San Francisco

Of all major cities in the United States, San Francisco has the second-highest percentage of residents with a college degree, behind only Seattle. Over 44% of adults have a bachelor's or higher degree. San Francisco had the highest rate at 7,031 per square mile, or over 344,000 total graduates in the city's 46.7 square miles (121 km²).




San Francisco has a diversified service economy, with employment spread across a wide range of professional services, including financial services, tourism, and (increasingly) high technology.
 
The legacy of the California Gold Rush turned San Francisco into the principal banking and finance center of the West Coast in the early twentieth century.
 
The top employer in the city is the city government itself, employing 5.3% (25,000+ people) of the city's population, followed by UCSF with over 22,000 employees. Third—at 1.8% (8,500+ people)—is California Pacific Medical Center, the largest private-sector employer.
 
Like many U.S. cities, San Francisco once had a significant manufacturing sector employing nearly 60,000 workers in 1969, but nearly all production left for cheaper locations by the 1980s..
 
San Francisco is notorious for its jaw-dropping real estate prices. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment stands at $3,460 a month. But it's not just housing expenses that will eat away at your paycheck. In general, the total cost of living in San Francisco is 62.6% higher than the US average.
 

The food is world-class, but it'll cost you. Even if you're not splurging on fine dining, a meal for two at a 'mid-range' spot in the city costs about $75, nearly double the national average.

 A typical monthly mortgage payment would come to $3,684.

The earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC.
 
The Yelamu group of the Ohlone people resided in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, arrived on November 2, 1769, the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay.
 
Seven years later, on March 28, 1776, the Spanish established the Presidio of San Francisco, followed by a mission, Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), established by the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza.
 
Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the area became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the mission system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square.
 
Together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers.
 
Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the Mexican–American War, and Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, and Mexico officially ceded the territory to the United States at the end of the war. Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography.
 
The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers (known as "forty-niners", as in "1849"). With their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor.
 
California was quickly granted statehood, and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and a fort on Alcatraz Island to secure the San Francisco Bay. Silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in 1859, further drove rapid population growth.With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, and gambling.
 
Entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush. Early winners were the banking industry, with the founding of Wells Fargo in 1852 and the Bank of California in 1864. Development of the Port of San Francisco and the establishment in 1869 of overland access to the Eastern U.S. rail system via the newly completed Pacific Railroad (the construction of which the city only reluctantly helped support) helped make the Bay Area a center for trade.
 
Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Immigrant laborers made the city a polyglot culture, with Chinese railroad workers, drawn to "Old Gold Mountain", creating the city's Chinatown quarter. In 1870, Asians made up 8% of the population.

At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a major earthquake struck San Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that spread across the city and burned out of control for several days. With water mains out of service, the Presidio Artillery Corps attempted to contain the inferno by dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks.
 
More than three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the downtown core.Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people lost their lives, though modern estimates put the number in the several thousands.
 
Rebuilding was rapid and performed on a grand scale. Rejecting calls to completely remake the street grid, San Franciscans opted for speed.
 
Amadeo Giannini's Bank of Italy, later to become Bank of America, provided loans for many of those whose livelihoods had been devastated. The influential San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association or SPUR was founded in 1910 to address the quality of housing after the earthquake.
 
There are more than 50 hills within city limits.Some neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated, including Nob Hill, Potrero Hill, and Russian Hill. Near the geographic center of the city, southwest of the downtown area, are a series of less densely populated hills.
 
Twin Peaks, a pair of hills forming one of the city's highest points, forms a popular overlook spot. San Francisco's tallest hill, Mount Davidson, is 928 feet (283 m) high and is capped with a 103-foot (31 m) tall cross built in 1934. Dominating this area is Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio and television transmission tower.

San Francisco's climate is characteristic of the cool-summer Mediterranean climate.

Palace Hotel San Francisco History

At the time of the discovery of gold in California  in 1848 San Francisco was a little more than a frontier town with a population of 500 people.

 

By the end of 1849 San Francisco had become an instant city with a population of 20,000 peoples.

While most of the new arrivals stayed in San Francisco only briefly before heading to the goldfields so seek their fortunes, many others acquired considerable wealth by outfitting the gold seekers. William Ralston was one of these profiteers.

