Hotel

1906 · 55705 — Del Monte CA & Detroit MI: Detroit Publishing Co. 1906. One large panoramic photocrom sized 14.25 x 42.5 in. mounted behind original 22 x 50 in. mat with original 27.5 x 55 in. quarter-sawn oak frame w/ original engraved brass plaque sized 1 x 4.5 in affixed to lower fore-edge retaining original glass. A superb example of this large photochrom panorama of the historic Gothic Revival Hotel Del Monte after it had been rebuilt in 1888 following a tragic fire. Charles Crocker and other members of the “Big Four†who had founded the Central Pacific and completed the transcontinental railroad formed the Pacific Improvement Co. in 1880 to develop the lavish Hotel Del Monte leisure resort immediately attracting thousands of annual visitors. The beauties of Monterey Bay groves of pine oak & cedar with well laid out roads were all designed to feed into the splendid hotel. The main building shown here in the image was 385 feet long by 115 feet wide with two deep wings and four stories with a tall tower containing choice suite with extended views of the countryside. The amenities included bars bowling alleys smoking rooms in detached buildings stables carriage houses ponds fountains and beautifully landscaped grounds. Occasionally mistaken for hand-coloured photographs these stunning images were created by a photolithographic process by which black and white negatives are applied to multiple lithographic stones and colours are added one stone at a time often requiring up to 19 different stones for these vividly coloured images. Jackson 1843-1942 was a noted artist and Western photographer who joined the company by selling his entire stock of 1000s of negatives to the Detroit Photographic Co. in 1897 providing the core images enabling the company to produce millions of images from postcards up to the large panoramas. In 1903 after the resignation of Edwin Husher Jackson took over the supervising and publishing of the images as well as supervising a crew of forty artisans and a dozen traveling salesman. See: Alan Michelson Pacific Improvement Company Hotel Del Monte #1 Monterey CA Pacific Coast Architecture Database 2018; Library of Congress Hotel Del Monte Detroit Publishing Co. No. 50228 Copyright Dec. 1906; Cynthia Read Miller & Rosalie Ehrlich Detroit Publishing Company Collection The Henry Ford 2001. Detroit Publishing Co., unknown