[2] La Ribera Hotel has its origins in a home; watercolorist Sydney J. Yard designed and built his house on Lincoln Street and 7th Avenue in 1906.

[3][4] The current building is a two-story reinforced concrete and wood frame Spanish Eclectic style hotel.

A tall stepped Moorish style tower is centered in the hotel with paired, keyhole arched opening on each elevation.

Mrs. John S. Ball, who operated the Lincoln Inn, on the former site prior to construction, continued as manager of the La Ribera.

In the mid-1980s, businessman Denny LeVett and actress Doris Day restored the hotel and reopened it as the Cypress Inn.