William "Billy" Chapman Ralston (January 12, 1826 – August 27, 1875) was a San Francisco businessman and financier, and the founder of the Bank of California. Biography William Chapman Ralston was born at Wellsville, Ohio, son of Robert Ralston III and Mary Wilcoxen Chapman. He was known as "Chap" when he was young. With riches derived from Nevada's Comstock Lode, he became one of the richest and most powerful men in California. He founded the Bank of California and was known for having a nothing-is-impossible attitude. Projects He built Ralston Hall in Belmont, California, as a summer home; however his wife Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fry and their four children lived there all year round. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is now part of the campus of Notre Dame de Namur University. He built the California Theatre on Bush Street in San Francisco, which opened on January 18, 1869. His dream was the construction of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco at the corner of New Montgomery and Market. He spent $5M on its construction, draining his banking empire in the process. John Painter Gaynor was the architect and had been instructed by Ralston to study European luxury hotels for inspiration. The hotel opened on October 2, 1875. The hotel had early elevators or "rising rooms" and electric call buttons in the rooms. The hotel survived the 1906 earthquake but was destroyed in the fire that followed. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1909. There is still a Ralston Room in the hotel, off the main corridor to the left. In 1871, following a severe drought in California, he initiated work on the surveying for an irrigation scheme in the San Joaquin Valley, and his lobbying was successful in securing the passage through Congress in 1873 of an act to set up a Water Commission to advise on the irrigation of California. He was also involved in Philip Arnold's diamond-mining hoax of 1872. Collapse of his financial empire In 1875, his financial empire collapsed as a result of the combination of the expense of building the Palace Hotel, the failure of his attempt to buy and then resell the Spring Valley Water Company, the after-effects of the Panic of 1873, and a crash in the stock value of the Bank of California. The crash occurred just weeks before the opening of the Palace Hotel. Personal life In 1858,