VERDUGO VIEWS:

The multistory Hotel Glendale, one of many new hotels built in the Los Angeles suburbs in the 1920s, rose above its peers due to its six floors and its attractive lobby and plush furnishings.

The location, at the intersection of Broadway and Glendale Avenue, was chosen because of its proximity to several transportation lines, according to newspaper reports at the time.

The Pacific Electric passed right by, as did the Glendale-Montrose and Eagle Rock lines, along with several bus routes, said C. W. Ingledue, president of the hotel corporation, who was quoted in the Oct. 31, 1924, edition of the Glendale Evening News. The main entrance was at the corner of the two busy thoroughfares.

“Every effort is being exerted to make this a community center where the business and social life of the city will naturally focus,” said Ingledue, who had come to Glendale 12 twelve years before.

He ran the Glendale Market, then went into real estate with his son Elwood and was serving as president of the Glendale Advancement Assn. at the time of the hotel’s construction. He and his family lived at 501 E. Wilson Ave.

Officers of the hotel incorporation included Henry R. Harrower, founder of the Harrower Laboratory on Broadway; R.E. Spicer, also of the Harrower Lab; and S.C. Kinch, a real estate investor and member of the city’s Planning Commission. Others were Mabel Tight, a pioneer Glendalian prominent on the realty board; T.H. Menk, another Realtor; and C.F. Stuart, proprietor of the pharmacy diagonally opposite the new hotel.

The brick-faced hotel (its six stories were a first for Glendale) boasted 160 rooms and two elevators. The lower floor, supported with decorative arches, featured two dining rooms. Fully furnished apartment suites were on the second, third and fourth floors, with hotel rooms on the upper two floors.

Guests were invited to dress in Spanish attire for the hotel’s grand opening in July 1925. A buffet supper and dancing to the music of Kelly’s Shrine club orchestra capped off the evening.

A year later, Ingledue, assisted by Elwood, invited friends to a first anniversary party. The hotel had exceeded expectations, the elder Ingledue is quoted in the Glendale Daily Press on July 16, 1926. More than 5,000 guests from all over the United States had been entertained. They had seen the hotel’s advertisements in railroad folders and some had come to look and remained as permanent residents.

“As to the management of the hotel, which was a line entirely new to me and to my son, we have enjoyed the work because it has so many interesting angles and we are looking forward with confidence to the coming year,” Ingledue said.

Sadly, due to economic issues and other forces, the hotel made a transition into long-stay apartments within just a couple of years.

Glendale businessman John Gregg, whose mother, Alice Lee Gregg, was married to Elwood Ingledue for 17 years, recalled, “Elwood always said the hotel was the finest thing around when it opened.”

?KATHERINE YAMADA’s column runs every other Friday. To contact her, call features editor Joyce Rudolph at (818) 637-3241. For more information on Glendale’s history, visit the Glendale Historical Society¹s web page www.glendalehistorical.org; call the reference desk at the Central Library at (818) 548-2027; or visit the Special Collections Room at Central from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays or make an appointment by calling (818) 548-2037.