Hotel Arcadia, the first upscale hotel on Santa Monica beach, circa late 1800s
California’s plentiful sun and fresh sea air has long been a draw for ailing and half-frozen Easterners. So finally landing on California soil must have been a relief—especially if this is where they dug in their toes. This is the Hotel Arcadia, which was built by developer J.W. Scott, who, in the 1880s, set about building Santa Monica’s first luxury hotel. The site he selected was on Ocean Avenue between what is today Colorado Ave and Pico Blvd and he named his hotel after Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, the wife of the co-founder of Santa Monica, Colonel Robert Baker. His ambitious project – the hotel had 125 rooms when it opened on January 24, 1887 – set the standard for upscale, beachside hotels. It’s long gone, of course, but was only the first of such places that now dot the Santa Monica shoreline.
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What a fabulous place. How could it be gone? The Arcadia Hotel in Santa Monica was a contemporary of the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego which still exists and is going strong.
Ah! Such are the whims of the march of progress!
You took the words out of my mouth. We are all so much the poorer
for its absence.
Amazing building!
I have a photo from early 1900s that says it was taken in Germany. The building looks an awfully lot like the Hotel Arcadia. Is there a way to send you the photo for comfirmation?
Hi Marilyn, I replied to your email address but it bounced back.