Story and photos by John Sundsmo.
Feature image: The Fairmont Empress, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
As a history buff and amateur woodworker, I am often struck by the wonderful craftsmanship in early 19th-century buildings. Using only simple hand tools, the skilled woodworkers, masons, and craft artisans made enduring works that continue to stand out more than a century after their creation. While the workers are now gone, I continue to reflect on how they worked, their great patience, and how very time-consuming it must have been to get every detail just right using simple hand tools. The grand hotels of the 19th century contain the most elegant examples of their craftsmanship, notably on the West Coast, where lumber from native old-growth fir, redwood, and alder was creatively finished to resemble expensive East Coast hardwoods.
While traveling recently, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit three extensively renovated and updated hotels in the Fairmont collection of Historic Hotels of America: those in San Francisco, Sonoma, and Victoria, BC. All three were outstanding for their exquisite historical craftsmanship, the chance to walk down 1900s memory lane, and, as an added benefit, the excellent cuisine offered at their restaurants and bars.
San Francisco, The Fairmont: My wife received a present of an Afternoon Tea at the Fairmont, which took us to San Francisco one recent weekend. Perched at the highest, most noteworthy point on Nob Hill, next to the Powell Street Cable Car line, in 1906, the partially completed Fairmont was damaged in the great San Francisco earthquake and fire. The innovative use of reinforced concrete by Julia Morgan, architect and engineer, working for two wealthy sisters, saved the structure. After repairs, the hotel was opened in 1907.
The Fairmont was commissioned and named for US Senator James Graham Fair (Senator from Nevada) by his daughters, Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt. Senator Fair was an American success story. Born poor in Ireland, he immigrated to Illinois with his father at a young age. As a prospector in California in 1850, he studied hard to learn mining engineering and made his fortune with his partners at the Consolidated Virginia Mine, which, in 1873, discovered the largest silver ore vein in the Comstock Lode. The mine produced more than $100 million in silver and gold between 1873 and 1882, i.e., known at the time as “the big bonanza”. After being elected and serving in the US Senate (1881-1885), Fair moved to San Francisco and increased his big silver bonanza with railroad investments, including the South Pacific Coast Railroad to Santa Cruz (acquired by Southern Pacific) and banking, as co-founder of the Nevada Bank of San Francisco.
Despite changes in ownership over the years, the Fairmont name has been revered, and the brand has greatly expanded over the past century through the appreciation and restoration of historic hotels that now comprise the Fairmont Historic Hotels of America.
Memory Lane: The 6000-square-foot eighth-floor penthouse in the Fairmont has hosted Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Obama, and Biden, along with Alfred Hitchcock, Prince Charles (now King Charles), Tony Bennett, Mick Jagger, and Marilyn Monroe. Entertainment in the Venetian Room in the 1920s-60s included Brenda Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Dionne Warwick, Rosemary Clooney, and Tony Bennett, who first sang “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” in the Venetian Room in December, 1961. Restorations over the years have retained many easily recognizable features of what the hotel experience must have been for those historic visitors and entertainers.
Early 1900s craftsmanship: The lobby entrance held me transfixed. Were the columns really a rare, gold-yellow-veined Karlik marble from Prague? If not, the pho makeover was amazing, as was the woodwork and ornamental plaster detail on the ceiling beams throughout the lobby. My research reminded me that in 1900, the Wright brothers’ airplane flew for the first time; 1907 was only about 20 years after Edison invented the light bulb, and San Francisco got its first electric streetlights. It was hard to imagine how the workers in 1904-1907 could craft the plaster-and-beam decorations so elegantly and uniformly while perched high above the floor on scaffolding, working under the weak glow of early light bulbs. It reminded me of Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling with candlelight. Seemingly, the craftsmen who worked on the Fairmont in 1904-1906 had great pride in their workmanship.
Sonoma: The Fairmont Mission Inn.
A novel restaurant experience led us off the main square in Sonoma to a discovery. The Fairmont Mission Inn and Spa on Boyle Boulevard was designed by architect Joseph L. Stewart and built in the Spanish Revival style in 1927. Launched in 1928 as the Sonoma Mission Inn, it sported a 238-acre golf course and geothermal hot springs. The hot springs are still there, as well as a generous swimming pool. The California-Spanish mission-style architecture, in signature Salmon color with red tile roofs, was popular in the 1920s, and for me, it is still a great favorite, as it reminds me of beautiful historic haciendas in Spanish colonial Mexico.
