Paso Robles Area Historical Society

A TALE OF HOT SPRINGS AND HOTELS

The original tourist attraction of Paso Robles

By Camille DeVaul and Paso Robles Area Historical Society & Museum

Today, it is wine that brings many tourists to Paso Robles, but in the mid-1800s, it was the healing properties of Paso Robles hot springs that brought people here by the hundreds, if not thousands. And it all centered around the Paso Robles Inn.

However, before the Paso Robles Inn became the central town grounds that we know today, there were several Paso Robles hotels that came before it.

In 1864, a wooden, 14-room “hotel” was built at the El Paso De Robles stagecoach stop and was named the Hot Springs Hotel. It was built adjacent to where the Paso Robles Inn stands today on Spring Street. The hotel was financed by a San Jose physician, Dr. Faliaferro Johnson. Dr. Johnson purchased one league of land, or 4,438 acres, for $20,000 from Daniel and James Blackburn and went on to spend $3,000 to build the Hot Springs Hotel and Bathhouse.

Dr. Johnson offered medical services at the local bathhouses so his patients could make use of the sulfur baths. Room and board at the Hot Springs Hotel was $9 per month and included unlimited free medical attention. By September 1864, Dr. Johnson returned to San Jose, and Daniel and James Blackburn became the owners of the Hot Springs Hotel and Bathhouses.

By 1868, the Blackburns raised Hot Springs Hotel rates from $9 per month to $12 per week. A new hotel was being constructed, and the old one was being used as a hospital. The curative powers of the mud baths and hot springs were being developed and used as part of the hot springs resort. It was believed that the hot springs could cure ailments such as rheumatism, syphilis, gout, neuralgia, paralysis, fever, eczema, afflictions of the womb, and diseases of the liver and kidney.

The resort’s fame began to grow, and by 1883, the partnership of Blackburn and James had developed the Hot Springs Hotel into a cluster of small buildings, which included the wooden hotel surrounded on three sides by a dozen small, identical cottage bedrooms.

These cottages were used by the “first class” who enjoyed a private, separate dining room and the hotel now included amenities such as reading rooms, parlors, a barber shop, billiard hall, saloon, telegraph and post offices, first class livery stable, physicians’ office and bathhouse.

With the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad route to Paso Robles in 1887, our little town began to receive an increased number of visitors who sought grander accommodations. So, the Blackburns and James began plans for yet another new hotel and hot springs resort.

A new Victorian-style bathhouse was built in 1888 at the same location of the original wooden bathhouse on 10th and Spring streets. However, even this was not nearly the last Paso Robles hotel to be built.

In 1889, a new hotel was proposed and would be called the El Paso de Robles Hotel and Hot Springs. The hotel property extended from 10th to 13th streets and from Spring to Vine streets. It featured sandstone arches, semicircular towers and fireplaces in each guest room — becoming known as the “hotel with a hundred chimneys.”

Over the years, notable guests such as Ignacy Paderewski, cattle ranchers Miller and Lux, “Fighting Bob” Evans, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the San Francisco Seals, and scores of European and Chinese diplomats came to the hotel to make use of the mineral and mud baths. Besides the bathing accommodations, the hotel staff arranged hunting parties for the guests or provided elaborate picnic lunches in the surrounding countryside. The clubhouse at the north end of the hotel grounds provided bowling, billiards and a movie theater for the guests’ enjoyment. The Hotel El Paso de Robles was often featured in Sunset magazine for its impeccable service and grand features.

On December 12, 1940, disaster struck the hotel when a fire started in one of the third-floor service closets and engulfed the building.

Before long, more than 3,000 Paso Robles citizens gathered on Spring Street to watch in horror and fascination as the fire consumed the huge building. Paso Robles volunteer firemen, aided by fire departments from surrounding areas, fought the fire valiantly, but were only able to save the bathhouse and the kitchen and dining room wing, known as the “Grand Ballroom.” The hotel burned to the ground within two hours.

Following the fire, good citizens of Paso Robles carried the hotel’s piano to safety while others mounted ladders to salvage personal effects from the employees’ dormitory over the dining room. Nearly 200 locals invited hotel guests displaced by the fire to stay in their homes that night and a local taxi service provided transportation to hotel guests free of charge.

The El Paso de Robles Area Historical Society and Museum are honored to be located in the historic Carnegie Library at the center of City Park. To learn more, visit pasorobleshistorymuseum.org.