Danielle Steel's longtime residence in San Francisco

Adolph Bernard Spreckels (January 5, 1857 – June 28, 1924) was a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

businessman who ran

Spreckels Sugar Company The Spreckels Sugar Company is an American sugar beet refiner that for many years controlled much of the U.S. West Coast refined sugar market. It is currently headquartered in Brawley, California. History The Spreckels Sugar Company was founded by ...

and who donated the

California Palace of the Legion of Honor The Legion of Honor, formally known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is an art museum in San Francisco, California. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which also ...

art museum to the city of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1924. His wife

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...

was called the "great grandmother of San Francisco". His 1912 mansion is in

Pacific Heights Pacific Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It has panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, and the Presidio. The Pacific Heights Residents Association defines the neig ...

and is San Francisco Landmark #197.

Life and career

Spreckels was born in San Francisco, California. His parents were Anna Christina Mangels and

Claus Spreckels Adolph Claus J. Spreckels (July 9, 1828 – December 26, 1908) (his last name has also been misspelled as Spreckles) was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican and territorial periods of the islands' history. He also in ...

, founder of the

. At the age of 12, Adolph studied abroad in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

for two years, returning to San Francisco to finish his studies. When the company was founded in 1881, he was named a vice-president. Spreckels succeeded his father as company president upon the latter's death in 1908. He was intensely loyal to both his father and his brother

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

. In 1884, he shot Michael H. de Young, co-founder of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'', supposedly because of an article in that newspaper suggesting his sugar company defrauded its shareholders. Spreckels pleaded

temporary insanity The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the ...

to the charge of

attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seven ye ...

and was acquitted. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor was championed by his wife Alma and paid for from the Spreckels fortune. It was merged with the

M. H. de Young Memorial Museum ( ; ; pl. ; ; 1512, from Middle French , literally "my lord") is an honorific title that was used to refer to or address the eldest living brother of the king in the French royal court. It has now become the customary French title of resp ...

in 1972; they became the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

. Besides the sugar company, Spreckels was president of the

San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway The San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway (SF&SM) was the first electric streetcar company in San Francisco, California. The company was only in business for ten years, starting from 1892 until it was merged into the United Railroads of San ...

, vice-president of both the

Western Sugar Company The Western Sugar Cooperative is a grower owned American agricultural cooperative originating from the Great Western Sugar Company in 1901. History The Great Western Sugar Company was incorporated in February 1901 by Charles Boettcher and other ...

and the

Oceanic Steamship Company John Diedrich Spreckels (August 16, 1853 – June 7, 1926), the son of German-American industrialist Claus Spreckels, founded a transportation and real estate empire in San Diego, California, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The entrepr ...

, as well as a director of the

Sunset Monarch Company Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the sprin ...

. In addition to his business enterprises, Spreckels served as a San Francisco Park Commissioner and was heavily involved in the development of Golden Gate Park.

Spreckels Lake The Spreckels Lake Model Yacht Facility, commonly referred to as "Spreckels Lake", is an artificial reservoir behind an earthen dam and adjoining clubhouse situated on the northern side of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Completed in mid-Marc ...

, in the park, is named after him.

Spreckels Organ Pavilion Spreckels Organ Pavilion houses the open-air Spreckels Organ in Balboa Park, San Diego, California. The Spreckels Organ is the world's largest pipe organ in a fully outdoor venue. Constructed for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, it is loc ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

's Balboa Park, housing the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world, was also built by Spreckels and his brother John. Furthermore, John commissioned

Spreckels Organ The Spreckels Organ is a pipe organ that was designed by Ernest M. Skinner. It was installed in 1924 at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco, California. Public performances are held on Saturdays, 4:00–4:45 pm. Philanthropist John ...

in the Palace of the Legion of Honor in tribute to Adolph, who died before it was completed.

Thoroughbred racing

Spreckels was also fond of

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

and owned and bred a number of race horses, most famously

Morvich Morvich (April 23, 1919 – January 26, 1946) was an American Thoroughbred who was the first California-bred racehorse to win the Kentucky Derby. Bred by sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckels at his Napa Stock Farm, Morvich was sired by James R. ...

, the first California-bred horse to win the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

(1922).

Family

He and Alma de Bretteville were married on May 11, 1908, after a five-year courtship. They had three children, daughter Alma Emma, son Adolph Bernard, Jr., and another daughter, Dorothy Constance. After the birth of their last daughter, Spreckels' health began to deteriorate due to

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...

he had contracted before his marriage. He had known about the disease and had kept it secret from his wife, but fortunately for her during their intimate years it had been in a latent, non-contagious state. Spreckels died in 1924 from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

Spreckels Mansion

The family's c.1912 mansion, located at 2080 Washington Street in the

neighborhood of San Francisco, is most recently the home of novelist

Danielle Steel Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947) is an American writer, best known for her romance novels. She is the bestselling author alive and the fourth-bestselling fiction author of all time, with over 800 million ...

. The mansion was designed by George A. Applegarth and Kenneth A. MacDonald Jr. in the French Baroque style. The chateau was designated as San Francisco Landmark #197 on June 9, 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spreckels, Adolph B. Businesspeople from San Francisco 19th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople in the sugar industry American racehorse owners and breeders Philanthropists from California 1857 births 1924 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in California People acquitted by reason of insanity