Lauren Donoho
Director of Public Relations
Tel 619 522 8041
ldonoho@hoteldel.com
NEWS RELEASE
January 28, 2008
Incredible Chronology: The Del Debuts in 1888 After Only 11 Months of Construction
March 1887: Construction begins on the Hotel del Coronado.
April 1887: Foundation complete; framing begins; hotel manager hired.
May 1887: 250 construction workers employed at the hotel; one million feet of lumber on site and more on order.
June 1887: Water and gas pipes are installed; a portion of the hotel is ready to roof. Laborers live in a temporary boarding house or in tents and shanties of their own making.
July 1887: Most of the hotel’s first story is enclosed and the sheeting on the upper stories is nearly complete. More than 2,000 spectators visit the construction site each Sunday.
August 1887: Due in: China from Paris, linen from Scotland, glassware from Belgium and 21,000 yards of carpet from Lowell, Massachusetts. Contract for $100,000 worth of furnishings to be made in New York and Michigan. An estimated two million shingles are being installed; an estimated 1,700 “incandescent electric lamps” will be used; an estimated 50,000 bricks are turned out daily at the brickyard.
September 1887: First guest reservations accepted. Three thousand window and doorframes produced by hotel’s planing mill. Decorators begin working on the interior; more workers continue to arrive.
October 1887: First floor frescoing is underway. Sightseers are now so numerous that watchmen are hired to guard entrances.
November 1887: Electrical plant, laundry machine and “illuminators” arrive; a “furniture parade” conveys freight loads of furniture down Orange Avenue.
December 1887: Laundry facilities to be the most complete in United States. Kitchen nearly finished; telephone connection in. First employees arrive from Chicago.
January 1888: Resident physician hired; laundry opened with 30 employees; elevators to be running by February.
February 19, 1888: Dining room serves first dinner; The Del’s official opening day has arrived!