Landmark 1904 Union Square hotel whose twelfth-floor suite 1219-1221 is tied to two notable deaths — Virginia Rappe in the 1921 Fatty Arbuckle scandal and entertainer Al Jolson in 1950 — and to the building's persistent haunted reputation.
335 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$$
Active flagship Westin property; room rates typically $300+/night. Public lobby and bars accessible without a stay.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Fully accessible historic luxury hotel.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1904 · Virginia Rappe collapse in Arbuckle suite 1219-1221 (September 5, 1921) · Al Jolson died in same 12th-floor suite (October 23, 1950) · 1906 earthquake survivor with 1907 reconstruction · Sara Jane Moore assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford outside hotel (September 22, 1975)
Charles T. Crocker financed the original St. Francis, which opened on Union Square in 1904 as a 250-room luxury property. The 1906 earthquake left the building gutted; reconstruction added a new wing that returned the hotel to operation by 1907, with later expansions in 1908 and 1913. A 32-story tower was added on the Post Street side in 1972, doubling the room count and giving the property the city skyline footprint it retains today.
On the weekend of September 5, 1921, comedian Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle hosted a Labor Day party in his three-room suite — rooms 1219, 1220, and 1221 — on the twelfth floor. Actress Virginia Rappe was found seriously ill during the party and died three days later. Arbuckle was charged with manslaughter; after two mistrials he was acquitted in April 1922, but his film career was effectively destroyed and the case became one of the defining Hollywood scandals of the silent era.
The same twelfth-floor suite was the scene of another celebrity death three decades later. Al Jolson, returning from entertaining U.S. troops in Korea, checked into the St. Francis to record a Bing Crosby radio appearance. At about 10:30 PM on October 23, 1950, while playing gin rummy with friends in his room, Jolson said he felt unwell and died of a heart attack in his suite at age 64.
The St. Francis also has a documented near-history with President Gerald Ford. On September 22, 1975, as Ford was leaving the hotel, Sara Jane Moore fired at him from across Post Street; the attempt failed and Moore was apprehended. The hotel remains the flagship Westin property and is operated by Marriott.
Sources
The St. Francis lore is unusually tightly geographically focused. Guest and staff accounts from the past several decades converge on the twelfth-floor suite of rooms 1219-1221 and on the corridor immediately outside. The most-repeated report is of Al Jolson seen seated at a small table in his old suite, dressed for a 1950s social evening, occasionally appearing to look up at an observer before fading. Some accounts describe Jolson's apparition specifically holding playing cards, a detail aligned with the documented circumstances of his death mid-card-game.
Virginia Rappe's reported apparition is the second pillar of the lore. Guests describe a young woman in 1920s dress in apparent distress, tearing at her hair or her clothing, in the corridor near the suite. The description is consistent enough across unrelated reports that several haunted-history features treat it as the building's signature apparition, though it is also the most editorially difficult element — the documented facts of Rappe's death involve a contested sexual-assault prosecution against Arbuckle, and the apparition's distressed framing can edge into sensationalism if not handled with care.
Additional reports describe lights cycling on the twelfth floor, doors that fail to latch on the suite hallway, and a sense of being watched in the corridor between the elevators and the suite. Activity is reported as concentrated to this single hallway segment and is not described as a building-wide haunting; the rest of the St. Francis is generally absent from the lore. The hotel maintains a measured public posture: the rooms remain in active inventory and concierge staff will discuss the history with guests who inquire.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Book a stay at the flagship Westin facing Union Square. The 12th-floor suite numbered 1219-1221 is the centerpiece of the hotel's haunted reputation; the rooms remain in active inventory and the concierge will discuss the Arbuckle and Jolson history with guests who ask.
The St. Francis is a routine stop on Union Square history walking tours; the corner of Powell and Geary outside the hotel is also where Gerald Ford survived an assassination attempt in 1975, adding a documented layer to the building's history.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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