William Lawrence Murphy was the son of a 49’er gold rush prospector. He was born in 1876 near Stockton, California in the small gold rush town of Columbia. Prior to moving to San Francisco in his early 20s, Murphy had various jobs that included a being a horse-breaker, a small-town sheriff, and a stagecoach driver.

When he moved to San Francisco, he rented a small walk-up studio apartment at 625 Bush Street. Fans of Humphrey Bogart’s classic film, The Maltese Falcon, will remember its location as the spot where Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, was shot. William began tinkering with hideaway beds when he found his one-room apartment too small to entertain friends or a particular young woman.

William was falling for a young opera singer named Gladys M. Kaighin. Courting customs at that time would not permit a lady to enter a gentleman's bedroom. So according to family legend, William Murphy had a blacksmith help him mount a mechanism that would make it possible to flip his bed into a closet. Once the closet door was closed, his bed disappeared, turning his once cramped quarters into a proper parlor. He had a strict moral code and he didn’t want to spoil any chance of winning Gladys’ heart. It worked! In 1901 William married Gladys and had one son.

Today the original Murphy Bed company is still run by the Murphy family. Clark W. Murphy is 3rd generation and has been the CEO since 1983.

A CBS segment on the history of the murphy bed, first created in the San Francisco area. What makes a murphy bed a murphy bed? August 4, 2010

Who did something similar before William L. Murphy?

Though the Murphy Bed history is mostly credited to William L. Murphy, several others had already experimented with space saving bed designs, and beds with similar functions had also been produced. The first documented catalog featuring folding beds was put on the street by Sears and Roebuck in 1895. According to one source Thomas Jefferson and Paul Revere also used Murphy Beds. Entrepreneur and inventor Sarah Elisabeth Goode (1855 – 1905) was the first African American woman to receive a United States Patent in 1885, for her bed. It could be folded up, and it looked like a desk with room for storage.

FUN FACT | 625 Bush and the Maltese Falcon

According to The Dashiell Hammett Tour, columnist Warren Hinckle collaborated with innovative, advertising copywriter, Howard Gossage, to place a plaque on the movie site. When Gossage died in 1969, Hinckle stored the plaque and forgot about it. About five years later someone spray painted "Miles Archer was shot here" on a sidewalk at Bush and Stockton. Hinckle remembered the plaque and retrieved it. On February 12, 1974, it was placed on the wall at Burritt Street by three compatriots: James Kennedy, the owner of the building, Marino Nibbi, a contractor, and City Supervisor Quentin Kopp.