Hotels: Palace Hotel

The Palace Hotel opened on 10/02/1875. It was the largest hotel in the western U.S. and the tallest building in San Francisco at the time.

Unknown publisher 11, private mailing card postmarked SF 3/01/1901.
Detroit 5656, private mailing card postmarked SF 8/07/1902.
Goeggel & Weidner 59, postmarked SF 12/14/1903.

Mitchell 49, dated 9/29/1904, postmarked NY 10/03/1904.
Weidner 147, postmarked SF 10/dd/1904.
Charlton, pre-quake view written five days after the quake on 4/23/1906.

The Palace originally had a carriage entrance from New Montgomery leading to an interior courtyard, but the courtyard was too narrow for automobiles to turn around, so it was remodeled to create the pre-quake Palace Court seen here. See below for post-quake and much later Palm Court and Garden Court postcards.

Detroit 8115 © 1904.
Britton & Rey 481, postmark year not printed; ca. 1904.
Weidner 117, undivided back, ca. 1905.
Weidner 117, post-quake caption, divided back, ca. 1907. Catalog: Weidner shows one additional Weidner 117 variant (no AutoChrom logo, undivided back).

The Palace was badly damaged by the fire following the 1906 earthquake. After considerable debate, the surviving structure was demolished rather than rebuilt.

Weidner 216.
Rieger, postmarked 8/08/1907.
Weidner 215, written 5/05/1907.
SF Sunday Examiner.

Not shown: Rotograph, Souvenir Post Card 4626F.

SF Sunday Examiner. The "Baby Palace", a small hotel at Post/Leavenworth (NW corner), opened six months after the earthquake and served as a temporary Palace Hotel for about eight months.
Britton & Rey 1083. In July 1907, the Palace leased the rebuilt Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. The caption identifies it as "Fairmont Hotel, under the Management of Palace Hotel Company".