Hotel Whitcomb

The building before you began its life with a double identity. Architects Wright and Rushforth designed the structure with two sets of blueprints, one for a temporary municipal center and one for a luxury hotel, allowing the city to transition the building from one purpose to the other seamlessly. When the grandiose original City Hall collapsed during the 1906 earthquake, this site stepped in to house city government offices from 1912 until 1915, even using the basement level as a municipal jail.