The Santa Maria Inn celebrates 100 years of operations this month, and the hotel plans to mark the occasion with a special open house event.
In 1904, a man named Frank McCoy came to the Santa Maria Valley for the same reason many others did in that day—to work for Union Sugar. But McCoy had bigger dreams. He wanted to be a hotelier, a profitable if risky profession at the turn of the century.
McCoy was a smart and forward-thinking businessman for his time. Lucinda K. Ransick, director and curator for the Santa Maria Valley Historical Society Museum, said McCoy was building for the new century, creating a very modern building for its time. Each room, for example, had its own private bathroom, which is something most hotels didn’t have in that era. The luxury and innovative accommodations drew a flood of high-class guests.
“The oil business was booming in the 1900s,” Ransick said. “The Inn drew a lot of oil investors. People came from far and wide because they wanted to stay in a brand new hotel with new amenities.”
A few hours up the coast, William Randolph Hearst was completing work on his homestead masterpiece, Hearst Castle in San Simeon. He would go on to throw elaborate parties there, inviting some of the biggest names in Hollywood at the time to spend weekends with him, socializing and sunbathing.
Ransick said McCoy used that to his advantage.
“[He] worked out how far those Model A’s could travel, taking gas and physical comfort into consideration,” she said. “It’s a perfect distance for a day’s travel.”
By 1930 the number of rooms had increased to 85. Over the years, McCoy and later his nephew Edward McCoy (who would inherit the property) made many additions and changes, including the Olde English Tap Room in 1941. Edward McCoy also added a swimming pool, and 22 motel units behind the hotel.
McCoy’s smart planning paid off, and celebrities flocked to the inn. Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Bob Hope, John Wayne, and the legendary Rudolph Valentino—whose ghost is said to haunt the hotel—all spent nights at the Santa Maria Inn.
It’s those ghost stories that draw the most attention from people all over the world. Valentino’s ghost is said to knock on doors or lie on the bed in the room he once stayed in. Another story involves the ghost of a sea captain murdered by his mistress. The hotel has, over the years, come to casually embrace its reputation as a hotbed for ghost activity.
Jean-Luc Garon, general manager of the Santa Maria Inn, said to commemorate the milestone the hotel plans to host an event that will allow visitors to see what life was like back when it was first built.
On May 16, the hotel will offer guided tours of the grounds and some of its more famous rooms, including the Charlie Chaplin suite and, of course, one of the hotel’s infamous haunted rooms. In addition to a barbershop quartet, The Model A Club of Santa Maria—a group dedicated to the preservation of Model A Ford vehicles—will be onsite with their cars.
“We’re going to have a lot of displays and a lot of pictures of the hotel,” Garon said. “We want to give people a feel of what life in Santa Maria in the 1920s was really like. The staff is going to wear costumes like the clothes that were worn back then.”
Garon said people still feel a connection to the inn after so many years because they often first came with their parents and now bring their own children. New visitors often ask about the hotel’s history and express interest in aspects of the original building.
“Some people really like it, like the history buffs,” Garon said. “They love the older building.”
After 100 years, historians and laymen are still fascinated by the history of the hotel and its ability to continue to thrive as a draw for tourists and sightseers. In a town that’s seen its fair share of modern construction, the inn remains a unique spot for its adherence to traditional style.
“They took down all of downtown and put up the mall, now it’s just such a loner out there,” Ransick said. “Anytime you only have one of something it’s way more precious.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose thinks Robert Downey Jr. deserved an Oscar for his role in the movie Chaplin. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 11-18, 2017.