Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from [Enter collection title] must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: St. Francis Hotel (San Francisco, CA) Liquor Store Scrapbook, Ms2017-021, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

The St. Francis Hotel (San Francisco, CA) Liquor Store Scrapbook was purchased by Special Collections in September 2015.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the St. Francis Hotel (San Francisco, CA) Liquor Store Scrapbook was completed in August 2017. Items were removed from the scrapbook and placed in a binder box during processing. Several oversized pages were removed and are housed in a separate folder.

Historical Note

Designed and built at the turn of the 20th century by Charles T. Crocker, who envisioned it as the cornerstone of a plan to make San Francisco "the Paris of the West," the St. Francis Hotel established itself as a city landmark. The original building was completed in 1904, but its popularity led to plans for rapid expansion. When the 1906 earthquake struck San Francisco, the hotel sustained only minimal damage and none of it was structural. Over the next three days, however, fires inside the building did cosmetic destruction to elements of the hotel. Reconstruction and repairs started quickly and the hotel re-opened in 1907 with a new wing was added in 1908. Later renovations and additions were competed in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Since its early days, the hotel has hosted celebrities, politicians, and dignitaries.

Scope and Content

The collection contains a scrapbook of images from the liquor store window at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, California. The collection likely dates from about the 1950s, though none of the items are specifically dated. The scrapbook primarily consists of original photographs, mostly black and white 8x10s. They depict changing seasonal and product-based displays from the storefront. In addition, there are some smaller black and white and color photographs. The scrapbook also contains several pieces of ephemera: advertisements for products, newspaper ads, and resources on San Francisco (maps, tourist guides, and flyers). Oversize materials include hand-painted art and advertisements for the liquor store. Materials were collected by then-store-owner Philip B. Anson.

Arrangement

During processing, the contents of the pages were removed from the scrapbook and housed in an acid-free binder-box. Four oversized pages were removed to a large folder and their location is noted in the box, but otherwise the collection is in its original order.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Advertisements
• Cocktail History Collection
• Cocktails -- History
• History of Food and Drink
• Hotel St. Francis (San Francisco, Calif.)