Baldwin Hotel was a 19th-century luxury hotel and theatre built by

Comstock Lode The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the U ...

millionaire, entrepreneur, and gambler Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin, formerly in downtown

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It was located on Powell Street at the corner of Market Street, near the Union Square area.

History

The Baldwin Theatre was completed in 1875, and the Baldwin Hotel was completed around it in 1876. The hotel was designed in the

Second Empire style Second Empire style, also known as the Napoleon III style, is a highly Eclecticism in architecture, eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts originating in the Second French Empire. It was characterized by elements of many differe ...

by architect Sumner Bugbee. The theatre featured touring performers and it was first known as Baldwin's Academy of Music. Most of the touring performers of the day appeared there. The hotel and theatre occupied the entire block. The ground floor was divided into a number of large stores. A theatre attendee, Mrs. Frank Leslie, described the building in 1877: ::

Destruction

The entire building was destroyed by fire in 1898. Two people were killed, and the adjacent Columbia Theater building on Powell Street suffered considerable damage. After the Baldwin Hotel building was demolished, the

Flood Building The Flood Building is a 12-story high-rise in the downtown shopping district of San Francisco, California. It is located at 870 Market Street on the corner of Powell Street, next to the Powell Street cable car turntable, Hallidie Plaza, and ...

was built on the site in 1904.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Baldwin Hotel (San Francisco, 1878-1898)
Gendisasters.com: Baldwin Hotel Block Destroyed, Nov 1898, San Francisco, CA
— ''narrative accounts'' Hotels in San Francisco Theatres in the San Francisco Bay Area Market Street (San Francisco) Union Square, San Francisco Hotel buildings completed in 1876 Theatres completed in 1875 Defunct hotels in California Demolished hotels in California Demolished theatres in California Former buildings and structures in San Francisco 1875 establishments in California Hotels established in 1876 1876 establishments in California 1898 disestablishments in California 19th century in San Francisco Second Empire architecture in California