The Montgomery Hotel
San Jose, California
The Montgomery Hotel, Designed by local architect William Binder, was built in 1911 by prominent businessman C.T. Montgomery, sometimes called the father of the downtown. The Classical Revival style structure had 142 rooms, a restaurant, a ballroom and two dining rooms. The U-shaped building has six balconies with balustrades and brick-colored pergola on the building's handsome facade. The Montgomery is considered historically significant because of its early reinforced concrete construction, architectural style and ties to important people in San Jose�s history. It is eligible for the National Register of Historical Places and is on the California Register. In January 2000 the hotel was relocated 186 feet South of its previous location to First and San Carlos Streets, an event that received extensive media attention. The building had been closed after suffering damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earth Quake.
The San Jose Redevelopment Agency has hired an architect to redesign the first level of the structure which had to be demolished prior to the move. This included an elegant ballroom annex which was torn down because of space limitations. The Francisco based Architectural Resources Group has salvaged historical material from inside the building and documented drawings and design features which will be available for the architect. Present plans call for the building to be restored to a botique hotel. The black and white photographs shown here were taken in 1943 during the heydays of Downtown Hotels.
