911. He died in Alameda CA on April 26, 1918. Member: SFAA; Painters and Sculptors of LA; Calif. Art Club. Exh. Calif. State Fair, 1892-1902; SFAA, 1893-1916; Mechanics Inst. (SF) 1895-99; Alaska Yukon Expo(Seattle), 1909 (bronze medal); Blanchard Gallery (LA), 1911. In: CHS CD; AAA 1898; Bay of San Francisco, vol.2, p. 392; SCA; SF Chronicle, 4-28-1918 (obit).  

Portals of the Past

Photos 29, 30, 31, and 32 on this page.

http://www.ronhenggeler.com/the_big_4/big4_index.htm

The stepped garden behind Tobin’s home appears in the Muybridge panorama.

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

These two brass plaques are displayed on the retaining wall in front of the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel on California Street.

 

Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel

 

 

 

 

The Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel as seen from the tenth floor of the Park Lane on Sacramento at Mason

The historic and famous Top of the Mark on top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel

(As seen from the rooftop of 1170 Sacramento with a telephoto lens)

High atop on the roof of the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel is a crow's nest at the base of the flagpole.

A view from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

A view from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

A telephoto lens view of Grace Cathedral as seen from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

A telephoto lens view from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

 

 

A view from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

A view from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

A view from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

 

A view from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

A view from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

The Brocklebank as seen from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

The Transamerica Pyramid as seen from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

The Fairmont Crown as seen from the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark

A view of the crow's nest on top of the Top of the Mark, as seen the main entrance of the Fairmont Hotel across the street.

In July of 2006, my photo was used on the front cover of the Nob Hill Gazette.

Once a year, on the Fourth of July, the Fairmont Hotel replaces the interntional flags at its entrance with only American flags. The tradition of flying the international flags throughout the year goes back to the end of World War II.

For 11 weeks (mid April-June 26th) in 1945, San Francisco was the Capital of the World. Delegates from over forty nations representing eighty percent of the world population came together to write the United Nations Charter.

The Fairmont Hotel played host to the Norwegian, Czech, Yugoslavian, Belgian, and South African delegations, along with those from the United States and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis, led by King Ibn Saud, took over one complete floor of the hotel and drew big crowds in the lobby with their flowing robes and jeweled daggers. The head of the U.S. delegation, Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, took over the eighth floor penthouse from longtime resident Maude Flood.

From day one the penthouse was the focal point for behind-the-scenes negotiations. The press, headquartered on the fifth floor, watched the rise and fall of the elevators trying to keep track of the delegates visiting the penthouse.

After eleven weeks the delegates had hammered out the Charter for the United Nations, and on June 26th President Harry Truman arrived in the city to sign it. Upon his arrival at the Fairmont Hotel, new owner Benjamin Swig was there to greet him. When the presidential flag was raised over the hotel, one reporter wrote, "The Fairmont atop Nob Hill will serve as the nation's capital (at least until the next afternoon)."

From: Guidelines

Room of the Dons at the Mark Hopkins

In the Room of the Dons at the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill, there are nine murals depicting the legend of Queen Califia and the early history of California. They were painted by artists Maynard Dixon and Frank Van Sloun for the hotel's grand opening in 1926. 

 

Room of the Dons

Here is a short podcast about the woman, Ola Carlson, who modeled for some of the figures painted by Maynard Dixon: www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=551899486958

 

 

 

 

Room of the Dons

Here is a short podcast about the woman, Ola Carlson, who modeled for some of the figures painted by Maynard Dixon: www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=551899486958

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Room of the Dons at the Mark Hopkins

In the Room of the Dons at the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill, there are nine murals depicting the legend of Queen Califia and the early history of California. They were painted by artists Maynard Dixon and Frank Van Sloun for the hotel's grand opening in 1926. 

The Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel with its Top of the Mark, as seen from the roof of the Huntington Hotel.