by Paul R. Spitzzeri
In the red-hot atmosphere of greater Los Angeles’ Boom of the Eighties, there was no shortage of real estate development projects with high aims and great ambition, many of which promised much and delivered little or nothing. One of these was the townsite of Morocco, platted out on 1,000 acres of the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, not quite ten miles west of the Angel City, by owners Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker.
Another, undertaken at the same time by the pair and a cadre of local investors, was a massive hotel of nearly 700 rooms taking up a city block in downtown Los Angeles and which we began examining in part four of this post as the effort was launched 1887. As with Morocco, the prime mover was Denker and his travels to other parts of the United States fired his enthusiasm beyond his already ample supply and, as 1888 dawned, he continued his energetic efforts.
The 12 January edition of the Los Angeles Tribune briefly reported that “work on the Main and Tenth street hotel progresses very satisfactorily,” with a large team at work on the excavation for the foundations and it was added that laborers lived and ate in tents on the property. Moreover, pipes for water and sewers were stacked on the lot awaiting their turn and Denker told the paper that “within the year the hotel will be well on toward completion, if not actually ready for occupancy.”
Two days later, the Los Angeles Herald echoed that work was moving along under the supervision of H.B. Marshall and it repeated some of the notable features of the hostelry that were mentioned in part four. It added that “every foot of space from cellar to garret” in the sprawling edifice “has been carefully considered and assigned to its most profitable purpose,” while it concluded that, “so evident are the necessities of such a hotel that the stockholders consider their stock equally as safe as any railroad or bank stock in Los Angeles.”
Despite these assurances and reports, nothing of substance could be found about the hotel until near the end of April and one was tied to the Morocco project, as the Los Angeles Express of the 24th informed readers that,
The latest news in railroad circles is a proposed line of railway from the corner of Ninth and Main streets, opposite the new hotel now in course of construction, to Santa Monica. The road, it is said, will run out Ninth street to the foot hills, through the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, owned by Hammel & Denker, and pass the Soldiers’ Home to Santa Monica . . .
This line will be run in conjunction with the Ninth-street hotel. Trains will run direct to the beach from the hotel, making this hostelry a summer as well as a winter resort for tourists; also, a stopping place for traveling men.
The article continued that the western terminus of the line was to be “in the Old Santa Monica canyon,” which would serve to enhance that locale as “one of the most popular seaside resorts and picnic grounds in the State” because it was “one of the most picturesque placed to be found anywhere.”
Denker told the paper that the Pullman Car Company was working on constructing buffet cars (where food and drink could be purchased) and vestibule trains (with cars having these small enclosed spaces rather than opened ends) for routes coming to Los Angeles from the east and it was reported that “this work has been accomplished by the leasers or prospective leasers of the new hotel, who are influential capitalists.”
Four days later, the Herald reported on this development as part of a lengthy feature on a trip to the Rodeo de las Aguas and which proclaimed the wish that what was viewed on the excursion could be seen with “the astonished gaze of every man, woman and child who dwells beyond the barriers of the great Rockies!” because such a vision “would open their eyes to the attractions of our sunny skies and fertile lands!”
We’ll return to this article for certain content, but note here that the paper highlighted that, considering the ranch,
Nor are the enterprises of Mr. Denker yet exhausted. He is a builder in the broadest sense of the term. While putting up the big $1,000,000 hotel in the city, and running the big cattle and milk ranch in the country, while breeding fine stock and boring for oil, he does not by any means purpose to be left behind in the race of building a colony or town [that is, Morocco].
The piece concluded, after describing the townsite that “as Mr. Denker succeeds with all he undertakes,” so, too, would Morocco. The Tribune of 24 May remarked that Hammel and Denker transferred, for $150,000, to the Main and Tenth Street Hotel Company the property for the hostelry. Not quite two weeks before that, the Pacific Opinion published an architectural rendering of the edifice, but also registered a protest against a new name, the Splendid, which it found “too common.”
