Located nearly an hour south of downtown Los Angeles, the city of Long Beach has been consistently considered to be among the most prominent cities in Southern California. Its history is quite extensive, too, harkening back centuries. Although the indigenous Tongva people once inhabited the land generations ago, Long Beach’s direct origins relate to a historic land grant known as the “Rancho Los Nietos.” Measuring some 167,000 acres in total size, King Carlos III of Spain had specifically given the concession to colonial soldier Manuel Nieto during the mid-1780s. Nieto subsequently governed over the expanse of land for many years thereafter, with his descendants inheriting the area upon his death in 1804. But the Nieto family would seemingly encounter trouble maintaining the territory throughout the early 19th century, prompting them to find ways to reduce their liability for it. In the 1830s, the Nietos convinced California’s then-Mexican governor José Figueroa to subdivide it into five smaller estates. Figueroa in turn had centered the boundaries for two of those newly created land grants, Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos, along the central axis of Signal Hill in present-day Long Beach.

While Rancho Los Alamitos was slightly larger, it was Rancho Los Cerritos that would come to constitute most of Long Beach’s current borders. Rancho Los Cerritos itself had been granted to administrator Guillermo Cota and his family by José Figueroa in 1834. The estate remained under the control of the Cota family for the next ten years until Cota’s daughter Rafaela married an American-born rancher named Juan Temple. (Temple was actually born “Jonathan,” but changed his first name after becoming a Mexican citizen during the 1820s.) Temple cultivated a prosperous cattle ranch that quickly elevated him into one of the richest people in the area. To commemorate his great financial success, he proceeded to build a gorgeous adobe residence known as the “Casa de los Cerritos”—or “Los Cerritos Ranch House”—in the middle of the massive estate. (This iconic destination still exists today as a fascinating house museum and cherished U.S. National Historic Landmark.) Nevertheless, Rancho Los Cerritos continued to operate under the care of Juan Temple and Rafaela Cota for the next two decades, even surviving the United States’ acquisition of the Alta California region during the Mexican-American War.

Temple eventually decided to divest himself of Rancho Los Cerritos though, selling the location to livestock business Flint, Bixby & Company for $20,000 after the American Civil War. Managed by brothers Thomas and Benjamin Flint—as well as their cousin, Lewellyn Bixby—Flint, Bixby & Company reoriented the Rancho Los Cerritos to host a herd of some 30,000 sheep. Despite its own prosperity, Flint, Bixby & Company nonetheless sold around 4,000 acres of the estate to fellow agriculturalist William E. Willmore, who intended to use it to create a farming community called “Willmore City.” Unfortunately for Willmore, significant economic headwinds prevented him from making the endeavor a success and he gave away the rights to a Los Angeles-based syndicate called the “Long Beach Land and Water Company.” The corporation then initiated a thorough construction project within the town throughout the 1880s and 1890s, renaming it “Long Beach” in the process. The effort proved to be very wise, as the new residential and commercials structures began attracting hundreds of new people from across the country. In fact, Long Beach had even grown large enough to become an official city in 1897.

Much of Long Beach’s appeal stemmed not from its initial pastoral nature, but the serene environment that encompassed it. Indeed, the area’s perennially beautiful weather and azure shoreline combined to create a tranquil atmosphere that many people yearned to experience. Long Beach thus had earned a reputation as a popular vacation destination by the beginning of the early 20th century. However, Long Beach’s proximity to Los Angeles soon made it an important industrial center as well, especially for the manufacture of automobiles and aircraft. Refineries also came to dot portions of its skyline following the discovery of oil within Signal Hill in the 1920s. Amazingly, the city’s oil industry endured for decades, with its Wilmington Oil Field emerging as the fourth largest in the whole United States amid the buildup to World War II. Perhaps Long Beach’s’ greatest economic quality was the bustling port that developed right off the coast, which gradually emerged as the second busiest container port in the entire country. Long Beach today remains one of California’s most prestigious cities, featuring a robust economy and vibrant identity. Cultural heritage travelers in particular will find its diverse variety of attractions to be very enticing, such as the Aquarium of the Pacific, the Queen Mary maritime museum, and of course, Los Cerritos Ranch House.

When the firm Walker & Eisen first designed the hotel, they used a brilliant array of Renaissance Revival design techniques to craft its appearance. Renaissance Revival architecture itself—sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance”—is a group of architectural revival styles that date back to the 19th century. Neither Grecian nor Gothic in their appearance, Renaissance Revival-style architecture drew inspiration from a wide range of structural motifs found across Early Modern Europe. Architects in France and Italy were the first to embrace the artistic movement, who saw the architectural forms of the European Renaissance as an opportunity to reinvigorate a sense of civic pride throughout their communities. Those intellectuals proceeded to incorporate the colonnades and low-pitched roofs of Renaissance-era buildings, along with specific characteristics of Mannerist and Baroque-themed architecture. Perhaps the greatest structural component to a Renaissance Revival-style building involved the installation of a grand staircase in a vein similar to those located at both the Château de Blois and the Château de Chambord in France’s Loire Valley. This particular feature served as a central focal point for the design, often directing guests to a magnificent lobby or exterior courtyard. But the nebulous nature of Renaissance Revival architecture meant that its appearance varied widely in Europe. Historians today can thus find it difficult to provide a specific definition for the architectural movement. Nevertheless, Renaissance Revival architecture has since remained one of the world’s most enduring structural forms, appearing in countless places all over the globe. In fact, many buildings designed in the style have even been listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior!

Elizabeth Taylor, actress known for her roles in Cleopatra and The Taming of the Shrew 

Cary Grant, actor known for such roles in To Catch a Thief, Charade, and North by Northwest 

Rita Hayworth, actress known for her roles in Gilda and Cover Girl

Clark Gable, actress known for her roles in Gilda and Cover Girl

Errol Flynn, actor known for his roles in Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and The Adventures of Robin Hood

John Wayne, actor known for his roles in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, True Grit, and The Longest Day

Charles Lindbergh, aviator who completed the first solo transatlantic flight in world history  

Babe Ruth, legendary outfielder for the New York Yankees regarded today as the best baseball player ever 

The Lone Wolf: The Long Beach Story (1954)