Built by silver heiresses to honor their father, this 1907 Nob Hill landmark reopened exactly one year after the earthquake that gutted its interiors — and carries a long-running haunting tradition tied to that abrupt beginning.
950 Mason Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$$
Luxury hotel; standard room rates typically $287–$1,130+ per night. Lobby, Tonga Room, and Laurel Court bar accessible to non-guests.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic high-rise hotel with elevators and accessible public spaces. Nob Hill location at top of steep cable-car grade.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1907 · National Register of Historic Places (2002) · San Francisco Landmark (1987) · Post-1906 Earthquake Reconstruction · Julia Morgan Architecture · James Graham Fair / Comstock Lode Legacy
James Graham Fair was an Irish immigrant who struck it rich at the Comstock Lode silver mine in Nevada and parlayed his mining fortune into a U.S. Senate seat. When he died in 1894, he left a Nob Hill parcel and the vision of a palatial hotel. His daughters Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt took up the project, beginning construction in 1903. The name combined the family surname with 'Mont' — the hilltop — and the building was designed to announce itself as the social center of San Francisco.
Construction was nearly complete when the 1906 earthquake struck at 5:12 AM on April 18. The structural framework held, but fire consumed the building's finished interiors within 24 hours of the quake. San Francisco was devastated; the Fairmont structure, still standing on Nob Hill above the smoldering city, became a temporary command post for civic officials managing the emergency.
The sisters hired Julia Morgan — who would later design Hearst Castle and become California's preeminent female architect — to rebuild the interior. Morgan's then-innovative use of reinforced concrete made the reconstruction possible at speed. The hotel reopened on April 18, 1907, exactly one year after the earthquake, with a celebration that reportedly involved 13,000 oysters and fireworks visible across the Bay. It was among the first major businesses to reopen in post-quake San Francisco.
The 591-room hotel has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2002 and was designated a San Francisco landmark in 1987. A 29-story tower was added in 1962. The hotel's eighth-floor presidential penthouse suite has hosted U.S. Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Obama, and Biden, along with Alfred Hitchcock, Tony Bennett, Mick Jagger, and Marilyn Monroe.
Sources
The Fairmont's paranormal reputation, as documented by ghost tour operators and travel writers, clusters around three categories of apparition.
The most widely circulated story involves Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, the sisters who built the hotel. They are described as benevolent presences — caretakers who watch over guests, occasionally touching sleeping visitors. A persistent version of the story claims the sisters were killed in the 1906 earthquake; this is not accurate. The Fairmont's own historical record shows Virginia Fair Vanderbilt reacquired the property in 1908, two years after the quake. Both sisters died years later of natural causes. Their ghost narrative is folklore built on the dramatic coincidence of the earthquake damaging their project, not on documented deaths at the site.
A second figure — a woman in red, described variously as a murder victim and as a prostitute killed in her room — is reported roaming the public areas and guest rooms. She is portrayed as sociable, lounging on beds and engaging with guests, consistent with ghost-tour framing that emphasizes colorful rather than threatening spirits. No contemporaneous news account of a murder victim at the hotel matching this description has been cited by investigators.
The seventh floor carries accounts of WWII-era soldiers observed after dark, lingering in corridors but not interacting with living guests. The Fairmont served as a gathering point for military personnel passing through San Francisco during the war, and the seventh-floor accounts may reflect that institutional memory.
The hotel itself has acknowledged its paranormal reputation in general terms while not commercializing it. Its Facebook page noted in 2021 that 'there is certainly beauty in the history' — a characteristic hedge that neither confirms nor denies.
Notable Entities
Stay in the Fairmont's main 1907 tower or the 1962 addition on Nob Hill. Staff and guests have reported apparitions on the seventh floor, unexplained cold spots, and the sense of being watched in the older corridors of the original building. The hotel's presidential penthouse suite has hosted Truman, Kennedy, Obama, and Biden.
The Fairmont's iconic tiki bar, occupying a former indoor swimming pool, is accessible to non-guests. An atmospheric evening option that requires no reservation — an easy way to experience the hotel's preserved public spaces.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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