InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco by IHG

The nineteen-story InterContinental Mark Hopkins rises from the crest of Nob Hill with a blend of French chateau and Spanish Renaissance architecture. It opened on December 4, 1926, on the site where railroad magnate Mark Hopkins once built a lavish mansion. That original estate, completed in 1878, was leveled by the fires following the 1906 earthquake. Mining engineer George D. Smith purchased the vacant ground nearly two decades later to build this luxury hotel, hiring the firm of Weeks and Day to design a structure with wings and a tower meant to capture views of the city in every direction.