Woodward, R(obert) B(lum)
Hotel and Amusement Resort Proprietor
Entry Author: Christopher
Craig
R.B. Woodward was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1824,
and by the age of 15, had developed a mastery of business
skills by working as a clerk in his father's store. On June
2, 1847, he married Mary Church Bucklin, but soon decided
to leave the East Coast and attempted to make his fortune
in California at the start of the Gold Rush.
Woodward left Providence with a stock of housing materials
and $1,000 worth of groceries and provisions, sailed around
South America's Cape Horn aboard the Naumkeag, and
arrived in San Francisco on November 19, 1849.
Woodward was able to prosper financially in the economically
inflated city by running a small grocery store, hotel, and
restaurant, but the location and lack of structural integrity
of this business led him to open a new hotel in 1852 called
the What Cheer House at the corner of Sacramento and
Leidesdorff Streets. Woodward's gregarious nature and sincere
concern for his all-male customers (mostly miners, sailors,
and farmers) led to the success of the new hotel, and eventually
gave him ample financial resources to send for his wife and
family, who arrived in San Francisco in 1857.
The Woodwards moved into a residence in the fashionable Rincon
Hill neighborhood, but the area became far too crowded for
their taste, and in 1861, Woodward purchased the former home
of General Fremont in the Mission district, and moved his
family there. His growing wealth led him to develop a taste
for collecting fine art and antiques, which prompted two family
vacations and shopping sprees in Europe in 1861 and 1866.
It also allowed him to build a new larger home and beautify
the grounds of his estate, which was eventually opened to
the public in 1865 as the celebrated Woodward's
Gardens amusement resort.
He moved his family to a farm in Oak Knoll in Napa County
and continued to run his San Francisco hotel and resort enterprises
in a systematic and careful manner. His establishment of a
city line of horse-cars called the City Railroad Company ran
from the Ferry Building up Mission Street, and ended conveniently
at the front gate of Woodward's Gardens.
Woodward's contemporaries described him as being a devoted
businessman with a refined skill in directing and managing
details. Some modern historians note Woodward's obsession
for collecting and his penchant for creating amusing entertainment
spectacles at his resort, and draw similarities to publishing
tycoon William Randolph Hearst and circus promoter P.T. Barnum.
R.B. Woodward died in 1879 in Napa, California, leaving behind
his wife and four children.
This is the grave and monument to Robert
B. Woodward in Laurel Hill Cemetery taken March 3/29.
The Bancroft Library. University of California,
Berkeley
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Born: January 26, 1824 in Providence, Rhode Island