Sugar Palace
Unfinished History
The Sugar Palace
Photo: Chris Carlsson, 2019
Entry way to 2080 Washington Street
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
View across Van Ness Avenue between Clay and Sacramento at the original Claus Spreckels Mansion (or "Sugar Palace"), 1899... It burned in the 1906 quake and fire.
Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp130.00019
View north on Van Ness toward the west side of the street between California and Jackson, c. 1895. The Claus Spreckels mansion is in the distance at right.
Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp13.386
Claus Spreckels
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
The Spreckels Mansion, 2080 Washington St. This outrageous circa-1912 chateau, famous for its ornate French Baroque limestone facade, is known as the Sugar Palace, since it was built with the Spreckels' sugar fortune. George and Alma Spreckels were perhaps San Francisco's best-known patrons of the arts; they gave the city the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the museum built above the bones of Gold Rush pioneers.
Claus Spreckels in Chicago, early 20th century.
Photo: Chicago Daily News negatives DN-0008426, Chicago History Museum