With its 2022 re-opening, the Beacon Grand celebrates the rich history of this iconic hotel with a new name dedicated to all explorers and history makers. Where once Sir Francis Drake took center stage, now we pay homage to all those who made The City, and this hotel, so great. We renew focus on the progress and possibility that has always lured people of all kinds to this social circle on Union Square, where history is forever starting now.
The scene is 1928 San Francisco. A roaring stock market, an oft-disobeyed Prohibition, and the global spotlight from two World’s Fairs held here combine with a boom in modern inventions like the radio, television, cars, and phones to fuel The City’s sense of progress and possibility. A new star is born and they call it the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.
The opening reviews were glowing: “A glittering new monument to the progress, hospitality, and undying beauty of San Francisco.” It was The City’s newest symbol of forward-thinking, designed to reimagine what a hotel could be and bring “A new joy to the citizenry of San Francisco and the stranger within her gates.” At a time of five-cent coffees and three-dollar rooms, the new hotel cost an unimaginable five million dollars to build.
During opening weekend, 10,000 visitors converged on the heart of the city to see the new hotel at Union Square for themselves. An epic party drew San Francisco’s mayor, California's governor, and Hollywood celebrities to inaugurate the hotel with orchestras, tuxedos, gowns, and champagne. After dinner, music, and dancing, they played the indoor golf course and marveled at the ice water on tap in every room.
The newspaper called it "26 Stories of Luxury,” beginning a long history of adding mysterious stories to the 21-story hotel. Aside from the indoor golf and in-room water, amenities and innovative touches were everywhere; newfangled radios in every guest room, and one of the country's first Servidor systems—a handy cabinet that connected guestrooms to the corridor so staff could discreetly deliver dry cleaning or other items (likely including beverages of all kinds) without disturbing guests.
Above all, the hotel’s artisan interiors, designed by San Francisco’s Weeks & Day to evoke Renaissance splendor, inspired awe. Public spaces like the two-story lobby living room were adorned with vaulted gold leaf ceilings, hand-painted murals by artist W.F. Bergman, graceful iron grills, a cathedral’s worth of French and Italian marble, and a grand staircase perfect for dramatic entrances. All remain irreplaceable, timeless evidence of the old-world craftspeople who built them.
In the 1940s, the original private rooftop apartments were converted into the Starlite Room, a dazzling nightclub with panoramic views. The first Beefeater doormen debuted in 1940 to show support for the British who then stood alone against Nazi Germany. Both institutions ultimately gave grassroots rise to celebrity hosts, from Starlite’s famed impresario Harry Denton to doormen like former RAF pilot Bill Elliott and the legendary Tom Sweeney, who (after taking between 500 and 1,000 pictures a day with visitors, beginning in 1976) is almost surely the most photographed man in San Francisco history.
In the late ’20s era of secret alcohol and organized crime, an over-excited father celebrating the marriage of his daughter “decorated” the upper lobby ceiling with bullet holes still visible today. In the ’30s, the new Persian Room opened and earned the nickname “the Snake Pit” for its writhing partygoers, Vaudevillians, and celebrities. During World War II, the US military commandeered blocks of rooms and the hotel was the scene of many tearful farewells and joyous reunions as troops made their way to and from the Pacific. In the ’50s, the hotel starred in another era-defining movement when it inspired a significant portion of the famed Beat poem "Howl," penned by Allen Ginsberg.
Beacon Grand begins both a next chapter and a new story for this grande dame of San Francisco hotels. This is forever a place where San Francisco locals and visitors may converge in a social circle on the square. It is once again a “glittering monument to progress”, dedicated to “resident and stranger alike” with “diversions which go to make life happier and finer in one of the premier cities of the globe.”
