Hotel Union Square
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Hotel Union Square is located in San Francisco, California. The Hotel features 131 guest rooms and suites, including the famed Dashiell Hammett Suite.
The hotel has kept it's original 1915 Egyptian-motif mosaic murals, located in the lobby entryway. They are encased in gold glass bead wall covering.
The interior design was completed by San Francisco-based Irish Interior Designer Colum McCartan, founder and principal of McCartan Design, along with Lisa Sayed, partner of the hotel interior design company Sisterhood of the Traveling Hotels, who designed the Ring In the Kids Suite and Lisa Compagno designed the Dashiell Hammett Suite.
[edit] History
Hotel Union Square, which originally housed the Golden West Hotel, was constructed in 1913 for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman may have conducted much of their love affair at the hotel,[1] and Hammett loved the hotel so much that he booked his bride-to-be Josephine Dolan in a suite on the night before their 1921 wedding.[2] During the Prohibition Era, a 10,000 square feet speakeasy called The Golden Bubble was located below the hotel. The original terrazzo floors and wallpaper still remain in what is now used as a storage area. In the 1950s, the hotel was renamed the Golden State Hotel. Personality Hotels purchased the building in the early 1980s and opened Hotel Union Square in 1982.
In recent years, the hotel is said to have been haunted, particularly in Room 207. Some attribute a ghost in that room to Hellman.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Antoinette May. "Is there a spirit here tonight?", San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
- ^ Dashiell Hammett, page 22, Hotel Union Square
