THE US GRANT celebrated its Centennial Anniversary on October 15, 2010. As part of the
celebration, a collection of stories that shaped the hotel‟s legendary standing was commissioned. The
narrative is told through chapters in time dating from the rich history of the Kumeyaay Nation through
today. The comprehensive collection is on display in the grand lobby of the hotel, as well as available
online at www.usgrant.net/history.
Please enjoy a selection of THE US GRANT‟s storied history below.
CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING
On October 15, 1910, with great pomp and circumstance, THE US GRANT opened her doors. Five
years of construction in the heart of San Diego had built up a flurry of curiosity, a storm of excited press,
and a staggering cost of $1.9 million. Thousands of guests flocked from all across the region to take part
in the opening ceremonies of this hotel of untold luxury.
It was an evening for violins, champagne and the ladies‟ finest silk. The best and brightest of California
society were on hand to toast the success of the hotel and to honor the memory of Ulysses S. Grant, the
United States President in whose memory she was built. The day-long opening ceremony and
celebration included the unveiling of a new fountain in the adjacent Horton Park Plaza. A personal gift
from the city of San Diego, it was the world‟s first electrically lit fountain, designed by famed local
architect Irving Gill.
The story of THE US GRANT begins officially on that evening in 1910, but like all great stories, there
were whispers of intrigue long before the splendor began.
The Kumeyaay Nation is one of San Diego County‟s indigenous Native American tribes with roots in
San Diego dating back more than 10,000 years. In 1850, 18 California Indian Tribes, including the
Kumeyaay, negotiated treaties with the government to set aside land. The state of California balked at
the idea, however, and the treaties were never ratified. President Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of
the United States, disapproved of the treatment of the Indians of the American West. In 1875, he passed
an executive order setting aside 640 acres of land in Dehasa Valley in East San Diego County for the
Kumeyaay Tribes. In great part due to his efforts, the United States Government in 1891 passed the "Act
for the Relief of the Mission Indians" which officially recognized the sovereign status of California's
Indian Tribes.
The Kumeyaay, who had suffered so enormously at the hands of generations of Westerners, remember
Ulysses S. Grant as a rare soul among politicians – forthright and generous, he gave them what so many
before attempted to take away.
CHAPTER 2: BUILDING A DREAM
In the mid-1800‟s, California had Gold Rush fever. Settlers, dreaming of their golden riches, moved into
a part of the city that is now called Old Town. One of these settlers was a tireless visionary named
Alonzo Horton. He bought land alongside the bay for less than $1,000 and proceeded to lay out streets in
a distinctive grid pattern, selling lots to various vendors, and also building the Horton House, the city‟s
first major hotel. Within twenty years of Horton‟s arrival, San Diego was transformed and “New Town
San Diego” had replaced “Old Town” as the city center.
Fannie Chaffee Grant, wife of Ulysses S. Grant Jr. and daughter of Jerome B. Chaffee, Colorado‟s first
Senator, saw a great deal of opportunity in the Horton House. Shortly after her husband suffered a
financial blow on Wall Street, she made the wise and fateful decision to purchase the property for a
price of $56,000. She deeded it to her husband, the son of President Ulysses S. Grant. What the city
needed, Grant Jr. believed, was a truly great hotel. THE US GRANT was born the day that Horton
House went down.
With a short stash of funds in hand, the initial beams of the structure were raised above Broadway. In
1906, however, San Francisco was shaken by a massive earthquake and the transfer of lumber and other
materials to San Diego was completely paralyzed. More so, upon rebuilding San Francisco, the original
lobby plans for THE US GRANT were provided to the developers of the splendid Palace Hotel in San
Francisco. Visitors to that famous hotel can enjoy its lovely “Garden Court” and marvel at the fact that
the room was originally intended for THE US GRANT.
When construction resumed in 1907, Grant Jr. embedded a time capsule in the arch above the grand
entry door on Broadway complete with family photos, memories and newspaper clippings of his dream.
A story in itself, the capsule was embellished in 1910 with mementos of the hotel‟s opening day and a
San Diego Tribune headline story. Lost for decades, the remaining capsule contents were recovered in
2005 by local resident Veva Haache and are now part of the hotel‟s permanent collection. A new
treasure of history was sealed into the hotel in 2006 beneath a stone medallion on the lobby elevator
foyer.
On November 10, 1909, one year before the hotel‟s opening, the Grant family experienced a personal
tragedy: Fannie Chaffee Grant passed away.
