Club Casa Del Mar (Hotel Casa Del Mar)

The historic hotel at 1910 Ocean Way in Santa Monica opened in 1926 as Club Casa Del Mar. The popular, private beach clubhouse and hotel has gone through a number of different uses since the 1940s, including military housing for soldiers, a rehabilitation facility, and a spa. The Italian Renaissance Revival style five-story building has been restored to its 1920s appearance and is now a luxury hotel, Hotel Casa Del Mar. The U-shaped beachfront building's elevated courtyard is on the ocean side, with several rooftop pools and an arcaded, curved entrance. The Club Casa Del Mar was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 for its architecture and its ties to local social and entertainment history in its heyday, from 1926 to 1941.

Club Casa Del Mar, the new "beach and athletic club," formally opened in Santa Monica in April 1926. The new club specialized in swimming, but planned to participate in a number of sports, according to a local newspaper. The building was constructed along the beach, about midway along the Santa Monica coastline, to avoid having anything built between it and the ocean in the future. Newspaper advertisements for the building while it was still under construction touted the enclosed, private bathing beach, reachable from the basement of the clubhouse. The club also contained a "mammoth swimming pool with constantly changed filtered and tempered sea water" measuring 100 by 42 feet. Members were entitled to private lockers at the club's gymnasium. Dressing rooms for women featured full-length mirrors and electric hair dryers; beauty parlors and lingerie shops were included to help occupy the ladies.

The Club Casa Del Mar beach club was organized in June 1924. Builders and the driving force behind the club were brothers T.D. and Jack Harter, who formed the H & H Building Company. The cornerstone was laid in February 1925. The general contractor was Arthur Bard & Company; the kitchen was outfitted, and silverware and china supplied by, Parmalee & Dohrmann. The base of the concrete and brick structure was covered in cast stone. The first floor of the five-story (plus basement) steel and brick building contained a lounge, dining room, and a ballroom; the main entrance is on the street (east) side. An orchestra pit with a pipe organ was placed between the dining room and ballroom. The two upper floors held 150 sleeping apartments with a tub and shower. Three handball courts and a playground for children were located on the flat roof of the fourth story in the courtyard. Other amenities included tea rooms, card rooms, billiard rooms, patios, and grills. The penthouse (a former partial sixth floor) was located on the east (Ocean Way) side of the building; it suffered fire damage in 1948 and was removed. The hipped roof of the U-shaped sides of the building was covered in terra cotta tiles.

The new clubhouse and its contents were valued at nearly $2 million, half of which was the building value. The building site was estimated to be worth $309,000, while the furnishings and equipment made up the rest of the amount. Each floor of the building contained about 35,000 square feet; the beachfront added another 40,000 square feet. The first president of the beach club in Santa Monica was Dr. H. Clifford Loos. By August of 1926, the club's members numbered around 3,300. Activities at the club, designed to "appeal to people of culture" included swimming programs, teas, bridge parties, and grand balls.

Also known as Club Del Mar, the building was used during World War II to temporarily house soldiers. The building returned to being a beach clubhouse from 1946 to the early 1960s. Later owners converted the building into new uses. It housed the Synanon Foundation (a rehabilitation facility), the Pritikin Longevity Center (a nutrition and health care facility), and finally was restored in the late 1990s to its original grandeur as a luxury hotel, Hotel Casa Del Mar, using the blueprints from 1926 for the exterior. The interior was altered to contain eight stories, with suites and guest rooms on all floors. Occupying half a city block, the building is the only survivor of a trio of adjacent clubhouses; Breakers Beach and Edgewater Clubs have been demolished.

Anonymous. "Beach Club Lays Corner Stone." Daily News (Los Angeles) February 15th, 1925. 14-14.

Anonymous. "The club Casa Del Mar...." Imperial Valley Press (El Centro) April 24th, 1926. 5-5.

Anonymous. "Club Casa Del Mar Beach Club Owner Denies Irregularity Charge." San Pedro News (San Pedro) August 13th, 1926. 3-3.

Anonymous. "$2,000,000 Club Casa Del Mar Now Completed." Daily News (Los Angeles) April 29th, 1926. , Real Estate sec, 10-10.

Club Casa Del Mar. "Club Casa Del Mar, An Exclusive Beach Club." San Bernardino Sun (San Bernardino) September 6th, 1925. Advertisements sec, 19-19.

Club Casa Del Mar. "Club Casa Del Mar." Daily News (Los Angeles) April 15th, 1926. Advertisements sec, 9-9.

McAvoy, Christy Johnson. NRHP nomination of Club Casa Del Mar, Santa Monica, California. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1999.