Del Mar Hotel - the first structure in Corona del Mar

The building at the corner of Carnation and Seaview is on the site of the Hotel Del Mar, built in 1907. The Hotel was commissioned by the man who first envisioned Corona del Mar – and named it – George E. Hart, a Los Angeles real estate salesman. In 1904, Hart bought 706 acres of land for $150.00/acre from The Irvine Company. He selected this location for the showpiece of his new development, the Del Mar Hotel.

At the time he made the deal, Hart expected that the Pacific Electric Railway, the so-called Red Cars, would extend from Los Angeles as far as Corona del Mar. However, when the railway was extended south in 1906, the terminus was the Balboa Peninsula, not Corona del Mar.

Corona del Mar had a geography problem – the only way to the new subdivision was by boat from Balboa or by a road owned by The Irvine Company. When it was clear that the Pacific Electric would not reach Corona del Mar, Hart tried to cut his losses by deeding back 359 acres to The Irvine Company. In 1907, he built the Hotel Del Mar to encourage people to visit – and he hoped – to buy land. It did not work. By 1915, Hart was ready to wind up his Corona del Mar adventure.

Hart sold his remaining land, including the Hotel Del Mar, to the F. D. Cornell Co. which renamed it the Palisades Tavern. The F. D. Cornell Co had no more success than Hart, and by 1920, Corona del Mar had fewer than 50 homes. A group of investors briefly owned the building in the late 1920s, renaming it the Balboa Palisades Club. They built a companion bath and boat house in nearby China Cove (see point 2), yet failed to make a success of the venture. The investors probably expected a real estate boom once Coast Highway was extended through Corona del Mar in 1926, but the boom did not materialize, and within a few years the Great Depression took hold. The building changed hands several times and has since been an inn, tavern and condos.