InterContinental Mark Hopkins and Top of the Mark: The Barons' Hilltop

Why is it significant?

Look up at the soaring nineteen-story terracotta tower of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins, dominating the southern crest of Nob Hill at California and Mason Streets.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Look up at the soaring nineteen-story terracotta tower of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins, dominating the southern crest of Nob Hill at California and Mason Streets. Opened in December 1926, this stately French Renaissance and Spanish Revival hotel stands on the exact grounds of railroad tycoon Mark Hopkins' forty-room Victorian mansion, an eccentric wood-and-spire castle that burned completely during the 1906 firestorm. The present hotel's yellow brick and sculptural terracotta trim evoke the aristocratic elegance that transformed Nob Hill—short for 'nabob', an Anglo-Indian term for wealthy elites—into San Francisco's gilded enclave.

In 1939, hotel owner George D. Smith converted the penthouse suite on the nineteenth floor into a glass-walled cocktail lounge, christened the 'Top of the Mark'. Offering an astonishing panoramic vista of San Francisco Bay, the lounge instantly became a worldwide sensation. During World War II, thousands of young servicemen shipping out through the Golden Gate to the Pacific theater gathered here with loved ones to share one final drink, looking northwest from what became known as the 'Weeper's Corner'.

Outside the entrance along California Street, the historic California Street Cable Car line—operating continuously since 1878—rumbles past every few minutes, its steel grip gripping the moving subterranean cable to pull passengers up the grueling twenty-one-percent grade. Every stone lintel, narrow garden path, and surrounding hillside viewpoint bears eloquent witness to the colorful personalities and grassroots struggles that shaped this legendary neighborhood across more than a century. Every stone lintel, narrow garden path, and surrounding hillside viewpoint bears eloquent witness to the colorful personalities and grassroots struggles that shaped this legendary neighborhood across more than a century. Every stone lintel, narrow garden path, and surrounding hillside viewpoint bears eloquent witness to the colorful personalities and grassroots struggles that shaped this legendary neighborhood across more than a century.

Inside the lobby, look at the nine murals painted by Maynard Dixon and Frank Van Sloun depicting early California history from Spanish exploration to the Gold Rush.

Walk west across California Street into the leafy green precincts of Huntington Park.