Hotel Coronado, San Diego
Coronado Island was little more than a flea-infested sand spit in the 1880s, as San Diego entered what would be the first of many booms in real estate development. The idea of creating a massive luxury hotel on the island to attract tourists, who would become infatuated with the area’s climate and opportunities for growth, seemed to be a good one to a group of investors which included a railroad executive, a piano maker, (Hampton Story of Story & Clark), a banker, and others.
The hotel they built was the Coronado, which opened as the largest resort hotel in the world. It is still the second-largest wooden structure in the United States. It was built for the purpose of being a vacation destination, surrounded by opportunities for leisurely activity, including the nearby beach. It had 399 rooms awaiting the pleasure of the eastern tourists who the owners hoped would soon be visiting.
The owners were disappointed when the city of San Diego entered one of its many real estate busts shortly after the hotel opened, and the massive facility failed to generate a large number of visitors who decided to purchase land in San Diego and remain as residents, the primary purpose for which the hotel had been built.
It quickly became a vacation favorite though, especially for those near the coast, and the owners were forced to offer its luxury accommodations and many amenities for far less than they were worth. San Diego became a tourist attraction throughout the year thanks to its superb climate and the facilities offered by the massive Coronado Hotel.
Eventually, the cycles of boom and bust in the real estate market created the San Diego of today, still a major tourist attraction and the Coronado Hotel remains a major part of the tourism industry. It was one of the first American resorts which focused on tourists spending their vacation time at a beach. Many more followed.