Grand Pacific Hotel
On Christmas Day, 1868, Alonzo Horton sold Lot L to Judge Jared Tyson for $200. Tyson did not develop his property and records show nothing until development of a structure was begun in 1887. Frank Jennings, an attorney, and George Crippen, a physician, began construction of “a building which would add much to the appearance of that part of the city.” The Grand Pacific Hotel building in San Diego, one of the loveliest in the Gaslamp, still does. The only Victorian hotel of its era still located on its original site, this three-story structure went from a hotel to a brothel to a home for retired “ladies” (Helping Hand Home) to a home and hospital for their children before becoming a hotel again in 1907. It was the first building renovated in the rebirth of the Gaslamp Quarter and contributes to the historical district on the National Register of Historic Places.
San Diego, San Diego County
Photographer: John Bare