This hotel was built by Tessie Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, daughters of Comstock silver magnate James "Slippery Jim" Fair, and designed by the Reid Brothers. It was scheduled to open on April 18, 1906, but the ground opened first. It is one of only two
1 buildings in the neighborhood to survive the 1906 earthquake and fire, and it was rebuilt by Julia Morgan
2. The Fairmont claims to have been the first major business to reopen after the quake.
This is the first hotel in the USA to offer concierge service. Tom Wolfe
3, who came over from Europe to establish this service, still works there
4.
Every US president since 1907 has stayed here, except Trump
5. The secret door in the two-story penthouse suite they and other visiting heads of state use leads to the roof and was intended as a back door for dignitaries to escape reporters and fires. It is also said to have been used by Marilyn Monroe to unobtrusively visit President Kennedy. Other celebrity guests include Hitchcock, Ella Fitzgerald, Joan Rivers, and Anthony Hopkins.
The UN Charter was drafted, in part, in the penthouse of President Truman's Secretary of State, Edward R. Stettinius Jr., and finalized in Fairmont's Garden Room. Flags of every nation present at that establishing conference can be seen over the entrance.
"I Left My Heart in San Francisco"
6, one of the city's official anthems, was first performed by Tony Bennett in the hotel's Venetian Room in December 1961. You will see a bronze statue of Bennett in front of the entrance. He continued performing at the Fairmont until he was 90 years old. Liberace and Lena Horne performed there, as well as Tina Turner, Nat King Cole, Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr., and Count Basie. Frank Sinatra was one of the few who disliked the Venetian Room because the audience sat mainly to his left and right — he felt like he was singing "to the door."
Fairmont is home to the famous Tonga Room with its indoor rainstorm every 30 minutes
7. It is visually stunning, having been created by MGM set designer Mel Melvin. The cocktails
8 are truly impressive, but it still manages to be child-friendly and to provide exquisite small dishes. Anthony Bourdain called it "the greatest place in the history of the world."
Fairmont can be seen in The Lineup (1958), The Rock (1996), The Intern (2015), and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), as well as in the book Babar Comes to America (1965). For the hotel kitchen scene in The Rock, the entire hotel is said to have been shut down for a week.
The life-sized gingerbread house in the lobby is a must-see for any visitor lucky enough to be in SF between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
1The other is the Pacific-Union Club across the street
2San Francisco's first licensed female architect, who later built Hearst Castle
3No relation to the writers Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. and Thomas Clayton Wolfe, or to the caricature woodcarver Tom Wolfe
4https://www.instagram.com/chefconciergetom/
5Probably too elegant for his taste
6https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgngDhUuz0
7Worth waiting for
8http://www.fairmontmoments.com/food-drink/mixology/kea-lani-classic-mai-tai