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Fairmont Hotel is the place to be if you are looking to spend your best summer vacation ever.

The history of the San Francisco Fairmont begins at the turn of the 20th century with a colorful Old West character named James Graham "Diamond Jim" Fair, one of San Francisco's wealthiest citizens. Diamond Jim's daughters, Tessie and Virginia Fair, built the Fairmont as a monument to and namesake of their father, who died in 1894.

Construction of the Fairmont Hotel began in 1902, but the Fair sisters dropped the project in 1906, exchanging the hotel for two office buildings owned by brothers Herbert and Hartland Law. At the time of the exchange, the exterior structure of the hotel was completed, but the interior furnishings had not yet been placed and installed.

Effects Of The San Francisco Earthquake

A few days after the Law brothers acquired the Fairmont Hotel, the famous San Francisco earthquake struck. The structure incurred only minimal harm in the earthquake, and for awhile it looked like it would also survive the post-earthquake fires that engulfed the city, but 24 hours after the great quake, the Fairmont succumbed to the flames that had eaten their way up Nob Hill.

The Law brothers wasted no time rebuilding the Fairmont Hotel from scratch. They hired Julia Morgan, the first woman to graduate from the prestigious Parisian Ecole des Beaux Arts, as their architect. Ms. Morgan would later come to be known as one of America's premiere female architects, but when the Law brothers hired her, she was virtually unknown.

One year after the earthquake, the Law brothers held a grand banquet celebrating the reopening of the Fairmont Hotel. The banquet was a wine and seafood feast, complete with fireworks at nine o'clock that night.

The hotel thrived after the earthquake, becoming the temporary home of many of San Francisco's elite society whose mansions had been destroyed in the great fire. In 1908, Diamond Jim's daughter Tessie Fair, now Mrs. Tessie Oelrichs, returned to Nob Hill and purchased the Fairmont. Under her ownership, the hotel was host to President Teddy Roosevelt, President Howard Taft, and entertainer Rudolph Valentino.

Since then, the hotel has changed ownership many times. Fortunately, subsequent owners have realized the importance of the hotel's history, and have maintained the style and prestige of the original Fairmont Hotel.

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