1958 4

The Hotel St. George was located at 371-75 Thirteenth Street, Oakland, California, and is currently the site of the Clarion Hotel. The Colonial Revival - Mansard hotel building was designed by Walter J. Mathews, who was the builder as well from 1906-1908. It was constructed in part to house the Winedale Company and initially completed in 1907.

An August 1909 classified for the St. George describes it as "just opened", 2 though it may have been operating under a different name before that. Ironically, a fire had destroyed the St. George Hotel in San Francisco a few months before.

In 1911, Peter Andrews, a teamster from Contra Costa, fell to his death in the light well. His death was determined to be accidental. 3

It was the Will Rogers Hotel from at least 1944 to 1967. 5,6

Building

This is a six story mansard roofed brick masonry hotel and store building with simple Classical ornamentation, on an interior lot. The facade is four bays wide, in a three part vertical composition with a commercial ground floor base, a three story, stucco surfaced shaft, a one story capital, and a one story attic with a sheet metal mansard roof with four pedimented dormers. Windows are set singly in slightly recessed molded bays. A molded belt course and modillion block cornice articulate the capital. The ground floor storefront has been altered; wood clerestory windows remain on the left side above the entry and lobby window of the residential hotel.

This building was developed by capitalist and wine merchant Charles Jurgens as a "lodging house," perhaps originally for 1906 earthquake refugees, and also housed Jurgen's wine business headquarters. The mansard top story, a rarity in Oakland, appears to have been added in 1907-1908. It is an unusual design by Oakland's prolific and influential early architect Walter J. Mathews. 1

This historic building is #38 on the list of District Contributors for the Downtown Oakland Historic District Registration Form.

Links and References

  1. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Downtown Oakland Historic District
  2. classified ad Oakland Tribune August 7, 1909
  3. Coroner Probing Teamster's Death Oakland Tribune August 22, 1911
  4. ohrphoto.dpoa4.062 Oakland History Center, Oakland Public Library
  5. Oakland Directory 1944
  6. Oakland Directory 1967