First Long Beach hotel

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Inscription on back reads: "1st Long Beach Hotel, 1884. Built on the bluff with bathhouse rooms under the hotel. Horse car line built by R.M. Widney to connect with the railroad between Los Angeles and San Pedro." Guests pile into trolley cars pulled by horses that are to the side of a pile of packing crates. A windmill sits atop the porch roof by the end dormer and an American flag flies above the hotel. A porch wraps all around the hotel. The photograph was taken on opening day.The Long Beach Land and Water Company started construction of the Long Beach Hotel in 1884 on a bluff overlooking the ocean. It was completed at a cost of $50,000 and included speaking tubes on each floor and bells in every room. The three stories above the bluff contained 130 rooms and the large dining hall overlooking the ocean was entirely of glass. In 1888, a fire that began in the kitchen area spread to the rest of the hotel and, due to lack of fire equipment, the hotel burned to the ground.