Claremont Hotel & Spa
Claremont Club & Spa, A Fairmont Hotel is a historic hotel situated at the foot of Claremont Canyon in the Berkeley Hills and located in the Claremont district which straddles the city limits of Berkeley and Oakland. At its elevation, the location provides scenic views of San Francisco Bay. The hotel building is entirely in Oakland, as are the spa, the gardens and parking area. However, a small portion of the property located just east of the Berkeley Tennis Club is within the city limits of Berkeley, and the resort uses the street address of this parcel as the hotel's address.
The Berkeley Tennis Club leased a portion of the hotel grounds from 1917 to 1945. In 1945, the Club purchased this section of the grounds, and remains located at 1 Tunnel Road, Berkeley next to the Hotel. The club's property straddles the Oakland-Berkeley city limits, which run down the pathway between the sets of courts.
The Claremont has 279 guest rooms, a spa, 10 tennis courts, and of landscaped gardens. Romantic stories tell that it was once won in a checkers game. The Hotel was nominated and deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, but was not listed due to owner objection. It is a designated Oakland City Historical Landmark.
History
The site upon which the hotel was constructed was originally located in an unincorporated section of Alameda County, outside of any city limits. It was developed by an early settler, William B. Thornburgh, who constructed a large home that he called a "castle". After his death, it was sold to John Ballard. On July 14, 1901, a wildfire descending from the hills burned the house to the ground. The property was subsequently acquired by a group of investors, including John Hopkins Spring, Francis "Borax" Smith, Frank C. Havens, Louis Titus, and Duncan McDuffie. They formed the Claremont Hotel Co. in 1905. Smith and Havens were already involved with what came to be known as the "Key System", a major transit and real estate development company in the East Bay, whose commuter trains began rolling in 1903.Construction of the hotel began about 1905, contemporaneously with the nearby Claremont Park development of Duncan McDuffie, but halted as a result of supply and financial difficulties caused by the 1906 earthquake. Construction resumed for a time in 1910, but further difficulties impeded progress. In the meantime, a referendum in November of 1909 brought the annexation of the area that included most of the hotel site into the city limits of Oakland. Finally, the hotel was completed and opened in 1915 as the Claremont Hotel.
A transbay Key railway line was run right to the doors of the Claremont Hotel, approaching from between the tennis courts that are now part of the Berkeley Tennis Club. Thus, Claremont Hotel guests not only had views of San Francisco, but could go there directly from the lobby steps. The tracks were removed in 1958 when the Key System was dismantled, but the tennis courts are still separated by a path where the tracks used to be.
The Key System constructed another large hotel near downtown Oakland, the Key Route Inn, which also had its own train service.
Besides the direct rail connection, the Claremont Hotel was also convenient to vehicular traffic, as it was situated along the principal route over the Berkeley Hills via Claremont Canyon. In 1903, a small tunnel was excavated above Temescal Canyon, accessible by a new road dubbed Tunnel Road, which ran from the end of Ashby Avenue. The same route later led to a newer, larger tunnel which opened in 1937 as the "Broadway Low Level Tunnel", later re-named the Caldecott Tunnel. The street address of the Claremont is still 41 Tunnel Road. Tunnel Road is a designated part of State Highway 13.
In 1873, a state law was enacted that prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages within two miles of the University of California. This statute was amended in 1876, reducing the prohibition distance to one mile from the perimeter of the University of California. In 1913, the hotel's investors sponsored AB 1620, supposedly to further restrict alcohol near churches and schools statewide, but specifically excluding the Claremont Hotel from the dry zone. Influenced by activism from women's clubs and temperance groups in Berkeley, the Ferguson bill was defeated by one vote. Nationwide prohibition of alcohol was instituted on January 17, 1920, when the Volstead Act, enacted pursuant to the 18th Amendment, went into effect. On December 5, 1933, the 18th Amendment was repealed by enactment of the 21st Amendment. After repeal, the Claremont Hotel continued to suffer from the state law prohibiting the sale of liquor within a mile of the university. In 1937, the law was amended to measure the distance following street routes rather than a straight line, and the hotel was then able to serve liquor legally. According to a story on the hotel’s website, a student at the University discovered in 1936 that the route was over a mile and was awarded free drinks for life. This point had been publicly discussed in 1913, however.
The hotel had an unusual fire escape in the form of a multi-story spiral slide for guests to make their escape. Many people over the years, including teenagers, sneaked in and took the ride, but the slide was eventually boarded up and removed. On the final day the slide was opened up to the public and anybody making a donation to the hotel's selected charity was given a monogrammed terrycloth hand towel to slide down with.
The Claremont faced destruction in the 1991 Oakland firestorm, but firefighters and the lessening wind stopped the flames short of the hotel.
In 2007, the Claremont was acquired by Morgan Stanley. On February 1, 2011, the resort filed for bankruptcy due to losses attributed to the ongoing recession. Lenders including Paulson & Co., Winthrop Realty Trust and Capital Trust foreclosed on the property. In 2013, the owners reached a deal to sell the Claremont and three other properties to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. The Claremont was purchased in March 2014 by the Fairmont Hotel chain and financier Richard Blum.