This was because any product could be called by that name, from cigarettes to ice-cream and from make-up to shawls, so it implored, “no, no, Mr. Denker, don’t do it, we pray you!” Instead, it offered an alternative “to indicate its habitat” so that “when it is heard, away off in foreign lands even, it shall remind one of this Eden—our home, lovely Los Angeles.” The name it proposed was The Angeleno and it was added that, instead of finding lodgings at the Raymond in South Pasadena or the Sierra Madre Villa and hotels at Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara or Santa Monica, the new hotel, whatever its name, would be a great boon to the Angel City.
In its number of 20 May, the Herald titled an article “The ‘Splendid'” as it reported that “men were busy in laying cross-beams and joints, and another band of workmen was at work laying the floor for the main corridor running east from Main Street to the Los Angeles Street side, while another was to span north from Ninth Street to the southern end at Tenth (Olympic Boulevard).
Denker was present and told a reporter that the hotel office would be at the southwest corner (the northeast corner of Main and Tenth) so the clerk could see all four entrances. The breakfast and dining rooms were to be on the Los Angeles Street side, with the latter also facing Ninth. Adjacent were to be a supper room and a space for children and nurses, while the 35 first-floor store spaces, expected to yield $75,000 in rent annually, were to be 60 feet deep and have basement access, with the partial subterranean space (half was to be above street level) to be utilized for officers and stores.
Denker took the journalist to the planing mills to show progress on such elements as the fact that 1,000 window frames were completed, needing only painting, while workers were busy in doing joining and planing for “the different pieces of the woodwork.” The account ended that, “in order that one may get an adequate conception of the magnitude of the structure a visit should be paid to the grounds.”
Yet, by early June, cracks in the facade began to show, as the Los Angeles Times of 5 June observed that “for several days past the rumor has been current that work was to be indefinitely suspended on the Hotel Splendid, and that the bottom had dropped out of the magnificent enterprise.”
A reporter went to the site and “found a pretty large force at work and everything lively” and, when a major holder of stock in the hotel project was interviewed, he adamantly denied the reports, though acknowledged that some workers were laid off because of a brick shortage, before retorting,
No, sir; there is no intention to suspend work at all [with 8 million bricks contracted, stone work finished, iron-work in progress, 2,500 barrels of cement used in the foundation and that amount waiting to be laid] Just as material comes in the work will progress. This report has been started by some of the croakers, but there is no truth in it. The hotel will be built just as rapidly as possible.
Even more vehement in a denial was a statement in the Los Angeles Express of the 16th, with the paper inquiring “who is the evil genius constantly circulating the report that all work on the magnificent Tenth-street Hotel has been or is to be immediately stopped?” For six weeks, these statements were bandied about and “each repetition can but have a depressing effect” even as it was observed that about 100 laborers were working on brick, iron, stone and timber and more material was stored on site.
Those at the helm, such as Denker, were praised for being those who “never faltered in the dark days of stagnation and distress” though “this constant jibing must be annoying to them.” It was followed that the rumors could not have come from anyone directly associated with the hotel, but with no disguising its disgust, the paper fulminated,
Every community has its croakers, those who blink and nod, scenting disaster everywhere, and Los Angeles is no exception. But who is the evil-minded man or men who seems to take such delight in pulling down what the energy, capital and skill of other build up? Is it an attempt to prostrate the money market and ruin the labor and the manufacturing interests? It looks so, and if it is this community ought to be too small to contain such an unmitigated and contemptible soul.
Two days later, the Herald published an account by “G.M.S.” from a publication called The South with the writer visiting old friend, O.J. Murchmore, the hotel’s contractor, while it was added that Denker was “the principal mover” and architect Samuel J.F. Thayer was assisted by another Boston designer, William F. Goodwin. The piece continued that “it is possible that the capacious hostelry will be ready for the coming winter’s travel” while lionizing Denker for his energy and effort as well as “unbounded confidence” in a city he “watched with pride its growth and prosperity.”
