The Mark Hopkins Hotel appears in Andy Warhol’s account of his February 21, 1977, visit to San Francisco as the first place he went after arriving in the city. The hotel provided a pause between the airport reception and the visit to the gallery where his exhibition was on view.

Arrival and Lunch

Warhol records that United flight 433 arrived at 1:05. Mark, from the gallery hosting the show, met the party at the airport with champagne and a limousine, then drove them to the Mark Hopkins Hotel. After being dropped off, they had lunch at the Top of the Mark.

Place in the Day’s Itinerary

From the hotel, Warhol and his companions walked three blocks downhill to the gallery. The diary places the hotel within a sequence of conspicuous hospitality followed by a sharply negative assessment of the exhibition’s hanging. Its role in the entry is specific: it is where the party paused for lunch before the visit that became the day’s principal account.