Celebrating 75
Oldest “Skyscraper” US Grant Hotel, Downtown OPENED IN 1910 Ulysses S. Grant Jr., the second son of the US president, left his mark in his adopted hometown by building the US Grant Hotel, which featured 437 rooms (350 with private baths), a white marble staircase, a roof garden, a palm court, and a ballroom. In 1969, the hotel’s elite Grant Grill—a fancy lunch spot for movers and shakers—gained unwanted fame: Six local women defied its no-ladies- allowed-at-lunch policy and forced the restaurant to let anyone eat there. Now, a plaque memorializes those trailblazers. The temporary home of at least 14 US presidents, the Grant Hotel is still luxurious, and the Grant Grill still serves mock turtle soup. But the building’s 11 stories no longer dominate the skyline. And, yes, 11 stories (actually, anything over 10 stories) counted as a skyscraper in the 1910s.
Oldest Hotels The Horton Grand Hotel and the Brooklyn-Kahle Saddlery OPENED IN 1886 AND 1887* This entry gets an asterisk, since the history of these Victorian-era hotels is intertwined—and complicated! The Horton Grand launched downtown in 1886 as the Grand Horton Hotel amid San Diego’s boomtown days. Wyatt Earp was a long-term guest, and President Benjamin Harrison stayed, too. The Brooklyn Hotel opened in 1887 and was later renamed the Brooklyn-Kahle Saddlery after its saddle shop, whose customers included Hollywood western stars Tom Mix and Roy Rogers. In the 1970s and 1980s, developers wanted to demolish the hotels to make room for the gonzo Horton Plaza shopping center and a parking lot. (Horton Plaza shopping center? Kids, ask your parents!) Preservationists protested, and the hotels were saved—sort of. While the brick buildings couldn’t be moved, more than 40 tons of their original materials, including the windows, banisters, railings, and doors, were salvaged and used to recreate both boarding houses in a nearby lot. The new combined hotels kept the Horton Grand name and opened their doors in 1986.
Wyatt Earp needed somewhere to lay his head when he wasn’t hanging at the Tivoli—and Horton Grand. The notorious lawman spent seven years as a hotel guest. his lodging of choice was the
106 AUGUST 2023
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