Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 238: Hotel History: The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco

Stanley Turkel | October 13, 2020

by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: The Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, CA (592 rooms) The luxurious Grande Dame atop Nob Hill in San Francisco was named after U.S. Senator James Graham Fair (1834-1894) by his daughters, Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt. When the silver king James Fair purchased the site back in the late 1800s, his interest was to build the largest mansion in the neighborhood. However, when he died in 1894, the lot was still undeveloped until 1907 when his daughters commissioned the architectural and engineering firm of Reid & Reid to design a large hotel in Italian Renaissance style. The Reid br...