This evening gown, made by Callot Soeurs in 1914, was owned by Ethel Willard Sperry Crocker. Ethel was married to William Henry Crocker, a business magnate who was the founder and president of Crocker National Bank. She was the leading patron of French Impressionist art at the time. William and Ethel donated their Nob Hill property to the diocese after their home was destroyed in the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Grace Cathedral was built on that spot.
(the inscription reads, "At this location, "1150" California Street, now the site of the Choir, stood William H. Crocker's Queen Anne style mansion (1888). The Deuxieme Empire-Italian Villa style mansion (1877) of his father, Charles Crocker, was at the N.W. corner of California & Taylor. Both buildings were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906.")
William and Ethel went on to have a new house built by Lewis Parsons Hobart in 1910 where I'm sure she continued to have many opportunities to wear lavish gowns.
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