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Edward C. Webster began construction of this ambitious hotel in 1887, at the same time that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway began service to Pasadena. Webster designed his hotel to cater to affluent tourists escaping from East Coast and Midwestern winters. The scale of the hotel proved overly ambitious for Webster who went bankrupt before it opened. It passed into the hands of Colonel George Gill Green (1842-1925), who set about finishing the project. Green audaciously doubled the building's capacity, an addition discussed in the Los Angeles Times of 01/09/1893: "The building will be five stories high and built of brick, stone and cement. The main entrance will be on Raymond avenue, near the point where the present structure will join the new. This will be covered by an arched veranda, similar to that on the south side of the building. extending over the sidewalk, reaching to the third floor and being about sixty feet in length. A small veranda will also be built in front of the present wide stairway opening on Raymond avenue, which will constitute the ladies' entrance. Above the main veranda will rise some feet above the roof of the house a tower of Moorish design. The large apartment on the southwest corner formerly occupied for office purposes by the gas company, will be transformed into a billiard room. The walls between the present dining-room and the office will be torn down, and the whole will constitute a spacious rotunda, which will be fitted up in handsome style to correspond with the present main hallway from the south entrance. The new dining hall will be in the annex and will be a mammoth apartment, with dimensions something like 100 x 50 feet. The kitchen will be on the east side of the building and on the north side of the first floor will be located the storerooms. Other improvements on the first floor will include lavatories, bathrooms, reception and reading-rooms, etc." (See "Southern California Pasadena," Los Angeles Times, 01/09/1893, p. 7.) The Hotel Green helped to make the reputation of Roehrig, who went on to design many houses for wealthy Midwestern and East Coast clients relocating to Pasadena either seasonally or permanently.

Alterations and additions were made to the Hotel Green in 1898 and 1902-1903. John Parkinson designed the Hotel Green's Wooster Building Annex of 1902-1903. Alterations to a part of the hotel's south-end, second-story, east wing was undertaken by architect Edgar W. Maybury in 1922 for use by the University Club of Pasadena. The club rented the space from the hotel at a very low monthly cost. It began use of the Hotel Green space on 07/25/1922. The club operated in space at the hotel until 09/23/1926, when it built its own clubhouse at the corner of North Oakland Avenue and Ford Place. By 1926, the group had attracted 387 members, some of whom were notable scientists working at Cal Tech. (See "Heritage 'The Beginning' History of the University Club of Pasadena,"Accessed 09/11/2013.)