On the western shore of Coronado Island, as shining as the Pacific, stands, all red turrets and chandeliers, the historic Hotel Del Coronado.

So few of the graceful old hotels of the Victorian era have survived, yet somehow, as if by magic, the doors of the hotel have not only remained open for over one hundred years, they have just been refinished as part of a fifty-five million dollar restoration effort by Lowes, the hotel management corporation that recently acquired the "grand lady by the sea."

The hotel's history, as told to us by the resident historian Chris Donovan, begins in 1885 when Elisha Babcock and Hampton Story bought the undeveloped Coronado Peninsula, subdivided it, sold off lots, and began building the hotel they hoped would be "the talk of the western world."

Unfortunately, in 1888, the bottom dropped out of the real estate market; thus the very year the hotel opened its doors, hundreds were fleeing from the San Diego area. Luckily, a private investor with very deep pockets financed Babcock and Story's project during those early years.

The market soon recovered, and the hotel found itself a favorite of wealthy Easterners looking for an alternative to the East Coast and European travel.

With World War I and the institution of a personal income tax, the hotel feared lean times once again, but the hotel's close proximity to military bases actually sustained it through the Great War. Officers on leave coupled with a booming stock market kept a steady stream of guests flowing through the Del's doors.

Just as the hotel management was about to breathe easy once again, however, the stock market crashed, and the hotel found herself on the front steps of the great depression, but somehow the Del was charmed once again.

Hollywood, just a few hours north, came calling. The depression only increased film revenues as depressed Americans saved their pennies for a few hours of happiness in a dark, cool theater staring at a silver screen. Thus Hollywood had more money than ever and came to the Del to spend it.

Prohibition further helped the Del, she found herself conveniently located between Hollywood and Mexico where thousands flocked to buy booze and, of course, to gamble.

World War II only increased hotel revenues as officers again found the resort a favorite for R&R, and the wartime economy boomed.

After the war, however, the hotel fell on hard times. The survivors of the conflict were looking toward the future and the future meant "new." They wanted new houses in suburbia, new appliances, and, yes, new resorts. In addition, with the mass marketing of automobiles to the middle classes emerged a new fashion in resort living, the motor hotel. These new motels were designed for auto-owning families. They could drive right up to a registration window, much like fast food drive-through windows today, and they could park right outside their rooms.

The hotel, old and not so auto-friendly, was forced to rent rooms out yearly to boarders as if it were a rundown apartment house and, as a result, lost much of its earlier glamour.

But fate would lend a helping hand once again. The civil rights movement, the environmentalist movement, and the bicentennial celebrations of 1976 ignited a new interest in the history of our country and in preservation. The Hotel Del once again found herself in fashion, and the recent renovation attests to the momentum she now enjoys.

Another point of interest keeps quests coming: the hotel is said to be haunted by the ghost of Kate Morgan. In November of 1892, she checked in alone and was soon after found dead of an apparent suicide. Since then, several hotel guests have claimed to see her roaming the halls or tugging at their bedsheets.

Perhaps one last factor has also helped the hotel's popularity. In 1958, director Billy Wilder chose the location for his comedy Some Like It Hot, starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and, of course, the complicated Marilyn Monroe. The American Film Institute ranked the film the #1 comedy of all time and placed it at #14 on its best films list. With these admirable rankings and the explosion of interest in film studies during the last twenty years, the hotel has a little Hollywood fairy dust to add to its allure.

To study the history of the Hotel Del Coronado is to study the history of our country. And perhaps the hotel is not unlike the citizens that sleep within her walls: she is resilient and, through even the worst times imaginable, she will survive.

June 2001