The original hotel on the site was built by General Marshall C. Wentworth, a US Civil War veteran,[1][2] and designed by Charles Frederick Whittlesey in the Spanish Mission Revival-style.

The hotel's completion had been delayed due to a shortage of construction crews caused by rebuilding in San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake.

[7] California's first outdoor Olympic-size swimming pool[8] was added in 1926, when the hotel, formerly a winter resort, began operating year-round.

[10] In the wake of the disastrous 1985 Mexico City earthquake, seismic tests conducted on the hotel showed the main building to be unsafe.

[12] After a year of debate and numerous pleas from preservationists, Pasadena voters chose on May 19, 1987, to give zoning approval to the demolition of the main building.

The $100-million reconstruction project revealed 10 stained-glass windows made of opalescent glass in the Georgian Ballroom, which had been covered over by the Sheraton Corporation in 1954 when the space was converted into a dining room.