Site of the What Cheer House
Landmark No. 650
- Year Dedicated
- 1959
- Location
- 547 Sacramento St, San Francisco
- Sightseeing Group
- Group 2
History & Description (1976)
Robert B. Woodward's What Cheer House was a fashionable hotel constructed in 1852. Its restaurant was the first in the City to serve ala carte meals. Incredibly, no liquor was served in the establishment. Perhaps the What Cheer House's most distinctive features were its library and museum. The 3,000 volume free library was installed in a large room of the hotel in 1861 and was frequented by journalist Henry George, among others. The What Cheer House was destroyed in the 1906 fire.
The What Cheer House was located on the southwest corner of Sacramento and Leidesdorff, a site now occupied by a Wells Fargo Bank. A state marker, placed April 24, 1959, by the California State Park Commission, the California Historical Society, and the American Trust Company, is mounted on the side of the bank facing Leidesdorff near its intersection with Sacramento.
Marker Inscription
This is the site of the famous What Cheer House, a unique hotel opened in 1852 by R.B. Woodward and destroyed by the fire of 1906. The What Cheer House catered to men only, permitted no liquor on the premises, and housed San Francisco's first free library and first museum.
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