Neal Graffy: Hotel Californian’s 11-Day Glory Before 1925 Earthquake Turned It Into Ruins

Neal Graffy: Hotel Californian’s 11-Day Glory Before 1925 Earthquake Turned It Into Ruins

After nearly five months of construction, on June 18, 1925, the new Hotel Californian opened its doors at the corner of State and Mason streets in downtown Santa Barbara. Built of brick and composition stone, the $300,000 hotel offered 100 rooms with fresh or salt-water baths, one of only two hotels on the Pacific Coast to offer such amenities. The rooms were advertised as “soundproof” due to “button lath used between walls with dead air space o…