SF’s Sir Francis Drake Hotel rebranded as Beacon after slavery debate

San Francisco’s 94-year-old Sir Francis Drake hotel became the latest local landmark to shed the name of the 16th century explorer for his ties to the slave trade.

The 416-room hotel at the intersection of Sutter and Powell streets, shuttered since the pandemic, will reopen this spring as the Beacon Grand, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Northview Hotel Group paid about $157 million for the hotel in April.

“Everything was done with so much thought for such an iconic property,” Leah Goldstein, a representative for the hotel, told the Chronicle. “We are not just changing the name and then quickly changing everything about the hotel. It is all much more intentional than that.”

As the Black Lives Matter movement swept the nation in 2020, shining an unflattering light on the first English sea captain to circumnavigate the world, former owner Kimpton Hotels said it planned to “evaluate a name change and potential rebranding of the property.”

Marin County’s San Anselmo school district already renamed its high school for Archie Williams, an Oakland track and field star who competed in the 1936 Olympic, after a nine-month debate. Another Marin town, Fairfax, renamed a stretch of road as the Coastal Miwok Trail, a nod to the community’s indigenous roots, although it still bears Drake’s name in four other jurisdictions.

Goldstein said the owners intend to work with Oakland architecture firm Arcsine to preserve elements of the building’s history. There’s no word on the future of the Starlight Room atop the hotel.
“The new concept very much honors and respects the history of the iconic hotel,” she said. “We are aiming for early March to share more details and images.”

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