Sugar Palace
Unfinished History
The Sugar Palace
Entry way to 2080 Washington Street
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
The Spreckels Mansion, 2080 Washington St. This outrageous circa-1912 chateau, famous for its ornate French Baroque limestone facade, is known as the Sugar Palace, since it was built with the Spreckels' sugar fortune. George and Alma Spreckels were perhaps San Francisco's best-known patrons of the arts; they gave the city the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the museum built above the bones of Gold Rush pioneers.
Spreckels' Sugar Factory beneath Potrero Hill, c. 1890s
Photo: Bancroft Library