With lot sales to fund the hotel’s construction, a stenographer was summoned to the beach on a beautiful December day in 1886 and Babcock, Story, Herbert Ingle (one of the hotel’s original investors) and James Reid (architect) conceived the resort’s basic layout. The design included a courtyard, pavilion tower and dining wing. Reid would later recall that “preliminary sketches were quickly prepared, and because of lack of time, remained the unchanged basis of construction.” This depiction of the proposed hotel showcased its less prominent sides, those facing Orange Avenue and downtown Coronado.