Getting to Nob Hill usually means the cable car, hauling itself up California Street past Grace Cathedral until the car stops at the corner of Taylor Street. The Huntington stands right there, twelve stores of brick, a lit sign on the roof visible from half of San Francisco. Inside, it smells of freshly polished brass.
The Location
San Francisco sits on hills, and Nob Hill is one of the highest and priciest: here the railroad barons of the nineteenth century built their mansions, before the 1906 earthquake burned most of them down. What survived is the position—a view of the bay in one direction, the skyline in the other.
The Huntington occupies the corner of California and Taylor Street, opposite the Pacific-Union Club, beside Grace Cathedral with its Gothic towers. Twelve stores of brick, strictly Georgian, with the historic lit sign that has crowned the hill for decades.
Backstory
The house was built in 1922 by architects Weeks & Day, as a luxury apartment building, named for Collis P. Huntington, one of the four railroad magnates who divided the hill among themselves in the nineteenth century. In 1924 it became a hotel. Marlene Dietrich stayed here, Truman Capote, Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert—guests after discretion, and mostly getting it.
© Courtesy of The Huntington Hotel
In 2020 the house closed, a casualty of the pandemic; in 2022 the owner fell into default. In 2023 the investor group led by Greg Flynn bought the building and hired designer Ken Fulk to rebuild it. In March 2026 The Huntington reopened, under general manager Matthew de Quillien, who had previously worked for Daniel Boulud in New York and for Soho House in London.
Interior & Architecture
The Huntington follows a strict Georgian style: red brick outside, plasterwork ceilings and boiserie panelling inside, the kind you’d expect in a private house rather than a hotel.
That was exactly Ken Fulk’s approach—to treat the building like a grand, well-worn estate. Fulk, a native San Franciscan, worked with the existing proportions: tall windows, historic ceiling heights, the original staircases.
Where new work was needed, it takes its cues from what was already there, rather than talking over it. In September 2025, The Huntington was added to the National Register of Historic Places—a recognition that belongs to the building itself, not to the brand currently living inside it.
A Look Inside
143 rooms and suites are spread across twelve floors, from compact guest rooms up to the penthouse suite at the top. Every room gets a Simmons Beautyrest Black mattress, a Marshall speaker, a Grind espresso machine with locally roasted coffee — the kind of things you’d bring yourself, if you were allowed.
© Douglas Friedman
A few steps above the lobby sits Arabella’s, the new cocktail salon with twenty-five seats, named for Arabella Duval Huntington, the second wife of namesake Collis P.
Huntington — a woman who came from deep poverty and ended up the wealthiest American woman of her era. In the lounge, Hunt & Gather sells curated objects from Ken Fulk’s own collection. Presiding over it all is the Majordomo, who runs the house like a private estate.
© Douglas Friedman
Culinary
The Big Four turns fifty in 2026—opened in 1976, named for the four railroad magnates who once divided Nob Hill between them, Huntington among them.
© Douglas Friedman
Executive Chef David Intonato, formerly of Appellation in Healdsburg and Gardenia in San Jose, has updated the menu with care, without touching the old fixed points: the chicken pot pie has been on the menu for fifty years, at its old pre-pandemic price of 35 dollars. Alongside it, the Big Four Louie Wedge, steak tartare finished tableside, and a cioppino with Dungeness crab, clams and kampachi.
Ken Fulk kept the dark green, the brass, the wall sconces made of rams’ horns, the carved wooden columns—historic photographs of the old Nob Hill mansions hang on the walls. In the evening, live piano plays.
Wellness & Relaxation
The Nob Hill Spa spans three floors and around 840 square metres, also redesigned by Ken Fulk. At its centre sits an edgeless pool, heated to 34 degrees, with a view over the city—reserved for anyone who has already booked a treatment.
© Douglas Friedman
The terrace faces south, for sunbathing between treatments. In the Sanctuary, sheets of linen hang from the ceiling, a retreat for massages and the quiet after. Steam room and sauna are finished in Moroccan tadelakt; in the atrium, Moorish latticework filters the light. In the nail salon, Roman clay walls meet hand-laid zellige tile—more elaborate than most hotel lobbies.
Surrounding Area
Directly opposite stands Grace Cathedral, with its neo-Gothic towers and famous labyrinth on the floor, open to anyone regardless of faith. Huntington Park out front is something like the hotel’s front garden: tai chi groups in the morning, dog walkers in the afternoon, a fountain with stone turtles at its centre.
Anyone interested in books can take the cable car down to North Beach, to City Lights, the bookshop that became the address of the Beat Generation in the 1950s, or to Jackson Square, to William Stout, specialising in architecture and design. In the Mission District, Evan Kinori runs his own, much-cited fashion label, minimal and made in small runs. Union Square, under twenty minutes on foot, offers more classic names like Wilkes Bashford or Gump’s. Anyone after art will find one of the most important collections of contemporary work on the West Coast at SFMOMA. Chinatown begins practically at the foot of the hill, with its own rhythm and its own rules.
Activities
Anyone exploring the city beyond The Huntington will find a first selection here, sorted by interest.
Culture
- Grace Cathedral with its labyrinth, directly opposite the hotel
- San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera in Hayes Valley
- SFMOMA for contemporary art
- Dolby Chadwick and Berggruen Gallery for smaller, curated collections
Design & Shopping
- William Stout Architectural Books in Jackson Square, for everything between Bauhaus and Brutalism
- Evan Kinori in the Mission District, minimalist menswear made in-house
- Ken Fulk’s own studio in SoMa, for anyone wanting to take the hotel’s interior home
Food & Drink
- Dandelion Chocolate in the Mission, bean-to-bar chocolate roasted on site
- The Fairmont San Francisco and the Top of the Mark, both two minutes’ walk away, for a second view of the hill from above
- Song Tea in Pacific Heights, for rare Chinese and Japanese teas
Neighbourhoods
- Chinatown, right at the foot of the hill, the oldest Chinese community in North America
- North Beach, Italian in character, with City Lights as its literary anchor
- The Castro, for nightlife and the history of the movement
- Haight-Ashbury, for anyone who still believes in 1967
Details
- 143 rooms and suites (71 rooms, 72 suites) across twelve floors
- Restaurant: The Big Four, since 1976, Executive Chef David Intonato
- Cocktail salon: Arabella’s, 25 seats, Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm
- Nob Hill Spa: three floors, around 840 square metres, pool, steam room, sauna, nail salon
- Fitness centre: 24 hours, second floor
- Dogs welcome, $250 fee for up to two dogs
- Complimentary cable car passes for hotel guests
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since September 2025
