Years ago, I stayed in either the Sir Francis Drake or the St. Francis hotel in San Francisco (what a fabulous city!) and on top of the skyscraper across the street there was a cute little cottage that someone must live in. I swear I think there was even a little fenced in yard! Does anyone know anything about this? Is common? Whats the story?!?
Well, you’ve got me curious now. If nobody knows the story I’ll go by there after work and see if the cottage is still there. Doesn’t matter which hotel, since they’re pretty much right next to each other.
I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to find a cottage on top of a skyscraper.
I once saw an apropos quote that I wrote down but can’t find right now, but it went something like this :
“What else do you expect from a city named after an ecstatic who preached love and talked with animals?”
panama jack
I don’t know anything about said cottage, but I’m in a WAGing mood so here goes my theory. Perhaps it’s a tool shed or greenhouse for tending the surrounding rooftop garden. Just a theory.
I think this is Union Square. Anything look familiar gold1?
http://135.145.16.183/galleriapark.com/html/services.htm
You might have been looking at the Galleria Park Hotel’s rooftop garden/park in downtown SF.
retsin, when I clicked that link I didn’t get Union Square, though I’m not exactly sure where that was. The ‘locator’ map showed it to be up near Van Ness (but that locator isn’t of much use anyways). When I finally found Union Square, this is the link I got :
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=10&T=1&X=2760&Y=20912&Z=10&W=2
See if that works (it’s off on the lower left side if it’s there). Or maybe the images reload differently over time (are they from live satellite or just old photos?)
although I don’t know if that’ll help gold1. Was it, in fact, something like the Galleria rooftop or did it look like an old-fashioned dwelling?
here’s a picture of the roof at the link by astro :
http://135.145.16.183/galleriapark.com/html/enlarged/roof.htm
That’s my house, now BUG OFF!!!
This Terraserver link might show the Galleria better: http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=10&T=1&X=2762&Y=20912&Z=10&W=2 (It’s just one quadrant NE of the one already given.) I think the correct address is around the third grid square right of center and the 4th grid square above center. Union Square is clearly visible in the lower left quadrant.
You can also try to find the Galleria Park Hotel (at 191 Sutter) using http://www.globexplorer.com. You can zoom this a lot more than Terraserver.
Maps On Us only showed listings for St Francis Hotel Florist and St Francis Hotel Theatre both at 335 Powell St, in the middle of the block on the west side of Union Square. Is it possible that the St. Francis Hotel was sold and renamed, but the shops kept their names? The Sir Francis Drake Hotel is at 450 Powell, 1/2 block north of Union Square.
The 191 Sutter address isn’t “across the street” from either of the Powell St. addresses.
Sorry I don’t have any more specific info, but I did see this on the Travel Channel a couple of months ago.
I think it may have been on the Lonely Planet show - that girl who hosts it was in SF, and she stayed in that cottage for one night. Looked awesome, with great views of the city.
gold1, you are so right - it is a great city. I’ve been there twice, the first time right after the '89 earthquake (went for a New Year’s Eve concert). I would love to live there, but it’s too expensive.
Anyway, you might check the Travel Channel website, and see if you can search anything on Lonely Planet.
I saw the cottage when I was there last April. I’m guessing it was the same one, anyway. A lot of wierd things went through my head after seeing it, becuase, knowing SF, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if somebody actually lived there. I’m with Dire Wolf, though, in that I’d love to live there. But it is way too expensive and the homeless get worse and worse everytime I visit.
wow you guys are soooo great I can’t wait to check out all those sites!!!
PJ - I’m not so great with my S.F. geography. I usually take the Metro, Bart, or my friends drive me around when I’m out there. I sure do love that town though.
OT
Hey Dire Wolf, don’t murder me for making an assumption based on your name, I was at that show too. Did you know that was New Grass Revival’s last show? Bonnie Rait sounded pretty damn good too. Oh yeah and then the boys played.
Ziggy, you might try looking under ‘Westin-St. Francis’ since that’s it’s name now. The florist and boutique, AFAIK, are inside the old part of the hotel. I know there’s an older section which has its entrance on Union Square. Then there’s a much taller, newer section (this is the one with the glass elevators) that covers the rest of the block behind it. This one probably has much better views (than the Drake) of downtown, as well as Market and further south.
I don’t see that side of the city much, though, but I do ride through it on my way to/from work. I stopped briefly to see if anything like a cottage was clearly visible from the ground, but didn’t go up anywhere. I’ve got friends visiting this weekend, maybe I’ll see if we can find the cottage.
[anecdote about SF tourism]
My boss just told me this story yesterday about some people he met on a recent trip to Wisconsin. He told them he lived in San Francisco, and they replied, “Oh, we love that city! It was so great, we visited a few years ago. Union Square, Fishermans’ Wharf, that was wonderful!”
My boss asked, “Did you see the Cliff House?”
“The Cliff House? Oh, where’s that?”
“It’s in a nice spot, out on the edge of the ocean.”
To which they said, “There’s an ocean?”
[/anecdote]
I just have to tell you that dopers are the best people I kind of like, know (sniff) . THis has been on my mind for years…
Invite me in, get your cards. We’ll sit down for a game.
I did not know that about NGR! I will hardly ever forget Bonnie Raitt, for two reasons:
When she first walked out on stage that night, she just looked around, fanned the air, and said something like “Phew! Smells like y’all are havin’ a good time tonight!”
She received the GD magical touch - after that show, she went on to win a bunch of Grammys.
Yes, it was a stellar show, but I liked the 2 nights before even better.
Sorry for the hijack 
It all ties in to SF - a truly marvelous place.
LOL! I had completely forgotten about Bonnie Raitt saying that. God, I’m glad you reminded me of that. I only got to see the New Years show due to bad planning. We did better the rest of the trip though. We drove to Yosemite after the show and there was no snow at all in the Valley. We crashed most of New Year’s Day and when we awoke there was 3 inches of the white stuff on the ground and more on the way. Ahhh, the magical times of my younger days.
Anyway I should probably say something that isn’t completely off topic, or the mods will through me and this perfectly fine thread about a mystical cottage into MPISMS.
Umm, PJ any luck with the weekend search? I hope you found it and got some great pictures to share.
So I still think about this occasionally. Anybody figure it out?