The Mark Hopkins Hotel was built by George D. Smith on the site of the old Mark Hopkins mansion, which had burned down following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The hotel was dedicated in 1926, and the penthouse suite was rented exclusively to Daniel C. Jackling, reputedly at per month, until he moved to his house in Woodside in 1936. In 1939, shortly after emerging from a 1933 bankruptcy, George Smith convinced the trustees of the Mark to spend to convert the 11-room penthouse on the hotel's 19th floor into a glass-walled cocktail lounge, which became known as the Top of The Mark.