The Pickwick Corporation
The Pickwick Corporation was a California corporation that historically encompassed a number of related businesses, including the surviving Pickwick Hotel in San Francisco, California.
History
The company was named for the old Pickwick Theater in San Diego, a vaudeville house opened in 1905, into which it moved its offices.
Constituent companies
Pickwick Stage Lines
The Pickwick Stage Lines was one of the major bus companies incorporated into the Greyhound system in its formative years. Pickwick merged with Minnesota-based Northland Transportation in 1929 becoming Pickwick Greyhound.
Pickwick Motor Coach Works
Manufacturer of buses, including a unique sleeper coach called the "Nite Coach".
Pickwick Airways
Operated a fleet of Bach 3-CT-6 "air yachts", initially between San Diego and Los Angeles, subsequently between San Francisco and Los Angeles, with service eventually extending as far as Mexico City.
Pickwick Broadcasting
A network of radio stations in California, including KTAB in San Francisco (now KSFO), KNRC in Los Angeles, KTM (became KEHE, now KABC) in Santa Monica, and KGB (now KLSD) in San Diego.
Pickwick Hotels
The Pickwick Hotel in San Francisco opened on September 22, 1928 at Fifth and Mission near Union Square. The same building was utilized by the Pickwick Stage Lines as its San Francisco terminal. It was mentioned in the Dashiell Hammett mystery novel “The Maltese Falcon”. The hotel survives under different owners today.
The Pickwick Hotel in San Diego was opened in 1927. It was restored and re-named The Sofia Hotel in 2006.
The Pickwick Hotel in Los Angeles was located at 833 South Grand, adjacent to the Trinity Auditorium Building. The site of the hotel is now a modern parking garage with the address 801 South Grand.
Another Pickwick Hotel, built by the company itself in 1926, was located in Anaheim at 225 South Los Angeles (later Anaheim) Blvd. It was initially named the El Torre but was re-named Pickwick in 1929. It suffered some damage in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, but was repaired. It continued in use under new owners until it was demolished in 1988.[1][2]
A large Pickwick Hotel and bus terminal was built by the company and opened in Kansas City in 1930. It was restored in 2015 and re-opened as "East 9 at Pickwick Plaza" in 2016.[3]
Pickwick opened another hotel in Salt Lake City in 1930.[4]