by Paul R. Spitzzeri
German immigrants Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker, who migrated to Los Angeles in the mid-1850s and mid-1860s, respectively, and established their business success in the hotel business, became farmers and ranchers (albeit, in large measure to supply their Cosmopolitan and United States hotels) in the early 1880s when the acquired more than 3,000 acres of the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, several miles west of Los Angeles.
When the Boom of the Eighties exploded following the opening, by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway’s direct transcontinental railroad line to the region by 1886, the two conceived a subdivision, one of so many that sprung up throughout greater Los Angeles at the time, called Morocco. As we have seen, the plans included a street layout like that of Washington, D.C. with main streets radiating from a center, wide streets with sidewalks, a system to supply water from Coldwater Canyon, lot sizes from one to five acres, and a minimum $5,000 cost for houses for what was intended to be a decidedly upscale residential suburb.
The concept, however, fell apart as the boom, inevitably, lurched into a bust. The two men, however, had another ambitious aim when it came to their main business in hotels. Recognizing the tremendous transformation in tourism during the boom, embodied in the well-organized excursions led by such major figures as Walter Raymond from Boston, Hammel and Denker, with other investors, announced a massive hostelry to cover a parcel comprising a city block in downtown Los Angeles. Moreover, the enterprise was to be of a level of luxury that, as intended with Morocco, would set a new standard in the Angel City.
The property, bounded by Main Street on the west, Los Angeles Street on the east, 9th Street at the north and 10th Street (now Olympic Boulevard) on the south, was part of an 18-acre tract granted in 1844 by the authorities of the pueblo of Mexican-era Los Angeles to Gertrudes Reyes (note that woman could own real property here when their American sisters could not). Later, French migrant A.M.J. (Michel) Lachenais acquired the property, but, in 1861, after he went bankrupt (Lachenais committed at least three homicides and was lynched for one in December 1870), his creditor, fellow native of France, Andre (known as Andrés to Spanish-speaking Angelenos) Briswalter, who migrated to New Orleans from Le Havre in 1849 and came to Los Angeles four years later with vegetable growing his first profession, took possession by foreclosure and a sheriff’s sale.
Briswalter’s home place was on San Pedro Street between Adams and Jefferson streets, but, after his death in April 1885, his executors were banker Isaias W. Hellman and Hammel and Denker. As part of the distribution of the estate and in addition to othe bequests, Hammel and Denker received “fifteen acres on the east side of Main street,” this being the property for the new hotel project.
In its 17 September 1887 issue, the Los Angeles Times (founded not quite a half-dozen years before and growing dramatically with the boom) reported on a meeting at a firehouse on 9th Street of the stockholders of what was known as the “Tenth and Main-Street Hotel,” this being the final of a series of gatherings. The culmination was the decision to incorporate (forming joint-stock companies for a hotel was a far cry from Hammel and Denker’s origins running the old Bella Union, the city’s first such enterprise, dating back nearly four decades) and the paper approvingly remarked,
The citizens who have so faithfully and earnestly labored in this direction have at last closed the financial gap of difference between the necessary $500,000 and the starting point. They have clearly demonstrated by their action in this matter that they were men possessing the nerve and determination to carry out the project in view. Realizing this fact, the citizens of Los Angeles have rallied to their support, and rendered them their assistance . . . The parties who were instrumental in accomplishing this triumph by their untiring energies have accomplished a result which will effect the best interests of the city. That the building of the proposed structure will supply a long-felt want is a certainty. That it will aid in the promotion of growth in Los Angeles none can deny.
The landmark of reaching a half-million in subscriptions, including a last push of over $20,000 from a list, provided by the paper, of persons committing $250 to $2,000, including such well-known figures as civic leader Henry D. Barrows, real etate developers A.L. Burbank, Griffith J. Griffith (who , Abram E. Pomeroy, and Isaac Van Nuys, architect Ezra F. Kysor, and department store owner J.W. Robinson, meant that the stock book limit was set at $550,000. This is another indication of how scaled up building projects were in the city during the great boom.
Three days later, Denker, who, as with Morocco, took the lead in the partnership with Hammel, took out a “Notice for Proposals” seeking contractors interested in the foundation excavation for the nascent project. On the 21st, the Los Angeles Tribune reported that an informal gathering was held at the Farmers’ and Merchants’ Bank, the largest in town, with its president Isaias W. Hellman hosting Denker, Ozro W. Childs (who had extensive holdings around the hotel site), lumber merchant John M. Griffith, and newly installed California Lieutenant Governor (and future United States Senator) Stephen M. White.
