PBA Galleries

16.5x11.5 cm (6¾x4½"), captioned in the negative, on original card mount with lengthy printed caption label on mount verso describing the history of Warner's Cobweb Palace.

Rare original photograph interior view of the "Celebrated California Pioneer Cobweb Palace, showing one side of the saloon counter the back and side of which is literally lined with immense walrus tusks..." (from label on the back). Abe Warner opened his Cobweb Palace at the foot of Meigg's Wharf on the northeast corner of Francisco and Powell Streets in 1856. His establishment earned its name by the curtains of cobwebs hanging from the rafters. The Cobweb Palace displayed scrimshaw carved from sperm whale teeth and walrus tusks, plus totem poles from Alaska, Japanese No masks, war clubs and the like from the South Pacific and taxidermy of all sorts, also a live menagerie with trained parrots, monkeys, and various small animals as well as the occasional bear and kangaroo. Abe Warner retired in 1897 at the age of 80. By then, the state of Meigg's Wharf reflected a serious decline in business. The shipping trade returned to the piers by the new Ferry Building where the wide Embarcadero Road and new rail lines could quickly dispatch goods. OCLC/WorldCat lists one example each of two similar photographs of the Cobweb Palace, but not this one.