Overview

In 1875, this would have been at least the second hotel in Anaheim named the "Anaheim Hotel." The first existed on the corner of Lemon and Center Streets (now Lincoln Avenue) in 1871.

Building History

The building was projected to be built in 1875, and its basic exterior appearance and room arrangements were described by the Los Angeles Daily Herald on 06/22/1875: "It will be built in the Italian style, with French mansard roof; will be three stories high, with basement; and one hundred and four feet front by one hundred and twenty-eight feet deep. The first story will be fifteen feet high, the second thirteen feet, and the third of mansard ten feet six inches. There will be four projections in front, each sixteen feet front and projecting eight feet. Between the projections will be elegant verandahs, arranged for comfort as well as ornament. In the basement will be located the billiard parlor, bar room, wine room, two stores, bath rooms and barber shop. The first floor will contain a baggage room, wash-rooms, water-closets, reading-room, office, ladies parlor, and reception rooms, dining-room, kitchen and eleven bed-rooms. The second floor will be sub-divided into thirty-three bed-rooms, a ladies' parlor, bath-rooms and water-closets. The Mansard floor contains forty bed-rooms." As described, the hotel would have had many Second Empire Style characteristics, including the Mansard roof, projecting bays, and iron railing around the roof.

The newspaper report went on to say about the unusual spaciousness and homelike qualities that the Anaheim Hotel would have: "The hotel will be built of brick, ornamented with an iron railing around the roof. The outside appearance will be quite pleasing to the eye and the inside finish will be in accordance with the most refined taste and all modern hotel improvements. It is to be built on a generous and genteel scale, with an eye to the comfort of guests, rather that merely room to pack away travellers like sardines in a box. It is not a mere enclosure of so much space, but is intended for the temporary home of unfortunate human beings traveling through Southern California, and designed to afford them a comfortable home while they stay in Anaheim. We are aware that this is an innovation on the hotel idea prevalent, but we are confident that the new Anaheim Hotel, if put in proper hands, will work a revolution in the business which will result in hotels ceasing to be mere feeding places and becoming more and more like home." (See "The Anaheim Hotel," Los Angeles Daily Herald, vol. 4, no. 75, 06/22/1875, p. 3.)

PCAD id: 21771