Welcome to WilliamRalston.com

Welcome to WilliamRalston.com, a site dedicated to reviving William Ralston, one of the most influential people involved in creating the San Francisco we know and love today. I'm Morgan, the caretaker on this site. I grew up in Berkeley, CA and worked in San Francisco, walking by the Palace Hotel all the time, never thinking much of it.

Then one day I decided to walk inside, and I got goosebumps right away, it felt special to me in some way. Walking to the Garden Court I was just so amazed with the architecture and the feeling I had, like a voyage back to a different time, a grand time.

The Palace Hotel's Grand Court around 1895, with carriages on the floor below seven stories of balconies and a glass roof — The Palace Hotel’s Grand Court, c. 1895 — the space that became today’s Garden Court.

This started my interest in the history of the Palace Hotel, which led me to discover William Ralston, its creator, and a man with a history far more interesting than I could have ever expected.

As I started talking to more friends and family in the Bay Area I realized, nobody had ever heard of Ralston. Yet, here's a man, that had the largest funeral in San Francisco history, still. A man who fell in love with Vanderbilt's niece, who tragically died before they could get married. A man who at a time, was one of the richest men in the world and would throw the most elaborate parties at his 55,000 square foot mansion in Belmont California.

The entry hall and grand staircase inside Ralston Hall, Ralston's mansion in Belmont, California — Inside Ralston Hall, Ralston's mansion in Belmont, California.

And possibly, the first person to ever have their honeymoon in Yosemite, way back in the mid-1800s when getting to Yosemite was no easy task.

Many people know the Bank of California, few know that it was William Ralston that started it. Or that he died never knowing that the Palace Hotel would ever be built, or that his bank would still live on today, while somehow the memory of him would be erased from the world.

I feel a connection to Ralston, I can't explain it, but I felt it the moment I first set foot in the Palace Hotel, and I want to revive Ralston, bring his life and all of the amazing things he did back into the world.

Ralston dreamed of a San Francisco, that didn't disappear after the Gold Rush, but instead turned into a magnificent city on the bay, where the entrepreneurial spirit could thrive. His dream came true, but he will never know. At least I can make sure more people know who Ralston is, and why, for every person who appreciates San Francisco, in a way, they are appreciating William Ralston.