The City
San Francisco is a cultural, commercial, and financial center in the U.S. state of California. Located in Northern California, San Francisco is the 17th most populous city proper in the United States, and the fourth most populous in California, with 873,965 residents as of 2020
Hotels
Luxurious Rococo
With Grace Cathedral and the former Flood Mansion – now the bastion of the very select Pacific Union Club – as its neighbours across the street, the Huntington is the discreet challenger to the Fairmont atop Nob Hill. It was built in 1922 on the site of the Victorian house that belonged to the Tobin family, founders of the Hibernia Bank, and acquired in 1924 by a real-estate developer, Eugene Fritz. The twelve-storey building, named after Collis P. Huntington, one of the Big Four railroad barons, was long an ultramodern luxury apartment building with hotel services. After World War II, Fritz converted the property into a luxury hotel, adding a lobby worthy of the name and a restaurant, the Zebra Room. The Huntington immediately attracted elite travellers, who were delighted by its huge, well-equipped rooms, impeccable service, and great location.
A Sense of Style
Cable Car Clothiers
Named after the famous cable car between Powell and O’Farrell Street that saves you from slogging up the hills, this store in the middle of the Financial District was an army surplus place before its owner took an interest in old-school elegance. That was in the 1950s. Today, this retro store is run in the time-honoured way by Jonathan Levin, the founder’s great, great grandson, offering such trusty names as Holland & Holland, Stetson, Tellason, Filson and Pendleton, along with accessories ranging from Abbeyhorn shoe horns (in horn, of course) to braces (aka suspenders). The house has its own range of flannel shirts, too. All are displayed on the marble walls and sculpted wooden presentation racks. Since 2013, the haberdashers have been home to Nicky The Barber, who is as deft with his blades as with his range of hairstyles, from the 1980s to the present.
Arts and Culture
Elins Eagles Smith
Established in 2002, the Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery showcases emerging and established artists, with an emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area figurative movement, American modernism and Abstract Expressionism. Housed in a spacious and bright 230-square-metre space, the gallery plans on remaining in this downtown building for years to come, says director Kim Eagles-Smith. The gallery hosts two curated shows a year tracing the historical art movements of the 20th century. Among the painters represented here are William Theophilus Brown, who featured prominently in the Bay Area figurative art movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and contemporary artist Susan Grossman, who is known for her large-scale views of New York street life and quietly dramatic rural landscapes.
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