Hotel Union Square is located at 114

Powell Street Powell Street is a street in San Francisco, California that connects from Market Street through Union Square, North Beach, Nob Hill, Russian Hill and ends at Fisherman's Wharf. The intersection of Powell Street with Market Street is the sta ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. It was built in 1908, had a

speakeasy A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States d ...

in the basement during the

Prohibition Era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...

, and Dashiell Hammett was a patron.

History

The hotel was built in 1908 as the Golden West Hotel, for the 1915

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely se ...

. During the

, a

called The Golden Bubble was located below the hotel. The original terrazzo floors and wallpaper still remain in what is now used as a storage area. In 1935, Egyptian-style mosaics by Helen Bell Bruton were added in the entryway. In the 1950s, the hotel was renamed the Golden State Hotel. Personality Hotels purchased the building in the early 1980s and in 1985 reopened it after refurbishment as Hotel Union Square. It was extensively renovated in 2008, when a Dashiell Hammett Suite was created in Room 505. The interior design is by

Colum McCartan Colum may refer to: People ; Given name * Colum Corless (1922–2015), Irish hurler * Lord Colum Crichton-Stuart (1886–1957), British Conservative Party politician * Colum Eastwood (born 1983), Irish nationalist politician * Colum Halpenny (b ...

, along with Lisa Sayed, partner of the hotel interior design company Sisterhood of the Traveling Hotels, who designed the Ring In the Kids Suite. Lisa Compagno designed the Dashiell Hammett Suite. There are 131 guest rooms and suites.

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

and

Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...

may have conducted much of their love affair at the hotel, and he booked his bride-to-be Josephine Dolan into a suite there on the night before their 1921 wedding. The hotel is reputedly haunted, particularly Room 207. Some attribute a ghost in that room to Hellman.

References

External links

Hotel Union Square
{{coords, 37.78586, -122.40777, display=title 1913 establishments in California Hotel buildings completed in 1913 Hotels in San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco Reportedly haunted locations in San Francisco

History

See also

References

External links