The Lick House was one of San Francisco's first luxury hotels, built by the piano maker/real estate investor James Lick, who was one of California's wealthiest men of his day. It was one of a cluster of luxury hotels erected in San Francisco during the early-to-mid-1860s, the others being the Russ House (completed in 1862), Occidental Hotel. and Cosmopolitan Hotel (1865). These hotels reflected the city's less rambunctious and more affluent character brought about by Gold Rush prosperity. The Lick House gained fame for its grand atrium dining room, whose scale and magnificence presaged that of the opulent Palm Court of the later Palace Hotel #1. The Lick House #1 perished in the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 04/18/1906, lasting 44 years.