The Brief Glory Days of San Francisco’s Robber Baron Palaces
Lost Masterpieces
Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker built some of the fanciest houses on Nob Hill—only to see them wrecked in San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
They were known then as the “Big Four” and their palaces of conspicuous consumption dominated a city whose fame was based on the promise of sudden wealth.
At the end of the 19th century, Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker loomed over California history.
Stanford would co-found the university that bears his name and serve as governor and senator. Crocker at one point also held the controlling shares of Wells Fargo and left behind an estate of hundreds of millions of dollars.