 

Born in Wellsville Ohio in 1826 at the age of 23 Ralston decided to seek his fortune in California. He was using his time transporting the gold seekers to El Dorado. When he arrived in San Francisco in 1854 the Gold Rush was over but Ralston has amassed enough money to start a banking  enterprise that would became the Bank of California in 1864.

 

Although he was always the driving force behind the bank he assumed the title of Cashier for the bank.

The bank open in time to finance the mine owners in Virginia City Nevada where silver was discovered in the famous Comstock Lode.

 

Ralston was convinced that San Francisco was destined to become a world class city; he went on to become known the man who built San Francisco.

He would personally sit down with anyone who came into the bank with a proposal for the betterment of San Francisco and would reward the sound proposals with a loan utilizing the proceeds from the Comstock to secure these investments.

 

Usually the loan would be provided directly by the bank in other instances Ralston would finance the loan from his own account. He had a tendency to blur the distinction between his own money and that of the bank.

 

In addition to funding the projects for others he had a number of projects of his own. Foremost of which would be the Palace Hotel.

 

The history of Comstock Lode was marked by periods of boom and bust. A great deal of capital was needed for mining industry. Because the bank of California was doing a lot of business in Virginia City where the mine owners were, Ralston decided to open a bank of bank there, and he choose senator William Sharon to manage that branch.. Sharon a very shrewd businessman would offer loans at interest rates half of that charged by other banks and accept shares of the mines as collateral. When subsequent bust periods kept the mine owner from repaying their loans Sharon would foreclose and take over ownership of the mines.

 

William Ralston built a luxury hotel Grand Hotel. While grant Hotel was luxurious by San Francisco Standards of the time it lacked in the statue of a world class hotel. When Ralston was guiding a European Dignitary trough the hotel one of the visitors sniffed “This hotel does not seems so grand.”

He was wounded by the insult and decided to build a grander hotel. This would be Palace Hotel.

 

In 1875 Sharon and other speculates wildly on share of adjacent mines and when the efforts appeared to be fruitless Sharon quietly unloaded all the shares onto the market, leaving Ralston with a portfolio of worthless stocks. The Bank of California had to close its doors early because run out of money on August 26, 1875. The board of directors ordered an audit and discovered that Ralston was approximately $9 million in debt including $5 million he had borrowed from the bank without telling anyone.

 

The board of directors forced Ralston to resign from the bank and sell everything he owned to Bill Sharon for $5 million so he could repay the bank. With that Ralston was ruined.

 

On the same afternoon Ralston walked to North Beach to take his customary swim in the bay and died of heart attack while swimming in the direction of Alcatraz.

 

First Palace Hotel was located on the same spot where the present hotel stands today at the corner of Market and New Montgomery. Ralston first began purchasing land as a site for Grand Hotel. He acquired an entire block for $400,000 Architect John P Gaynor was hired to design the first Palace Hotel. Excavation started in 1873. The General plan of the building was of a rectangle covering 2.5 acres. 

 

The hotel was first opened in 1875 and at that time it was the largest hotel in the world, seven stories high, and covered an entire block.

 

In order to ensure an adequate supply of bricks and lumber Ralston built his own brickyard in Oakland and purchased and entire oak forest in the Sierra foothills to provide wood for floors.

The first hotel contained 755 rooms with accommodations for 1200 guests Most of the guest rooms were 20 feet squared with 15 foot ceilings. Each of these rooms had its own water closet.

 

 Each of these rooms had an electric call button. Each room had its own fireplace; each floor had a tubular conductor to carry outgoing and incoming mail and messages to various locations in the hotel.

At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906 there was a large earthquake and fire. The Damage at the Palace Hotel was only cosmetic, However Bill Sharon’s son Fred Sharon decided to demolish the hotel and built a new one.

 

The Second Palace Hotel completed in December 15, 1909 is nine stories high and contains 550 rooms. The cost was 10 millions. The price of a room was $2/night compared with $1/ night at the first Palace Hotel. The architecture was designed by the New York Firm Trowbridge and Livingston with George Kelham as lead architect.

 

The most famous room is the Garden Court. Famous are paintings such as The Pied Piper that is evaluated at 2.5 million dollars.

Another earthquake in 1989 close for 2 years the hotel and new seismic upgrade were implemented while spending $150 million dollars bringing the hotel at the splendor that is today.