Site of the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art

The gift on the bronze came from the widow's second husband. Mark Hopkins died in 1878 before he could live in the mansion, and Mary Hopkins brought in a Herter Brothers decorator, Edward Searles, twenty-two years her junior, to finish it. They married in 1887. Her will left him everything and her adopted son Timothy nothing, and in the contest that followed Searles testified that he had married her partly out of affection and partly for her money. He won, settled millions on Timothy, and gave the house away. It burned in 1906.

What the plaque says

Site of The Mark Hopkins Institute of Art In February 1893, Mr. Edward F. Searles donated the Hopkins Mansion to the University of California in trust for the San Francisco Art Institute for "instruction in and illustration of the fine arts, music and literature", and as San Francisco's first cultural center. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 754 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the San Francisco Art Institute, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, and California Historical Society, October 20, 1961.

Where it stands

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