The site is a few blocks southeast of the University of California, Berkeley's Clark Kerr Campus, generally bounded by Claremont Avenue to the north and west, Ashby Avenue/Tunnel Road to the south, and open space and private homes to the east; it was originally in unincorporated Alameda County, outside of any city limits.

[7] The site was developed initially by an early settler, William Butler Thornburgh, from Jefferson County, West Virginia, who constructed a large home there in approximately 1870 which he called a "castle".

[11][12] The Claremont Hotel Company was a group of investors that included Mr Titus, along with John Hopkins Spring, Francis "Borax" Smith, Frank C. Havens, and Duncan McDuffie.

[13] Smith and Havens were already involved with what came to be known as the "Key System", a major transit and real estate development company in the East Bay, whose commuter trains began rolling in 1903.

Construction of the hotel began soon after the 1905 purchase, contemporaneously with the nearby Claremont Park development of Duncan McDuffie, but halted as a result of supply and financial difficulties caused by the 1906 earthquake.

In the meantime, a referendum in November 1909 brought the annexation of the area that included most of the hotel site into the city limits of Oakland.

Unused properties were sold off starting in the 1920s, including the portion southeast of "The Short Cut" pedestrian path connecting Tunnel Road and Alvarado, and the southwestern area now occupied by the Berkeley Tennis Club.

[8]: 23  Harsh took over active control in 1971 and implemented more physical changes, completing the project to enclose the verandas started under the Gillums and replacing gardens with tennis courts and parking.

[8]: 24 The Claremont faced destruction in the 1991 Oakland firestorm, but firefighters and the lessening wind stopped the flames short of the hotel.

In 1937, the law was amended to measure the distance following street routes rather than a straight line, and the hotel was then able to serve liquor legally.

[25] According to a story on the hotel's website, a student at the university discovered in 1936 that the route was over a mile and was awarded free drinks for life.