Building Interior Description Spreckels Mansion, San Francisco California
The Spreckels Mansion consists essentially of three interior floors and a basement. The "main" floor is on the second level of the Washington Street face (third floor of the north face), following the prototype of the usual European piano nobile. Although the original entrance was on Washington Street, in the center of the south face of the house, this has been eliminated in favor of an entrance through the porte-cochere at the east. On this "first" floor, which is at ground level of the porte-cochere (below ground level on the Washington Street face and above on the north face), there are various smaller rooms and apartments. A long corridor runs east to west; at its northwest corner was and is the elevator, the principal access to the upper levels - in addition to the service stairs - since the suppression of the main interior and exterior stair oriented to Washington Street. On the "second" or "main" floor is Mrs. Spreckels' apartment. This was once the entertainment center of the house, with a large ballroom at the west and a large oval dining room and living room at the east. Adjacent to the ballroom on the south was a reception room. In the center was a magnificent hall with curving stair rising up to the west. At the north, facing the view were a central circular or "Pompeiian" room with a central fountain. To the east were pantries servicing the dining room. This floor was later modified with various interior divisions; and the main entrance stair from Washington Street was suppressed altogether. On the view side (north) there was a bedroom for Dorothy at the west. A bedroom for Adolph Jr. in the center.
Between Dorthys' bedroom (called "the little Princess's room") and her mother's "bedroom in the former space of the ballroom (along the vest side of the house) is a bathroom which still retains the original ballroom fireplace. The dining room is as planned in the original house; the interior has been painted apple-green to match the apple-green furniture.
Mrs. Munnfs (Dorothy Spreckels) apartment, on the top floor, was handsomely surveyed in an article in San Francisco (magazine) for July, 1963. A long east-west corridor divides it (like the corridor of the "first" floor); above is the original stained-glass roof of this corridor.
Opening off the corridor are a group of opulently furnished rooms (the furniture is primarily French l8th century, or modern adaptations of l8th century European designs). Mrs. Munn's dining room is at the southeast corner; the kitchen is adjacent at the northeast. Continuing along the north face of the house at this level are storage and stair areas, then a large living room, which expands into the recently glassed-in solarium or bridge room in the center of the north face. (George Livermore, architect; Archibald Taylor, decorator). A plastic dome and continuous strip windows provide brilliant illumination of this solarium.
Fireplaces and cornices in the dining and living rooms suggest the period flavor of the house; those in the dining room are Adamesque, whereas, those in the living room are Georgian. The furniture, as suggested above, is l8th century or modern. At the west are Mr. (southwest corner) and Mrs. (northwest corner) Murai's bedrooms. Mrs. Munn's elegantly mirrored bath and dressing room lie between her bedroom and the living room on the north face. Along the south (Washington Street) face of the floor are various guest rooms and a bath which still retains the character of the original building. (There is a frieze of putti above tile walls with a tiled dado of iris; the massive fixtures have English brass fittings,)
The basement (the lowest floor facing the north, or lowest part of the house) now consists of service rooms for laundry and ironing, as well as the housing of the extremely large heating and electrical system of this house - which is essentially hotel-sized. Necessary technical modifications of both plumbing and wiring have occurred when interior changes made these relevant. Access to the pool can be either from the porte-cochere area or directly from the basement level. The pool is kept at a constant 89 degrees. Its interior contains, in addition to the oversized pool, two dressing rooms at the east, with a space next to the pool for relaxation and entertaining.
