Hotel del Monte Historic District

Hotel del Monte Historic District. . , The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) campus originated as the Hotel Del Monte built in 1880. Following the loss of the first two Stick-style resort hotels in fires, the third Hotel Del Monte opened in May 1926. Designed by associated architects Lewis P. Hobart and Clarence A. Tantau of San Francisco, the hotel showcased the contemporary Spanish Colonial Revival style. Preceding the hotel’s completion, Hobart and Tantau expanded gust accommodations with six stylistically complementary cottages east of the hotel and three larger cottages southeast of the hotel., The U.S. Navy began its tenure on the Hotel Del Monte property in 1943 and initially used the six cottages as sick bays, naming them after hospital ships Relief, Solace, Comfort, Repose, Mercy, and Henderson. Eventually, these cottages along with two other outlying cottages served as Officer’s quarters. In 1952 during the construction of the Naval Postgraduate School academic buildings, the Navy moved two outlying cottages north of these six., The Hotel Del Monte Historic District is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Along with the Hotel del Monte, elements of the historic district include these six cottages, four other buildings, the Roman Plunge, and 40 Acres of encompassing landscape. The Historic District is significant as the work of master architects Hobart and Tantau, for its assemblage of Spanish Colonial Revival and Classical Revival architecture, and for its association to Pacific Coast tourism in the industrial age.