Hotel Arcadia Explained

The Hotel Arcadia was a hotel in Santa Monica, California that stood on the oceanfront between 1886 and 1909.^[1] The hotel was located on Ocean Avenue between Colorado and Front (later Pico Boulevard).^[2]

Built during what one historian called the Great Boom,^[3] the “fashionable and luxurious” hotel attracted wealthy visitors to the climate and scenery of the area, which ultimately became “important factors in the upbuilding of Southern California.”^[4]

Named in honor of Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker,^[5] the five-story hotel built by Jesup W. Scott^[6] had “glass observatories” facing the beach.^[7] At the time of its completion it was considered the “finest seaside hotel” in the state, comparable only to the Del Monte in Monterey. A history of early Southern California resorts described it as a “summer society capitol.”^[8]

In 1903, Griffith J. Griffith shot his wife Tina Mesmer in a room at the Hotel Arcadia as she was packing for the return to Los Angeles after their month at the resort, which she had hoped would put her husband in better mind.^[9] Ultimately, patronage declined and the Arcadia Hotel was demolished.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Meares . Hadley . 2016-07-07 . The most scandalous hotel in old Santa Monica . live . https://archive.today/20240303084222/https://la.curbed.com/2016/7/7/12101850/hotel-arcadia-santa-monica-history . March 3, 2024 . 2024-03-03 . Curbed LA . en.
2. Web site: Arcadia Hotel, Santa Monica, Cal. - Loyola Marymount University Digital Collections . 2022-11-06 . digitalcollections.lmu.edu.
3. Book: Robinson, W. W. . Santa Monica: a calendar of events in the making of a city . 1950 . Title Insurance and Trust . Los Angeles . 11.
4. Book: Greene, Linda W. . A Historical Survey of the Santa Monica Mountains: Preliminary Historic Resource Study, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area . 1980 . Historic Preservation Branch, Pacific Northwest/Western Team, Denver Service Center, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior . 24 . en.
5. Book: Stargel . Cory . Vanishing Los Angeles County . Stargel . Sarah . 2010 . Arcadia Publishing . 978-0-7385-8100-2 . 75 . en.
6. Book: Ingersoll, Luther A. . A Century History Of The Santa Monica Bay Cities . 2017-02-06 . Jazzybee Verlag . 978-3-8496-4858-9 . en.
7. Book: James, George Wharton . B.R. Baumgardt & Co's Tourists' Guide Book to South California... . 1895 . B.R. Baumgardt & Company . en.
8. Newmark . Marco R. . 1953 . Early California Resorts . Quarterly of the Southern California Historical Society . 43 v . Hathi Trust.
9. Web site: Meares . Hadley . 2019-10-16 . The Complex Life of Griffith J. Griffith . 2022-11-06 . KCET . en.