The iconic Hotel del Coronado is purchased from a Japanese group by The Blackstone Group, New York and will be branded under the Hilton name.
WASHINGTON, July 7,2017 – Travelers, historians, ghost hunters and movie buffs should all rejoice as the Hotel Del Coronado changes hands once again, from the Anbang Insurance Group, a Beijing-based Chinese insurance company now a Hilton property, owned by The Blackstone Group out of New York.
The landmark resort property has looked out over the San Diego Bay since 1887 and it is one of the last remaining examples of American Victorian wooden beach resorts.
The story of the Hotel del Coronado is the story of American ingenuity. In November of 1885, a group of men, E. S. Babcock, Hampton L. Story, Jacob Bruendike, Heber Ingle and Joseph Collett, who would hunt birds on the property bought 4,000 acres for $110,000, creating the Coronado Beach Company.
Architect James W. Reid, young for the job at the age of 34, of New Brunswick, Canada envisioned a grand hotel. He wrote:
“It would be built around a court…a garden of tropical trees, shrubs and flowers. From the south end, the foyer should open to Glorietta Bay with verandas for rest and promenade. On the ocean corner, there should be a pavilion tower, and northward along the ocean, a colonnade, terraced in grass to the beach. The dining wing should project at an angle from the southeast corner of the court and be almost detached, to give full value to the view of the ocean, bay and city.”
When it first opened, the 757 room Hotel del Coronado was the largest resort hotel in the world, being designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977.
Construction on the property began in earnest in May 1887 employing 250 men. At the time, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that there was “..a million feet of lumber scattered about the yard and more is coming all the time.” The hotel is built of Douglas fir (the frame) , California redwood (exterior) hemlock and cedar timbers. The magnificent lobby, housing the first working elevator in America, features white oak from Illinois where Prince Edward met Wallace Simpson, the commoner he would abdicate his crown for.
To provide the bricks necessary for the construction, kilns were built on the property, along with a metal shop and iron works. The trees, shipped down the coast from Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company of Eureka, California was planned into lumber on site.
Labor was provided mostly by Chinese immigrants from San Francisco.
The hotel is the second largest wooden structure in the United States. The first being the Tillamook Air Museum, Oregon. The Victorian style building, designed in the shape of an E for Queen Elizabeth, was built of Douglas fir (the frame) , California redwood (exterior) hemlock and cedar timbers. The magnificent lobby, housing the first working elevator in America, features white oak from Illinois. The Crown Room, where Prince Edward met Wallace Simpson, the commoner he would abdicate his crown for, is built with pegs and glue, and not a single nail. The cottage in which their romance flourished is preserved and can be viewed by visitors.
The Crown Room, where it is said, but never proved, that Prince Edward first met Wallace Simpson, the commoner he would abdicate his crown for. The room is an architectural marvel, built with pegs and glue, but not a single nail.
The cottage in which their romance allegedly flourished, again not proved, is preserved and can be viewed by visitors.
Hotel del Coronado has been the center of our popular culture as well, including tales of L. Frank Baum, who designed the chandeliers in The Crown Room because he thought the room needed some “elegance”, and it his said he wrote his story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Coronado Island, Abrose Bierce used the hotel for “An Heiress From Redhorse.”
And singer Jim Morrison called The Del home for a while.
Eleven U. S. presidents, including President Taft whose sister lived in Coronado, have spent at least one night under The Del’s red roof. President Franklin and Mrs. Roosevelt visited in 1935, flying the Presidential Flag from the red turret making The Del The White House for the day.
President Nixon hosted the first state dinner held outside the White House at The Del. The guest list included President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz of Mexico, former President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, California Governor and Mrs. Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra and John Wayne.
President Jimmy Carter and Mrs. Carter have stayed at The Del in 1979,1989,2012 and 2013. President Ford was also a frequent visitor including 1975,1980,1991,1992 and 1993.
Billy Wilder’s 1959 classic film, “Some Like It Hot” with Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis was filmed there (the movie plays on a continuous loop on the property) .
The hotel is also home to a resident ghost, Kate Morgan, who committed suicide on the beach in 1892. Legend is she was pregnant and waiting for her husband, who never showed. Despondent she killed herself.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh was honored with a celebration in The Crown Room after his solo trans-Atlantic flight.
The Hotel del Coronado is the first to have a steam powered hydraulics elevator, still manually operated, and was a first for having incandescent electric lights, something first new to San Diego in 1886.
The wooden structure also had a freshwater pipeline that ran under the bay to San Diego that would bring water to gravity flow state-of-the-art fire sprinklers.
There are also two cisterns, with foot thick walls, in the basement to store rainwater for use in case of fire – however, they were only used during prohibition to store cases of alcohol.
Aiding in their cocktail, and other drinks, production, the hotel had an artificial ice machine, producing 15 tons per day, its own electricity plant and laundry machines.
The original hotel also featured the luxury of private bathrooms and in 1888 the hotel boasted of water on demand for its 71 bathtubs and toilets.
Hilton officials told the Union-Tribune on Tuesday that the company’s physical presence will be understated – no large Hilton marquees will adorn the facade of the famous red-roofed Victorian building. Hilton says it expects its marketing muscle and membership program will broaden the reach of the 757-room hotel that already is widely known.
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