San Francisco Imperial Hotel after Burning

A newspaper account from February 5, 1906 describes a wedding reception at the Japanese-owned Imperial Hotel, located at 606 Stockton St. between California and Pine. The newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Gen Nagai, celebrated the occasion with some two hundred guests, “in a room resplendent with furniture and draperies imported from Tokio (Tokyo).” Just three months later the hotel and its banquet hall were leveled by the earthquake and fire. Obata’s image of the blasted foundation and debris-strewn steps conveys the intensity of the flames that swept away many local touchstones of Japanese immigrant life. Aside from this painting, there seem to be few other visual remnants of this site, which was later occupied by the Metropolitan Life Building. The domed building at the right is the Call Building, located on Market at Third Street.