Grand Opening of Hotel del Coronado

On February 19, 1888, after just eleven months of rapid construction by a dedicated workforce of over a thousand skilled artisans, Hotel del Coronado officially opened its doors to its very first overnight guests. Founders Elisha Babcock and Hampton L. Story welcomed travelers into what was instantly recognized as the largest wooden resort hotel on Earth. Built almost entirely of durable California redwood and Oregon Douglas fir, the Queen Anne revival masterpiece crowned the Pacific shoreline with its distinctive soaring red-roofed conical turrets and sweeping seaside verandas.

Designed by visionary Canadian-born architects James and Merritt Reid, the hotel surrounded a lush interior garden courtyard planted with exotic tropical palms, jacarandas, and citrus trees. Inside, the monumental Crown Room spanned 160 feet by 66 feet without a single interior support pillar, constructed with intricately fitted sugar-pine tongue-and-groove joints like the upside-down hull of a grand Victorian sailing ship. Over 2,500 Edison incandescent lamps illuminated the opulent mahogany lounges, dining rooms, and seaside promenades.

The grand opening cemented Coronado's reputation as America's premier winter playground for Gilded Age industrialists, European aristocrats, and American presidents. Early guests arrived by transcontinental railroad, boarded the steam ferry Silver Gate across San Diego Bay, and rode the steam dummy train right to the front portico. Within weeks of its opening, Hotel del Coronado established a legendary standard of seaside luxury that continues to enchant visitors from across the world.