Hotel del Coronado

Construction

thumb|alt=Black and white photo of a large partially constructed building with tents erected on the empty field nearby|The Hotel del Coronado under construction in 1887

If the hotel were to be built, one of the numerous problems to overcome was the absence of lumber and labor in the San Diego area. The lumber problem was solved with contracts for exclusive rights to all raw lumber production of the Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company of Eureka, California, one of the West's largest. Planing mills were built on site to finish raw lumber shipped directly from the Dolbeer & Carson lumber yards on the shores of Humboldt Bay.

Construction of the hotel began in March 1887, "on a sandspit populated by jack rabbits and coyotes". Labor was provided largely by Chinese immigrants from San Francisco and Oakland.

Landscaping for the hotel was completed by Kate Sessions. 1,440 San Diegans traveled across the bay. Reports of the new grand hotel were wired across the country, but just as the hotel was nearing completion, the Southern California land boom collapsed. Babcock and Story needed additional funds at a time when many people were deserting San Diego. Babcock turned to Captain Charles T. Hinde and sugar magnate John D. Spreckels, who lent them $100,000 to finish the hotel. The Coronado Beach Company was then capitalized with $3 million. The company directors at this time were Babcock, Spreckels, Hinde, H. W. Mallett, and Giles Kellogg. By 1890 Spreckels bought out both Babcock and Story. The Spreckels family retained ownership of the hotel until 1948.

To this day, Morgan is thought by locals to haunt the hotel, and the hotel website has a page about her. The hotel offers tours of Room 502, the room in which Morgan stayed. Room 502 is the most requested room at the Hotel del Coronado.

Due to this incident the Hotel del Coronado offers ghost tours called "Haunted Happenings" Fridays through Sundays at 7pm.

Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson

On April 7, 1920, Edward, Prince of Wales was honored with a grand banquet in the Crown Room. Despite speculation that he met his future wife and Coronado resident Wallis Simpson at the event—her then-husband Earl Winfield Spencer Jr. was the first commanding officer of nearby Naval Air Station San Diego Edward and Simpson wrote in their memoirs that they met much later.

Hollywood's playground

The hotel's popularity was established before the 1920s. It already had hosted Presidents Harrison, McKinley, Taft, and Wilson. By the 1920s, many of Hollywood's stars made their way to the hotel during the 1920s and 1930s, especially during Prohibition. Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Mae West, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, and Ginger Rogers are among the actors who stayed at the hotel.

On New Year's Day 1937, during the Great Depression, the gambling ship SS Monte Carlo, known for "drinks, dice, and dolls", ran aground on the beach about a quarter mile south of the Hotel del Coronado.

World War II

During World War II, the U.S. government took over many West Coast resorts and hotels for housing and hospitals. The Hotel del Coronado housed pilots who were training at nearby North Island Naval Air Station on a contract basis, but it was never commandeered. General manager Steven Royce convinced the Navy not to take over the hotel because most of the additional rooms were being used to house the families of officers. He pointed out that "the fathers, mothers, and wives were given priority to the rooms because it may be the last time they will see their sons and husbands".

The hotel was designated as a "wartime casualty station". It began a victory garden program, planting vegetables on all spare grounds around the hotel.

thumb|right|275px|The [[Rotunda (architecture)|rotunda of the Hotel del Coronado]]

right|thumb|275px|Lobby of the Hotel del Coronado, prior to its 2021 restoration

Post-war

Barney Goodman purchased the hotel from the Spreckels in 1948. From the end of World War II until 1960, the hotel began to age. While still outwardly beautiful, neglect was evident. In 1960, local millionaire John Alessio purchased the hotel and spent $2 million on refurbishment and redecorating. He commissioned Hollywood set designer Al Goodman to oversee the work, which included the Grand Ballroom, the Victorian Room Lounge, and the Victorian elevator grille.

Alessio sold the hotel to M. Larry Lawrence in 1963. Lawrence's initial plan was to develop the land around the hotel and ultimately demolish it, but he later changed his mind. Western International Hotels managed the hotel from September 18, 1963 to April 1, 1965. During Lawrence's tenure, he invested $150 million to refurbish and expand the hotel. He doubled its capacity to 700 rooms. He added the Grande Hall Convention Center and two seven-story Ocean Towers just south of the hotel.

The Lawrence family sold the hotel to the Travelers Group after Lawrence died in 1996. The Travelers Group completed a $55 million upgrade of the hotel in 2001, which included seismic retrofitting.

21st century

While retaining its classic Victorian look, the hotel continues to upgrade its facilities. In 2005, it obtained approval to construct up to 37 limited-term occupancy cottages and villas on the property and to add up to 205 rooms.

The hotel has been sold in several transactions between financial institutions. In 2003, Travelers sold the property to CNL Hospitality Properties Inc. and KSL Recreation Corp (CNL/KSL). This ownership group completed a $10 million upgrade of 381 rooms in June 2005. The hotel was then owned by the Blackstone Group LP (60%), Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. (34.5%), and KSL Resorts (5.5%). When Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. bought its stake in 2006, the hotel was valued at $745 million; as of 2011, the hotel was valued at roughly $590 million. In 2014, Strategic Hotels & Resorts became full owners of the hotel. In December 2015, Blackstone purchased Strategic Hotels & Resorts.

