Henry E. Huntington

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Henry E. Huntington : biography

February 27, 1850 – May 23, 1927

Huntington retired from active business in 1916. In 1927 Henry E. Huntington died in Philadelphia while undergoing surgery. He is buried, with a large monument, in the Gardens of the Huntington Library.

Hotel

The Huntington Hotel was originally named Hotel Wentworth when it opened its doors on February 1, 1907. Financial problems and a disappointing first season forced the Hotel Wentworth to close its doors indefinitely. Henry Huntington purchased the Hotel Wentworth in 1911, renaming it the Huntington Hotel. It reopened in 1914, transformed into a beautiful winter resort. The 1920s were a prosperous time for the hotel, as Midwestern and Eastern entrepreneurs discovered California’s warm winter climate.

The Hotel’s reputation for fine service began with a long-time general manager and later hotel owner Stephen W. Royce. By 1926, the hotel’s success prompted Royce to open the property year-round. The "golden years" ended with the stock market crash and the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, by the end of the 1930s the hotel was back on solid ground. When World War II began, all reservations were cancelled and the hotel was rented to the Army for $3,000 a month. Following the war, the Huntington’s fortune turned upwards once again. In 1954 Stephen Royce sold the hotel to the Sheraton Corporation remaining as the general manager until his retirement in 1969. The hotel continued operating until 1985 when it was forced to close because of its inability to meet earthquake standards. The unusual structure was completely built of un-reinforced concrete as it was built in 1906.

After a two and a half year major renovation the hotel reopened in March 1991 as the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel and Spa. The hotel completed a 19 million dollar renovation in Jan 2006. The hotel changed hands in early 2007 and became Langham Brand International, Huntington Hotel & Spa.

Legacy

Huntington left a prominent legacy with the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens on his former estate San Marino near Pasadena. Other legacies in California includes the eponymous cities Huntington Beach and Huntington Park, as well as Huntington Lake.

Also in greater Los Angeles are the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, Henry E. Huntington Middle School in San Marino, and the grand boulevard, Huntington Drive, running east bound from downtown Los Angeles. Its landscaped central parkway was previously the right-of-way for the Northern Division of the Pacific Electric.

Riverside’s city park on Mount Rubidoux was originally named Huntington Park, and the road to the top was named Huntington Drive.Brown, page 478. After Frank Miller’s heirs donated the property to the city, the city renamed the park the Frank A. Miller Rubidoux Memorial Park, and the road has become known as Mount Rubidoux Drive. A plaque that was dedicated to Huntington in 1907, in recognition of his contributions to the development of Mount Rubidoux, remains on a large boulder known as Huntington Rock.Hutchings, page 12 (unnumbered). After Huntington’s death a second tablet was placed on the north side of the hill at a place named the Huntington Shrine.Wenzel, Anecdotes …, page 130.

His legacy in on the East Coast includes: the Huntington Park on the James River in Newport News, Virginia at one end of the James River Bridge, community landmark named in his honor; and the Huntington Memorial Library in Oneonta, New York,

As well as a portrait by Oswald Birley at the Huntington Library portraits of Huntington were also painted by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury who built a studio less than a mile from Huntington’s estate in San Marino in 1924-25: a full-length, based on a photograph, is at the Collis Potter & Howard Edwards Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, and two seated versions, a small one of which was acquired by Huntington’s son-in-law John Metcalf, and a larger one (which is presumed lost) which was engraved by an artist called Witherspoon in 1928. The artist also painted Huntington’s grand-daughter Mary Brockway Metcalf (and this is on long-term loan to the offices of the Director of the Huntington Library and Art Gallery).