In the lobby, large beams support the ceiling; the walls are pale yellow-cream with red Saltillo tiles on the floor – all are reminiscent of grand haciendas built in the late 1800s in Spain and Mexico.
Off the lobby entrance, the signature restaurant, Sante’, was originally two outdoor patios, which the manager told us were, over the years, successively enclosed for the growth of the restaurant. During the 2025 renovation, six archaeological layers were uncovered in the floor, dating from the recent laminate flooring back to the original 1927 red clay patio tiles. Beautiful wide-plank oak flooring now complements the modern, light, airy ambiance of the space while preserving the historic feel. The refurbished restaurant, new chef, and exquisitely prepared food were definitely worth our short drive from San Francisco to Sonoma, and we thoroughly enjoyed wandering the beautiful gardens before dinner. To appreciate our dinner, see the article: “Welcome Back to Santé at Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn.”
What was once a golf course has been added to the resort accommodations, beautifully in keeping with the original Spanish Revival architecture.
Victoria, British Columbia: The Empress Hotel. In the 1960s, my family took a camping trip up the West Coast from Southern California to Oregon and Washington, ending in British Columbia. We took the ferry from Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula to Vancouver Island. Victoria, its harbor, and the iconic Empress Hotel left me with fond memories and a strong desire to revisit those memories. On a trip to Vancouver, BC, we took the opportunity to hop on a BC ferry at Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal, headed to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. From there, we picked up a rental car and drove the short distance to Victoria. The revisit led me to a new appreciation for the pivotal island’s history and the role of The Empress Hotel in the early life of British Columbia.
Like The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, The Empress Hotel in Victoria was built between 1904 and 1908. So named because British Queen Victoria was also Empress of India, and the original contracting owner, The Canadian Pacific Railway Company, steamed the luxurious RMS Empress of India from Victoria on the trans-Pacific mail route to India for more than two decades.
After winning the architectural design competition for the British Columbia Legislature with a Neo-Romanesque design, the 25-year-old Francis Mawson Rattenbury (1867-1935) was hired, and the building was completed in 1898. Next hired by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1904, the clients wanted a hotel in the Grand Châteauesque style of their other famous Canadian Pacific Railway hotel, the Château Frontenac in Quebec, built in 1893. The railway owned a prime location at the end of the Victoria inner harbor, directly across from the Legislature, and the grand Empress Hotel was completed in 1908. (Rattenbury later received commissions for the grand Canadian Pacific Railway Chateau Lake Louise, completed in 1921, and the classically inspired Steamship Terminal Building in Victoria, completed in 1926.)
Traveling, my wife and I are often in “discovery” mode, more open to exploring off-the-grid joys and opportunities. Our three independent encounters with the Fairmont Hotels in San Francisco, Sonoma, and Victoria, BC left us happy we made the effort and took the time to “discover”.
I was once again struck by the wonderful craftsmanship in early 19th-century grand hotels, which, to me, exude the hard-to-find ambiance of the Victorian age morphing into the Swing Era. Wandering the hallways, I could almost smell the pipe and cigar smoke while easily imagining the fine ladies swishing by in their lace embellished full skirts and fancy hats on the arms of men sporting full black formal attire, bow tie, and top hat. Stopping to view black-and-white photos from the 20s and 30s, the era of Big Band Swing, cocktail lounge dancing, and jazz quickly came to mind. The enduring legacy of works created by artisans in the 1900s has stood the test of time and cultural change right down to the present. The workers are now gone, but their creations in architecture, engineering, wood, plaster, and iron continue to please, now fortunately under the appreciative guardianship of the Fairmont Hotels brand.
IF YOU GO:
The Fairmont in San Francisco is located at 950 Mason Street on Nob Hill, accessible from Fisherman’s Wharf via the Powell Street Cable Car.
The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa is in the heart of wine country, and is located at 100 Boyes Blvd, Sonoma, 95476.
The Fairmont Empress in Victoria, BC, is accessible in several ways. From San Francisco, we flew to Vancouver, BC (YVR international airport), and for the weekend, took the scenic BC ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. At the nearby airport, we rented a car and drove to Victoria. Alternative routes to Vancouver Island include a short flight from Vancouver YVR to YYJ International on Vancouver Island, and service on Alaska Airlines from Seattle. Other ferry routes to Victoria, BC include the Victoria Clipper; a 3-hour scenic high-speed catamaran from Seattle to Victoria’s inner harbor; and, the Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula, to Victoria, BC.
Leave a Reply