The group decided to push for the signing of the articles of incorporation and to advertise for stockholders to do so with a notary, while Denker told his compatriots that he was embarking on a train at Noon for an Eastern tour during which he “would visit St. Louis, Chicago and New York to look at the big hotels in those cities”—the latter two metropolises would furnish inspiration for Morocco, as well. He was to return in two weeks “when it was decided to push the work of construction rapidly,” though, while he was absent, “excavations for the foundations” and “other necessary preliminary preparations” were to continue.
Under the heading of “Some Good Boom News,” the Tribune of 5 November published an interview with Denker, who referred to a common boomtime real estate practice when he told the paper “I wouldn’t give a lot in the river bottom for all of the Eastern country—to live in” when asked if he was happy to be home. With respect to what he learned on his tour, the hotelier discussed such innovations as automatic lights for rooms that engaged when the door was opened and a fire alarm notification system for each room.
Asked about plans, Denker replied that architects in the eastern states and Paris, France were at work on them, while there was a possibility of a local designer, as well. He then told the paper,
The only definite idea about the matter is that the building is to contain from 600 to 700 large rooms, all with an outside exposure. The dining-room is to have a capacity for 500 people. There will be a large court in the middle, planted with all the most beautiful tropical plants we can get . . .
The building will of course be of brick, highly ornamental, with grass plots wherever possible. The hotel will cover nearly two acres of land, and will be as perfectly fire-proof as it can possibly be made.
Another unusual idea was that the hotel was to have “the most perfect laundry in the world” in that, on awakening, a guest could send linen for cleaning and, by the time they were ready to take on their day, the load was returned laundered and ironed. Adding that “it will be the grandest hotel in the world,” Denker shrugged off any idea that leasing would be an issue, claiming there were hundreds of operators interested “with the rent guaranteed.”
Denker remarked that “the only trouble about it will be that it will be too small” because “this city needs a dozen like it” to handle the visitation that was projected. As for the timeline, he offered that “we shall try our best to have it ready for next season,” presumably meaning the winter of 1888-1889, and “when work begins it will be prosecuted night and day.”
After being asked about conditions in the east, Denker pointed to the fact that Denver’s population nearly doubled in three years and that, in some places, a town the size of Los Angeles could be built in a week (a bit of hyperbole, perhaps?). Returning to local conditions and prospects, he commented,
But in spite of the prosperity people are preparing to come out here in tremendous numbers. Not because they are not making money there, but because they want our climate and because they can do as well here. This is going to be a great manufacturing city. Why? Because people who have been manufacturers in the East are coming here to start their business, and because oil is the fuel of the future, and we have plenty . . . Our prices for land are not high as compared with the East.
Also included in the article was a letter to some of the hotel’s promoters from Benjamin C. Truman, formerly a newspaper publisher and author of Semi-Tropical California, an 1874 book that heavily boosted greater Los Angeles during its first, though much more modest, boom. Truman was in New York in late October after visiting Europe and mentioned meeting with Walter Raymond, who’d just conferred with Denker and who had good information to relay back to Los Angeles.
Florida was another area embroiled in a land boom, but Truman asserted that “the tide has undoubtedly turned from Florida to California . . . and this tide is turning almost entirely to Southern California.” He cited frost, malaria and yellow fever as problematic for the Sunshine State and Truman informed his correspondents that “I can assure you that today there is no place in the United States that is thought so much of and talked so much about as Southern California.”
He cited large scale conventions of the fraternal order, the Knights Templar, as well as the Grand Army of the Republic (comprising Union Army veterans from the Civil War) held in Los Angeles and disseminating favorable impressions about our area, as well as the pronounced effect of “the cut rates” in railroad fares “which prevailed four or five months last year.” The letter concluded with the observation that,
the good things said generally of Southern California by all who have visited it, have combined to make it not only the Mecca of people from the East and so-called Northwest [Midwest], who are seeking temporary residences for the winter, but for tens of thousands who are making arrangements for permanent occidental [western] homes in which to spend the evening of their life.
In its 10 November number, the Los Angeles Herald, which was the paramount booster of Morocco, shared the “Welcome News” that “The Tenth Street Hotel [is] an Assured Fact.” This was because another company meeting was conducted at Hellman’s bank, though it was reported that there was still a shortfall of $56,000 in stock subscriptions, which seemed to mean that some of those who promised to contribute backed out or hadn’t signed the subscription book.
Once the amount was obtained and there were claims that this was imminent, the incorporation would take place. Meanwhile, a General Board was established to move the project forward and included Denker, Hellman, Childs, Griffith, White, Kaspare Cohn and George Kerckhoff. Excavations was scheduled to begin the following week and it was reiterated that, while all due dispatch was to be undertaken in construction, it would be a year or so before the hotel would open, with the remark that “no expense will be spared in its erection and it is intended to make it one of the finest structures in California, if money and ingenuity can do it.”
