The efforts of historic preservation enthusiasts saved the hotel from the wrecking ball when the City of San Diego’s Historic Site Board designated it on Jas “historic.” That assignment allowed for review of a proposed restoration of the building to its original 1927 appearance and paved the way for “substantial modification” to the interior to create modern, urban living spaces. A forty-year reputation of fine service and hospitality allowed the hotel to survive the initial jolt of downtown abandonment, but years of neglect stemming from ill-fated business ventures in the 1970s and 1980s led to disrepair and near demolition. The deterioration of the El Cortez Hotel illustrates how this separation intensified into the 1960s, eventually creating the urban decay that swept across Cortez Hill. The development of the freeway system in San Diego divided public space into distinctive areas reserved for work (downtown) and home (suburbs), solidifying the ideology that success equated to one’s ability to retreat from the workplace and enjoy a private life far removed from the world of labor. While the Depression halted the city’s growth, the 1940s, especially the war years, gave rise to new neighborhoods dedicated to tract housing for young adults more interested in schools and playgrounds for their children than cosmopolitan apartment living. Close to the nucleus’ of both leisure (Balboa Park) and commerce (Gaslamp Quarter District), Cortez Hill represents one of the first neighborhoods in San Diego to have combined commercial and residential living, emerging in the 1920s as the center of fashionable entertainment. 3īounded by Interstate 5 to the north, Cortez Hill sits just east of Little Italy, running from Union Street to Interstate 163 and south to A Street. Two types of small, aging structures dot the streets ringing the hotel: single-family homes designed in the late 1870s when San Diego experienced its first major commercial development and one- to- two-story apartment buildings built to house newcomers enticed to San Diego by the promise of work and pleasure at the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. 2 Standing on Eighth and Ash looking northeast, one can see Balboa Park’s majestic California Tower peaking through the skyline, a sole reminder of the era in which the El Cortez opened its doors to the rich, famous, and personable. 1 Red neon awakens the hill at night, announcing “El Cortez” to passing planes, cars and pedestrians, but the year 2000 finds it surrounded by symbols of late-twentieth century financial strength: high-rise luxury apartments, international banking institutions, corporate resort hotels, world-renowned publishing houses, and energy conglomerates.
or one of its affiliates.Sitting atop the rise on Seventh Avenue and Ash Street, the El Cortez Hotel no longer dominates the neighborhood known as Cortez Hill with a “commanding beauty” that distinguished it as San Diego’s “finest” furnished apartment-hotel when it opened Thanksgiving 1927. All rights reserved. All hotels are either franchised by the company, or managed by Wyndham Hotel Management, Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Our customer service agents are also available at 1-80 to provide you with assistance with and information about our hotels and programs.Īpple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S.
PICTURES CORTEZ JOURNAL BUILDING FULL
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