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Aztec Hotel

311 West Foothill Blvd., Monrovia, CA
Phone: 626-358-3231

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The Mayan style details on the Aztec Hotel really get your attention. The hotel which opened on September 1, 1925 was designed by the British architect Robert Stacy-Rudd. The hotel was apparently a social hotspot into the early 1930s. It attracted some big name Hollywood types like Tom Mix and Clark Gable as well as well heeled patrons of the Santa Anita Race Track to it's restaurant and bar in the early years.

I've seen three groups mentioned as the original owners, those include the National Community Hotel Association, the Monrovia Community Hotel Association, and the Monrovia Chamber of Commerce, which one, if any of them was behind the project is a mystery to me. Whoever it was raised $138,000. 00 for the project which reportedly ended up costing $250.000.00.

Regardless of how much of a social hotspot the place was the original ownership didn't last long as the property went into to foreclosure within a few years. The Great Depression didn't help the hotels prospects and neither did the realignment of Route 66 that bypassed the hotel and by 1934 it was closed. Nellie Jamieson reopened the hotel in 1938 and saw it prosper into the early 1940s. It's pretty much been downhill since then, hopefully recent renovation efforts and eventually rescue the very cool old hotel.

There were 36 guest rooms and 8 apartments besides the lobby, restaurant, and retail spaces. Four of the apartments were on the ground floor, the other four and all of the guest rooms were on the second floor. There is a large courtyard within the "L" shape of the building. In 1931 Route 66 was realigned and bypassed this unique hotel. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

It's 2019 as I write this and attempts at renovating and reopening the hotel have been going on since 2000. The hotel closed in 2012 but the renovation work still goes on. There was a brief time since it closed when a couple of businesses tried to open in the building, but they apparently didn't last long.

There is a long established barber shop in operation though as I understand it. As with a number of Route 66 icons the Aztec has it's own ghost story, that of a woman, called Razzle Dazzle by some, who apparently expired in room 120 and is reportedly still hanging around the place. Depending on who you ask, she may have company. True? I dunno.

The name Aztec on the top of the vertical sign and the word Hotel are neon with a neon strip down the edge. The name Aztec Hotel on the face of the building is outlined in neon.

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Vintage Advertising Highlights

(1926 postcard)
Cals Most Unique Hotel
Aztec Hotel
Located in The Foot Hills
at Monrovia, Cal.
Neil W. Edgar, Prop.

Note: Well that sums it up nicely without saying much at all. OK, the front of the postcard shows the exterior of the place, the courtyard and a couple of interior rooms.
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Photo(s): 2013