In March 2016, Blackstone sold Strategic Hotels & Resorts to Anbang Insurance Group, a Beijing-based Chinese insurance company, in a $6.5 billion deal involving multiple resorts. Anbang thus bought 16 luxury U.S. hotel properties including the Hotel del Coronado. Fifteen of them were immediately transferred to Anbang, but the sale of the Hotel del Coronado was held up because of concerns expressed by the federal inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign investors for possible national security risks. The agency was concerned about the hotel's proximity to major Navy bases. In October 2016, it was reported that the deal had fallen through and the hotel would remain in Blackstone's ownership.

In August 2017, Hilton Hotels and Resorts took over the management of the Hotel del Coronado as part of its Curio Collection. The resort is still owned by Blackstone and the name Hotel del Coronado has not changed.

The Hotel del Coronado was inducted into Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in 2018.

The hotel began a redevelopment and expansion in 2019 to add a new entryway, more guest rooms, parking garages, another restaurant, and more. The remodel was projected to last three years and cost $400 million.

On March 26, 2020, the hotel closed temporarily, due to the COVID-19 epidemic. This was the first time in the property's 132-year history that it had closed its doors to guests. It reopened on June 26.

In 2021, the hotel's historic main lobby, front facade, and front veranda were restored, for $14 million. In 2022, the hotel opened a new wing, Shore House at the Del, featuring 75 one-, two- and three-bedroom residential-style units. The historic main wing closed in January 2024 for one year for a more than $160 million renovation, the final portion of the resort's $550 million makeover. The upgrades encompass all Victorian guest rooms, suites, and event spaces, including the Crown Room. The remodeled guest rooms reopened throughout 2025. Renovations were completed in June 2025.

Notable guests

Notable guests of the hotel include Thomas Edison, Marilyn Monroe, L. Frank Baum, Charlie Chaplin, King Kalakaua of Hawaii, Vincent Price, Babe Ruth, James Stewart, Bette Davis, and Katharine Hepburn. More recent guests include Kevin Costner, Whoopi Goldberg, Gene Hackman, George Harrison, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, and Oprah Winfrey.

The following presidents have stayed at the hotel: Benjamin Harrison, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. The wedding capacity is about 300 people, with several event spaces for guests. It has been used as a wedding venue by celebrities, and basketball player LeBron James considered the hotel as a wedding location in 2013.

In popular culture

Films

The hotel was first featured in a film when it was used as a backdrop for The Married Virgin (1918). Since then, it has been featured in at least 13 other films, including Some Like It Hot (1959), where it represented the "Seminole Ritz" in southern Florida; $ (1971); Wicked, Wicked (1973), which was completely filmed on location there; The Stunt Man (1980); The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything (1980); and My Blue Heaven (1990).

The science historian James Burke filmed his special The Neuron Suite at the Coronado.

The Hotel del Coronado was the primary location for the filming of the fantasy-comedy feature film Daydream Hotel, which had its world premiere at the 1st Annual Coronado Island Film Festival in 2016.

Literature

In Moran of the "Lady Letty": A Story of Adventure Off the California Coast (1898) by Frank Norris, a shanghaied San Francisco dandy wins in a showdown against a Chinese triad gang on the shore of the Baja California Peninsula, teaching them the lesson: "Don't try to fight with white people." Triumphant, the protagonist sails to San Diego and makes a dramatic appearance at a society soiree in the hotel's "incomparable round ballroom".
L. Frank Baum did much of his writing at the hotel and is said to have based his design for the Emerald City on it, though other sources say the Emerald City was inspired by the "White City" of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.
Ambrose Bierce used the hotel as the setting for his short story "An Heiress From Redhorse".
It was the setting for Richard Matheson's novel Bid Time Return (1975), but in the movie version, Somewhere in Time (1980), the story setting and filming were moved to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
In Michael Connelly's 2016 novel The Wrong Side of Goodbye, protagonist Harry Bosh finds the negative of a photograph taken in front of the hotel of a woman holding a baby, allowing him to identify the town and date.

Music

The Hotel del Coronado is the setting of the Dashboard Confessional song "Stolen".

Stage productions

Each December since 1994, Lamb's Players Theatre and the hotel have presented An American Christmas, a three-hour "Feast & Celebration" set 100 years earlier, in the hotel's ballroom.

The stage musical adaptation of Some Like It Hot takes place at the hotel.

Television

The hotel stood in for the fictional Mansfield House during host segments of the NBC anthology series Ghost Story in 1972. The storylines of Baywatch season 4, episodes 14 and 15, called "Coronado del Soul" Parts 1 and 2, evolve in and around the hotel.

The grounds and some interior areas were used in three episodes of Antiques Roadshow in February and April 2019.

Postage stamp

The hotel is featured on a US postage stamp honoring director Billy Wilder, with images of Marilyn Monroe and the hotel from Some Like It Hot.

Video games

The hotel appears in the background of the San Diego level in the Sega Genesis game Skitchin (1994).

Gallery

File:Hotel del Coronado Front.jpg|Front of the Hotel del Coronado

File:HotelDelCoronado-DragonTree.jpg|Dragon Tree located at the Hotel del Coronado

File:2019 Bluewater Boathouse, Coronado.jpg|The hotel's former boathouse on Glorietta Bay is now a restaurant.

File:2019 Hotel del Coronado from beach.jpg|View from Coronado Beach of the main building

File:Hotel del Coronado swimming pool.jpg|The Hotel del Coronado swimming pool

File:CoronadoDelCoronadoHotel CoronadoCalifornia.jpg|Pool view

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References

Notes

External links

Journal of San Diego History historic photographs of the hotel
New York Times review of Hotel del Coronado