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San DiegoWeekly Union,
January 6, 1870

At “this large and commodious hotel...the table will always be supplied with all the delicacies of the season and no pains will be spared to make guests comfortable during their stay.”

In the aftermath of the great fire of 1872, Old Town’s fortunes declined as New Town became the new commercial and civic seat. Albert Seeley sold his once fashionable hotel in 1888.

In the decade that followed, the old hotel became a rooming house. Between 1900 and 1919, Edward Akerman and Robert Tuffley, owners of a nearby olive pickling factory, leased the downstairs for their operation. Many of the rooms were remodeled to process and pack olives and olive oil. TheAkerman and Tuffley families, along with a few of their employees, lived in the guest rooms on the second floor.

Nostalgia, though, did not halt the historic building’s
deteriorating condition. By 1914, its tax value had dropped to a mere $200 from $1,250 in 1900. Street grading, poor drainage, and lack of upkeep damaged the foundation, structural supports, and adobe walls. Most of the guest rooms by this date stood empty.

In 1928, Bandini’s grandson, Cave J. Couts Jr., bought
the property with the intention to restore the home as a tribute to his mother, Ysidora Bandini de Couts.

The Casa de Bandini’s Rebirth
Under Cave J. Couts Jr.

In the early 1930s, Couts remodeled his grandfather’s former residence in the Steamboat Revival architectural style then popular in the South. The entire building was stuccoed. Asphalt shingle covered the roof. The first-floor porch was plastered and trimmed with a balustrade railing of cast stone. Decorated white lath screens embellished the tops of the porch and balcony on all sides.

Historic American Building Survey,Withey, 1936
Junipers and other shrubs lined the beds along Mason
and Calhoun Streets. For the first time, the building was
wired for electricity and gas to accommodate modern appliances, including a 13-burner gas plate range.
Couts called his hotel and restaurant the Miramar. The
remodeled landmark became indissolubly linked with the cultural traditions of amythical Spanish past noted for its romance and festivity.

The Casa de Bandini, mid 1950s

In 1945, James H. and Nora Cardwell bought the property from Cave Couts Jr. for $25,000. In the early 1950s, their son Frank renovated the building into an upscale tourist motel.

Influenced by the architect Richard Requa, Cardwell’s
remodel included stuccoed columns, decorative wrought iron, rustic wooden posts and railings on the balcony, and ceramic and stone tile, which gave the exterior a quasi- Spanish Colonial appearance.

The Cardwells sold the property to the State of California in 1968, the same year that Old Town SanDiego became a state historic park.

At the turn of the twentieth century, interest in California’s Spanish colonial heritage sparked the first effort to redevelop Old Town as a historic tourist destination.

In 1910, John D. Spreckels, the sugar baron, completed his trolley line along Calhoun Street to the historic plaza and opened the restored Casa de Estudillo adobe and garden, one of the first historic buildings restored in the state. Eva Scott Fenyes’ idealized image of the old Cosmopolitan Hotel adjacent to the Casa de Estudillo evokes a nostalgia for the simplicity and earthiness of an earlier time associated with Hispanic California.

San DiegoWeekly Union, January 6, 1870 At “this large and commodious hotel...the table will always be supplied with all the delicacies of the season and no pains will be spared to make guests comfortable during their stay.” In the aftermath of the great fire of 1872, Old Town’s fortunes declined as New Town became the new commercial and civic seat. Albert Seeley sold his once fashionable hotel in 1888. In the decade that followed, the old hotel became a rooming house. Between 1900 and 1919, Edward Akerman and Robert Tuffley, owners of a nearby olive pickling factory, leased the downstairs for their operation. Many of the rooms were remodeled to process and pack olives and olive oil. TheAkerman and Tuffley families, along with a few of their employees, lived in the guest rooms on the second floor. Nostalgia, though, did not halt the historic building’s deteriorating condition. By 1914, its tax value had dropped to a mere $200 from $1,250 in 1900. Street grading, poor drainage, and lack of upkeep damaged the foundation, structural supports, and adobe walls. Most of the guest rooms by this date stood empty. In 1928, Bandini’s grandson, Cave J. Couts Jr., bought the property with the intention to restore the home as a tribute to his mother, Ysidora Bandini de Couts.
The Casa de Bandini’s Rebirth Under Cave J. Couts Jr. In the early 1930s, Couts remodeled his grandfather’s former residence in the Steamboat Revival architectural style then popular in the South. The entire building was stuccoed. Asphalt shingle covered the roof. The first-floor porch was plastered and trimmed with a balustrade railing of cast stone. Decorated white lath screens embellished the tops of the porch and balcony on all sides. Historic American Building Survey,Withey, 1936 Junipers and other shrubs lined the beds along Mason and Calhoun Streets. For the first time, the building was wired for electricity and gas to accommodate modern appliances, including a 13-burner gas plate range. Couts called his hotel and restaurant the Miramar. The remodeled landmark became indissolubly linked with the cultural traditions of amythical Spanish past noted for its romance and festivity. The Casa de Bandini, mid 1950s In 1945, James H. and Nora Cardwell bought the property from Cave Couts Jr. for $25,000. In the early 1950s, their son Frank renovated the building into an upscale tourist motel. Influenced by the architect Richard Requa, Cardwell’s remodel included stuccoed columns, decorative wrought iron, rustic wooden posts and railings on the balcony, and ceramic and stone tile, which gave the exterior a quasi- Spanish Colonial appearance. The Cardwells sold the property to the State of California in 1968, the same year that Old Town SanDiego became a state historic park.
At the turn of the twentieth century, interest in California’s Spanish colonial heritage sparked the first effort to redevelop Old Town as a historic tourist destination. In 1910, John D. Spreckels, the sugar baron, completed his trolley line along Calhoun Street to the historic plaza and opened the restored Casa de Estudillo adobe and garden, one of the first historic buildings restored in the state. Eva Scott Fenyes’ idealized image of the old Cosmopolitan Hotel adjacent to the Casa de Estudillo evokes a nostalgia for the simplicity and earthiness of an earlier time associated with Hispanic California.