Del Coronado: A picture from the past

Ghost stories and movie stars, entrepreneurs and gamblers, royalty and presidents, regardless the company, the regal Hotel del Coronado remains an elegant icon of a more genteel time.

Today’s tourism boards make sure that the architectural beauty is featured in every article or film about the San Diego region. However it sits on a shallow bite of land that was once merely decorated by sand and scrub brush. Two visionaries changed all that.

In 1885, railroad baron, Elisha Babcock, from San Francisco, ventured south to San Diego with Horton Story, a furniture maker from Chicago. They imagined a Victorian hotel on the deserted island would lure diversion-seeking, wealthy Easterners and formed the Coronado Beach Company to make their dream come true.  An original investment of $110,000 bought out deeds belonging to a few farmers. Soon just over 4000 acres were subdivided and offered at auction to raise building capital.

The Merrit Brothers planned the layout of island lots and the hotel design and lived on the site to better re-draw plans as the construction changed. The ambitious architects practiced by first constructing what is now ‘The Boat House Restaurant.’ A tall, brick smoke stack still stands adjacent to the parking lot and marks the mill where wood was cured for construction. A smaller building that is now office space, housed investors eager to see first-hand what their money had wrought. A tent city rose up to house workers, who started building in February 1887. The first guests stepped onto the grand entryway staircase just a year later, but building refinements continued for some time after.

There were all manners of schemes to draw attention to the new playground. A hot air balloon was brought in for the opening weekend. The interior courtyard was designed by a famous landscape architect, Kate Sessions, also known as the “Mother of Balboa Park.” She imported plants from Italy and the Canary Islands and then added monkeys and parrots, who survived only a few months before disappearing.

Once inside, the lobby opens to a two-story ceiling.  For over 100 years during the holiday season, a giant pine tree towers in the center. One can easily imagine Miss Babcock, wife of one of the original investors, reading stories to visiting children each yuletide season.

Upstairs on the mezzanine one can still peer down into the lobby and registration desk easily. From that veranda, Victorian ladies would watch the comings and goings of society. Their partners of the opposite sex, would go fishing for giant sea bass. Hunting parties complete with teams of dogs tracked jack rabbits and birds by horseback.  The concierge room was assigned to prep and to fillet their fish or game for meals, which were included under the hotel's “American Plan.” Unescorted ladies and nannies would eat in the smaller, private parlor next door.

The del Coronado has always lured celebrities. Featured in many movies, many remember Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis from ‘Some Like It Hot’ which was shot on the grounds. Visitors can still stand on the spot where Marilyn most notoriously posed and look across to where the photographer had a limb removed from a giant, imported Dragon tree. The angle caught Marilyn perfectly framed by the towers of the del Coronado once the offending branch was removed to make way for the camera.

Charles Lindberg flew to St. Louis from the naval strip on northern Coronado Island. History has it that most of his investors were from St. Louis and so the name of his plane was given to that city. However, San Diego still has Lindberg field. At a special dinner in the Hotel Del Coronado celebrating Lindberg’s historic flight, a toy train track circled the room above the diners. A model of his plane perched on a rail car and flew over guests heads during the meal.

Royalty enjoyed vacationing in Southern California and mingling with Hollywood actors. Prince Edwards of Wales came for dinner and notoriously fell ill. Rumor has it that instead of feeling sick, he was spirited away through a  utility tunnel leading down and past the brick smoke stack and travele to nearby Tijuana to gamble or perhaps rendezvous with then Coronado resident, Wallace Simpson, his future bride. Whatever is true, soon after their romance led to his abdication of the crown. Over a century, other significant guests included a parade of Presidents and international dignitaries. Their presence is memorialized behind glass in the downstairs corridor.

A famous ghost has been seen in corridors and upstairs windows. Kate Morgan was a young woman who arrived alone and told other hotel guests that she was waiting for her husband or brother. Rumor was that she and husband or brother would lure men from the train to a cabin and then rob them. Another story holds that her husband cheated at cards and was forced to leave their train. Whatever had happened, Kate checked into the hotel alone in November of 1892 as Lottie Bernard. Guests later reported that she seemed sick or upset. After five days of waiting in vain for her companion to join her, Miss Lottie was discovered on the back stairs. She had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Since that time, paranormal activity has been reported in the vicinity of her now-retired hotel room. A womanly ghost has been seen in  the gallery and in the room on the backside of the hotel. Luckily she’s the last guest to be so distraught or inclined to end her stay.

As real estate prices rise and fall, this small island and its iconic hotel are just one sign of the significant contribution the original del Coronado visionaries created. Whether it’s a stroll along the strand, through the graceful neighborhoods or along the main street village, there is much for visitors to savor. Restaurants, shops and apartment buildings have been carefully restored in their original Victorian and Art Deco splendor. The small community flourishes with homes for the wealthy and retired air force commanders, with lodging for tourists and San Diegans, where once there was only wind, sand and surf.

Postcard and information courtesy of the Coronado Historical Society Hotel del Coronado tours. Hotel photo courtesy of Vancour.