The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa

Introduction

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The Mission Inn, or as it's now known as The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa has left it's mark on history, since starting as an adobe boarding house in 1876. It is considered the largest Mission Revival Style building, although it has many other styles layered on throughout the years. Arising in at the perfect time, since the need for places to stay for the elite was scarce on the west coast, it quickly outshined it's competitors. The list of famous presidents, artists, and social leaders that have stayed here is hard to beat.

Images

A view of the plaza of the Mission Inn

Backstory and Context

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Towards the end of the nineteenth century, when wealthy American and some European businessmen looked to California, for it's warm climates and the rise of the citrus industry. A civil engineer named Christopher Miller built a twelve room adobe boarding house, which was called the Glennwood Hotel. His son, Frank Miller, would inherit the property and rename it to, "The Mission Inn" in 1902. He also had a vision to incorporate many different architectural styles starting with the Mission Wing which was built in Mission-Revival style architecture and included different elements of the 21 California Missions. Miller went onto add three more wings to his hotel: the Cloister, the Spanish and finally completed it with the Rotunda wing in 1931. Some of the other styles include: Moorish Revival, Spanish Colonial, Renaissance Revival, and Mediterranean Revival.

The Mission Inn has a long standing relationship with the White House. The first president to stay there was Benjamin Harrison, and after it's second presidential visit from Theodore Roosevelt, it set the tradition in stone. The list goes on to include Hoover, Ford, McKinley, JFK, and Taft, who had a specially designed chair for his large figure but now serves as an iconic photo spot. In the lounge area, Richard Nixon married his wife Patricia and Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy were also frequent visitors.

The list of past guest is not limited to presidents but extends to other world famous leaders such as Albert Einstein, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Ford, Booker T. Washington, Joseph Pulitzer, and many more. The list of actors, comedians, writers is too long to name names but even more impressive than that is it's place amoung literature, songs, and movies. Multiple songs have been written about the Inn, and it has been the setting for three novels as well having an entire row of suites dedicated to the different writers who sought refuge there. Five motion pictures have been filmed at this legendary hotel and it's history only continues to get richer.

Sources

"History of the Mission Inn." History : Mission Inn Foundation. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://missioninnmuseum.org/learn/history/. "About Mission Inn." Riverside Inn. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://www.missioninn.com/stay/about-en.html.