In 1910, the daunting project was completed. A palace of luxury, the 437 room hotel featured
architecture that is both classic and timeless, with top floor arcadia windows, balcony balustrades and
imposing dentil cornices. Inside, a white marble staircase capped by a carved alabaster railing led
visitors away from the lobby and off to the luxury of their rented rooms, 350 of which received
worldwide acclaim for having private baths. Among other lavish amenities was the garden terrace above
the lobby designed by Kate Sessions and two lower level large salt-water swimming tanks.
CHAPTER 3: A LEGACY THROUGH THE ERAS
In 1919, a dapper gentleman from Indiana by the name of Baron Long came to speak with U.S. Grant Jr.
It was no secret that the dry days of Prohibition were looming. One year after Long acquired partial
interest in the hotel, the Eighteenth Amendment and its bitter cousin, the Volstead Act - which
reinforced the prohibition of alcohol, were passed.
In an operation that was hardly covert, the hotel‟s Bivouac Grill was converted into a speakeasy called
the Plata Real Nightclub. There was music, dancing, and of course, there was booze secretly spirited into
the hotel through the tunnels under downtown holding pipes for steam and salt water from the bay. With
Long at the helm, THE US GRANT was one of the most profitable places in town with famous guests
including Charles Lindbergh before making his historical flight from New York to Paris in May 1927.
With pockets overflowing from profits, Long completed the hotel‟s famous lower level rooms, including
the ornate new ballroom intended for private society, The Italianate Ballroom. This grand space included
elaborate plaster work, a travertine floor and a hand-painted ceiling, much of it still existing in the room
today (now known as the Crystal Ballroom).
Despite the hardships of the Great Depression, in 1939, Long further improved profit margins by
installing the largest radio towers on the West Coast on her roof. The new 11th floor space became the
offices for radio station KFVW. It was a great coup when President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered one
of his first radio addresses to the nation from the hotel.
Towards the end of World War II, the hotel went through another ownership change. During the 1950s,
the famous Palm Court, the hotel‟s second floor Garden Terrace and gathering point for local society,
was enclosed to create the Palm Pavilion, and the 9th floor Grand Ballroom was converted into 9th and
10th floor guestrooms (today, this area holds the hotel‟s twin Presidential bi-level suites). One of the
most influential decisions, however, was to build a restaurant off the lobby on Fourth Avenue - the
Grant Grill.
From the moment it opened its doors, the Grant Grill was a hit. It wasn't just the mock turtle soup
(allegedly prepared with a generous two fingers of sherry) that kept the plush mahogany booths full. In
the 1950s and „60s, the Grant Grill was the place to power lunch. Lawyers, bankers and newspaper
editors frequented the sanctified room, which was guaranteed to be “men only” until 3:00 p.m. In 1969,
this strict policy finally changed when a group of local female attorneys notoriously, and successfully,
staged a "sit-in.” Waving a New York gender discrimination case in hand, the women were seated at a
table and proceeded to return several times over the span of a year until the sign was finally removed.
Today, “the Grant Grill invasion” is still applauded as a turning point in San Diego‟s history, and a brass
plaque commemorating their feat is on display outside the Grant Grill‟s lobby entry.
CHAPTER 4: A LEAP OF FAITH
By 1979, the glimmering lights of THE US GRANT were dimming. Guest rooms and ballrooms were
sitting empty. The lobby furniture was faded, the carpets were worn. There was talk of tearing the
building down to make way for new development in the city.
Christopher “Kit” Sickels, however, had not forgotten the legacy of the hotel. He purchased the
building in 1979 and, one of his first moves, was to provide protection from the bulldozer. Panoply from
the wrecking ball came that same year, when Sickels succeeded in placing the hotel on the National
Register of Historic Sites. Already a legend, this truly made her a landmark. No one could or would dare
tear her down now.
After using the hotel to accommodate inbound Navy sailors, Sickels recognized that a hotel of this
caliber cannot subsist solely as a stopover for G.I.'s, and conceived bigger plans for his beautiful
building. In 1983, he found backers and came up with the funds for the most spectacular renovation
THE US GRANT had ever seen.
For the first time since opening in 1910, THE US GRANT closed her doors. The renovation began in
early 1984 and projected to cost $44 million. However, due to financing and unforeseen costs, Sickels
found himself saddled with a staggering bill of $80 million before the job was done. The hotel finally
re-opened in 1985 but still the rooms and suites still could not be filled. THE US GRANT was always a
renowned hospitality leader but the city simply was not ready.