The Herald added that the 300×300 edifice was to be four or five stories and contain 600 to 700 rooms, “the material is to be of brick and stone, and elaborate ornamentation will be added so as to enhance its beauty.” It was also revealed that the contractor was to be O.J. Murchmore, a builder of hotels in the East and, more notably here, of the Raymond in South Pasadena (opened in 1886), who was on his way to Los Angeles from Boston. The account noted that, while Murchmore had ready access to specialized workers brought here after summoning by telegraph, “strict preference will be given to local labor.”
A reporter went to Denker’s house the prior evening “and was cordially received,” with the project’s prime mover confirming that the subscription shortfall would be covered in a few days when the next incorporators’ meeting was scheduled and that “it is an assured fact now that the hotel will be built.” He repeated that architects were interested in submitting plans and there was no shortage of operators to choose from when it came time to leasing, including mention of one from Minneapolis who was in Los Angeles and “thinks our plans and projects are admirable, and says that we are in the center of one of the finest fields for hotel business in the world.” Denker concluded with the remark,
Of that I think there is no question and when the edifice we intend to erect rears itself to the sky, I think all Angeleños will applaud the result of our enterprise and hail with acclamation such a welcome addition to the necessary institutions of our city.
In its edition of the 24th, the Herald informed readers that the incorporation articles were filed the prior day “and from now on, the work of [the hotel’s] erection will be pushed with all the speed possible.” The aforementioned board members were the directors in the recorded document and it was added that capital stock was set at $750,000, of which $656,000 was said to have been subscribed.
A reporter went to the Hammel and Denker office at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and found the latter “gazing in rapt admiration at a large print which represented a handsome and palatial edifice.” Looking up to welcome the visitor, Denker uttered, “there you see one of the plans submitted for our new hotel. It is the work of Samuel J.T. Thayer, of Boston, one of the most competent hotel architects in the United States.” Thayer was, it was noted, on his way to the Angel City, though the rendering was just the first of more to come from other designers, and Raymond’s influence was likely at work with his contribution.
Still, Denker, allowing that Thayer was at the top of his profession, asked his guest, “it is a very fine building, is it not?” The journalist conceded “if the building corresponded with the drawing, it would certainly claim a position in the front ranks of hoteldom in the world” and added that the four-story structure with two large towers and a trio of entrances gave “a general appearance of solidity.
Asked about ideas for the interior, Denker produced “a huge roll of parchment” and showed a chart of the first floor and “spaces were marked off for barber shops, Russian and Turkish baths, writing, reading, billiard, smoking rooms.” Dimensions were provided for three receptions rooms, a drawing room, breakfast, supper and dining rooms, a café and kitchen, while Thayer wrote that “there are to be 680 visitors’ rooms in the building, the average size of each being 14×28 feet, and containing an ante-chamber and bath-room” as well as a space in the basement for storing guests’ valuables.
Space for thirty stores was allowed on the ground level and the corner of Main and Tenth streets (this latter now Olympic Boulevard) was set aside as a branch of the Bank of Boston “so that known Eastern visitors can draw their cheques without having to leave the building.” One of the entrances was to be for women and on Los Angeles Street, while all points of ingress opened to one of four halls, each to measure 5,600 square feet.
As to when work was to begin, Denker replied that excavation would start the next week once contracts were signed, though he added there were other “minor details” and the levying of a stock assessment, “but there is one thing certain, and that is, that it will be a go-ahead business from now on.” The capitalist then requested the reporter to make public a request for someone to start a furniture factory, because the hotel project would guarantee work on the order of some $150,000 as an auspicious debut for the business. The interview ended with an invitation for the journalist to meet Thayer the next day.
On its sixth birthday, the Times of 4 December briefly reported that “The Tenth-Street Hotel [Is] Still Marching On” as it reported on a meeting at the Hammel and Denker office to establish a constitution and by-laws for the managing company. Moreover, “they examined the plans,” presumably those of Thayer, “and decided to get to work as soon as the money subscribed can be collected in.” The directors, it was added, “seemed to be well pleased with Mr. Denker’s work while back east” and “he had the architect talk with almost all of the eastern hotel men, and the plans are made up from their combined ideas.”
Observing that the 680 rooms worked out to a capacity of about 1,100, the paper commented that each room was to have a fireplace “and it will be so arranged that while a guest is registering the clerk can spring a button and the fire will be under full blast before the guest has signed his name.” Another notable feature was that, because of the Angel City’s abundant sunshine, “the building will be thoroughly illuminated by immense skylights, so that gas will not have to be used at all during the day, as is the case in nearly all of the large hotels of the world.” The piece concluded,
Mr. Denker expects to furnish the hotel in a style that will throw every public house on the [Pacific] coast in the shade.
The aims were ambitious to the highest degree, to be sure, and we’ll return next to the year 1888, so join us for that!