Denker invited “G.M.S.” on a tour of the city and the Rodeo de las Aguas and it remarked,
If one wants to enjoy an April morning in Los Angeles, let him take a seat with this genial, active man, who, though having a world of business, is never too busy to show up the beauties and interests of this fair city . . . It does not take long to convince one that the growth of Los Angeles is no myth.
The journalist essayed the wonders of the Rodeo de las Aguas in some significant detail, to which we can certainly return as we wrap up this post, before concluding, following the return ride to the Angel City, that “from the treatment we have received at the hands of our host, Mr. Denker, and others while in the State, we can form nothing but the most favorable impressions of the people living there.”
Despite this highly favorable press, trouble again loomed as summer commenced, with the Express of 2 July reporting on a lawsuit filed against the hotel company and superintendent Marshall by the Los Angeles Construction Company. It alleged that a contract it executed just before the prior Christmas for the excavation work set terms for payment of men and animal teams, but that, by March, more than $1,500 was owed by Marshall.
The Express ten days later noted that more talk in town concerned the ending of work on the hotel and a reporter spoke to an unnamed representative of the company and mentioned that citizens wanted to know what was going on with the project, the individual took umbrage with the idea that a private enterprise had to be held accountable to the public, adding that, if the hotel’s promoters saw fit to end work, that was entirely within their purview.
Despite the “decided disinclination to make public what he considered was business of a strictly private syndicate” as well as a determination to be kept anonymous, the source, when asked why construction was halted, replied that “the foundation is entirely completed” while ironwork was ordered from Pittsburgh, so that, once it arrived, work would resume. Moreover, it was asserted, “there is no use in paying a Superintendent and others to stand around and do nothing” without materials to work with.
The Herald of the following day, the 13th, caught up with Denker, who repeated that construction came to a stop because of the materials shortage, adding “we have got everything completed up to the ground floor, and will go along with the structure just as we promised.” A bit defensively, he added that a structure of such imposing proportions could not be completed in a few weeks, while, rather than do work piecemeal, they would wait until enough material was available to move forward. He then remarked,
I know that there are a lot of croakers who are always shaking their heads and saying that the hotel will be practically laid aside for some time to come, but that is all nonsense.
Yet, the summer passed with no updates of significance. In its 7 September number, the Express informed readers that someone “prominently connected” with the hotel project told a representative of the paper that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe would soon buy land for a depot not far from the site, on Central Avenue or San Pedro Street and near 7th Street, but also that the railroad firm was considering purchasing the hotel property and completing the edifice for its travelers. The latter statement proved to be false, while the La Grande Station was completed in 1893 at Santa Fe Avenue and 2nd Street, quite a bit further north.
When the Times of 17 September devoted some space to the hotel, it wrote as if the project was still a sure thing, even as it noted the “standstill on account of a shortness of material.” The million-dollar edifice was to contain 500 en suite rooms of nearly 700 and 34 stores and offices, while measurements were provided for several dining rooms, the kitchen, a central rotunda, a light well, a quartet of open courts, a billiard room, a drawing room and a pair of reception rooms. A 36×48 foot arched window at the corner of Main and Tenth, a pair of towers extending 94 feet from street level and containing observatories and more were also described.
Yet, the 22 October number of the Express laid out the dilemma very clearly as it told its readers that,
Work has for several months been suspended on the Tenth-street hotel, because when the money market tightened last spring, the parties who were engaged in the construction were unable to proceed in the way that they had originally intended. The change in the financial situation at that time caused everybody to go slow, and many found themselves engaged in enterprises that, under the changed condition of affairs, they were unable [to] carry through.
In other words, the boom was turning bust and the hotel was just one, albeit a big one, of the many endeavors that fell prey to the downturn. The paper, however, added that “the necessity for a magnificent hotel like that . . . is very great,” even if such recent caravansaries like the Hollenbeck or Westminster were “vastly better” than earlier hotels.
With that, we’ll return with a sixth part that looks at more history of the hotel site, including numerous efforts to revive the project, as well as other potential uses, so check back with us for that.