For downtown San Diego in 1985, change was coming, but its pace was painfully slow. Four months
before Sickels‟ splendid new Grant opened in December 1985, the cornerstone of downtown‟s
redevelopment opened across the street. The colorful, asymmetrical shopping enclave was a 26-square
block redevelopment project dubbed Horton Plaza – named for Alonzo Horton, the “father of San
Diego.” Similarly, the Center City Development Corporation took on a massive restoration project that
returned the Gaslamp Quarter to its original lively past. And lastly, after a two year delay, the San
Diego Convention Center relocated to downtown in 1989, at a fabulous new location on Harbor Drive.
All which soon thereafter created demand for THE US GRANT‟s luxurious accommodations.
CHAPTER 5: TODAY
From the razing of Horton House to the jazz-and-booze joints of the 1920s, to the invasion of the Grant
Grill and the day she was saved from the wrecking ball, THE US GRANT has remained an icon of the
city. She has hosted dignitaries and celebrities, been a hallmark of women‟s rights, and served as an
eternal light during the city‟s hungrier and darker days.
In late 2003, the hotel was purchased by the very ancestors of the land on which she stood. Sycuan
Tribal Development Corporation (STDC), the business arm of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay
Nation, acquired the 11-story icon for $45 million. With this purchase, THE US GRANT and her legacy
was returned, in so many ways, to her original roots.
Sycuan made the decision to renovate THE US GRANT. What was to be a seven-month, $26 million
endeavor became a 21 month, $56 million dollar testament and commitment to the property.
The project combined the efforts and willpower of a team of experts led by designer Deniece
Duscheone. They worked tirelessly to weave the legacy, integrity and heritage of Sycuan into the fabric
of the hotel‟s inherent ambiance. The Evening Primrose, the tribal flower of Sycuan and a symbol of life
to the entire Kumeyaay Nation, became a common thread to bridge past and present. The primrose, in
some form or another, had resonated throughout the hotel for almost a century. Versions of the flower
appear in the lobby, bronze banister of the Broadway staircase, the intricate patterns lining the Spanish
tiles of the Celestial Ballroom, original plaster ceilings of the Crystal Ballroom and the molding of the
Chaffee Court. A most spectacular representation of the Primrose lies in the Grand Lobby‟s $250,000
carpet, hand milled in Thailand in shades of gold and blue, and shipped by boat to the United States.
Overall, much of the renovation process can be likened to peeling an onion. After many decades,
designs, owners and visionaries, the hotel was layered in years of paint and parquetry. Each layer told a
story but it also kept the workers and craftsmen even further removed from the hotel‟s original 1910
design.
In the Celestial Ballroom, the mahogany wood cladding for the support columns was replicated by a
single woodcrafter who hand milled each piece to match the historically accurate renderings. In the
Crystal Ballroom, artists were able to re-create a new version of the original hand-painted ceiling. Rare
white marble was purchased and installed at the base of the Grand staircase and throughout the Lobby to
compliment the original white Italian marble and alabaster previously hidden under carpeting. The
original carriage entrance on Fourth Avenue was renovated and re-opened for the first time in four
decades, complete with a restored black and gold travertine floor and crowned with a stunning circa
1930s crystal chandelier.
One of the most crucial renovation decisions related to color. The final color palate strikes a chord of
beauty and dignity. The suites and guest rooms, done in earth tones, recall the land that is so precious to
the Kumeyaay – the deserts, the mountains, the sand, the woods, even the seashells. The blue theme,
apparent in multiple tones in every room, represents “Presidential Blue,” in homage to President U.S.
Grant and the 14 United States Presidents who have enjoyed the hotel, as well as symbolizing San Diego
itself, with its magnificent cobalt skies and endless sea.
The final result is a hotel that pays respect to its grand history and the heritage of Sycuan in an enriching
ambiance, while offering all the luxuries and amenities of a modern, residential palace.
THE US GRANT has seen it all. A great city rose at her steps in large part because of her persuasion.
Those who have known her have eagerly embraced her distinguished return, sharing stories of the
cherished memories created within her walls for over 100 years. And those who now find her for the
first time are captured by her timeless elegance and majestic reign.
619 232 3121
619 232 3626
telephone
facsimile
326 BROADWAY
SAN DIEGO, CA 92101
luxurycollection.com/usgrant