Heh, interesting. My wife and I stayed there a few years ago when we went to San Fran for our anniversary. Good food at Tommy's across the street.

The Jack Tar was always an extremely ugly building to me. Last time I was in there was 1979 and it was begging for a D-9 Cat to bring its misery to an end even back then.

And who could forget that old Portland landmark...... The Jack London Hotel...Now dat was a class joint!

I stayed there once after it became the Cathedral Hill Hotel. There was a great thin crust pizza joint around the corner.

It's also famous as part of the set/backdrop for the Francis Ford Coppola flick "The Conversation".

Never stayed there, but went by it many times on my way to Tommy's Joynt across the street, which had the best pastrami sandwich on this coast--though I don't know if that's true anymore.

I grew up in San Francisco in the 1960s; and remember the Jack Tar well; as my parents were members of a nearby club and parked in the hotel garage often. Those were back in the days when middle class families could afford a home in the city, Mel's Drive Ins had three locations and the 49ers were an awful team playing at Kezar Stadium. Compared to old line SF hotels like the St. Francis, Mark Hopkins and Fairmont; the Jack Tar was space age in comparison. I was last inside the building in the early 1980s to sell off a large collection of US Silver Dollars and pre-1950 US coins at a major coin show. That was when silver and gold were near their high water price points. I'm sorry to hear the old hotel is being torn down. You can be sure that the planner weasels will make sure there is even less parking in the new hospital building that replaces the hotel. May all you planner a-holes rot in hell.