REASONS TO BE PROUD

J.J.C. Leonard who leased the St. George in 1897 also operated the other luxury hotel in Santa Cruz, the Sea Beach Hotel - This circa 1903-1918 advertisement is from the Author's Personal Collection

In 1896 Anson Hotaling, a real estate developer also known as San Francisco’s “Whiskey King”, built a hotel in Santa Cruz. This new hotel replaced one which burned a couple years earlier. To emphasize this hotel’s fireproofing, Hotaling named it after the saint who successfully battled a fire-breathing dragon. The St. George Hotel became Santa Cruz’s latest luxury hotel.

Anson Hotaling built the entire block which included the St. George Hotel. This circa 1897 image showing the Hotaling block is courtesy of Ross Eric Gibson.

Hotaling chose a European decor with Baronial Hall lobby, a French inspired marble staircase, a mosaic floor installed by an Italian artist, and heroic German-style wall murals complete with dancing nymphs. Eventually the central courtyard was glassed in to create a plant-filled conservatory known as the Palm Court Tea Room. The hotel also boasted the first hydraulic elevator in Santa Cruz. William Randolph Hearst said it was “the finest hotel between San Francisco and Monterey.” For a while, the St. George Hotel was a center of community activity with the upstairs hosting the public library and the Superior Court chambers operating in its Front Street hall. By 1922 the entire hotel was remodeled in the popular Spanish Colonial revival style and renamed the St. George Mission Inn.

As one of the most popular hotels for prominent visitors to Santa Cruz, it is not surprising that the St. George Hotel also promoted one of the area’s most popular tourist attractions, Big Trees Grove.

Note:  Though he was in the grove in 1846, it remains in dispute if John Charles Frémont ever camped within the hollow of his namesake tree.

Sources: Information provided by Ross Eric Gibson; St. George Residences, History at http://stgeorgesantacruz.com/history, 2018; Guide to the St. George Hotel Collection (1899-1984), Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History at https://archives.santacruzmah.org/guides/guide-to-the-st-george-hotel-collection-1899-1984/history-notes.