Historical Marker · No. 650
Site of What Cheer House
San Francisco, San Francisco County · California
Erected by California State Park Commission in cooperation with the California Historical Society and the American Trust Company, 1959
The hotel's name is the motto of Providence, Rhode Island, where Robert Woodward's family lived until 1857. That city takes it from the greeting its founding story gives the Narragansett people who met Roger Williams on the Seekonk River in 1636: what cheer, netop, the last word Narragansett for friend. Woodward had come out in 1849 to sell groceries on the waterfront, and in 1852 he opened this hotel for men, with no liquor on the premises. The fire of 1906 took it.
What the plaque says
Site of What Cheer House 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. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 650 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the California Historical Society and the American Trust Company, April 24, 1959.
Where it stands
37.79379, -122.40217 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Long Wharf — steps away
- Hudson's Bay Company Headquarters — steps away
- Site of Parrott Granite Block — steps away
- Landing Place of Captain J. B. Montgomery — steps away