F I R S TP R E V749NEXTLAST

Nob Hill from a Distance, Sausalito
Nob Hill was previously known as 'The Hill of Golden Promise' and 'The Hill of Palaces.' Leland Stanford was the first to build a mansion there, followed by James Ben Ali Haggin's cozy little 60-room home on Taylor Street. William Sharon's mansion featured the only elevator in the West at that time, in addition his draperies cost $2000 – per window. Charles Crocker's home cost $2.3 million (in 1880s money) with another million spent on oil paintings.

Not all of the homes were in the best of taste, Charles Crocker built a $3 million mansion in what was generously called an 'awkward eclectic style.' Mary Hopkins built a bizarre imitation castle with towers, turrets, porticos, and verandas. It featured a Gothic glass conservatory and wings with towers of bay windows. The mansion mixed Greek, Arabic, Gothic, and Provençal architecture. Sadly, the great earthquake and fire of 1906 wiped out much of San Francisco's Age of Excess. Today only huge brownstone Flood Mansion still remains from Nob Hill's original great homes.
[ MAP K-10 ]