Cosmopolitan Hotel -
Casa de Bandini

Location: 2660 Calhoun Street
Old Town State Historic Park
Old Town San Diego, CA (map)
Phone: (619) 297-1874
More info: Website

Juan Bandini, the son of a Peruvian sea captain, built La Casa de Bandini in 1829. The single-story, twelve-room “mansion” had thick adobe walls, ceilings of heavy muslin, and deep-set windows with shutters. A superb dancer, Bandini frequently held dancing parties in the large front parlor room, the only room that had a wooden floor.

A wealthy rancher, Bandini allied his family with influential American immigrants like Colonel Cave Couts and Abel Stearns through the marriage of his daughters. During the war with Mexico, he invited Commodore Robert F. Stockton to use the casa as his military headquarters.

Bandini became disillusioned with American rule. He was a leading critic of the U.S. legal-judicial system that set the stage for U.S. claimants to challenge, in costly and lengthy court proceedings, the validity of Mexican land grants.

In 1859, Bandini, by then sick and debt-ridden, transferred the property to his son-in-low Abel Stearns. Stearns sold the crumbling adobe in 1869 to Albert Seeley, who transformed it into a fashionable, two-story hotel and overnight stage stop, called the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

As railroads moved into the region, stage travel declined. In 1887, Seeley sold his hotel and stables, signifying the end of an era. The building was used as a store, pickle factory, boarding house, and motel before becoming part of Old Town San Diego Stage Historic Park in 1968.

California State Parks and a concessionaire are restoring this historic landmark to its appearance as the Cosmopolitan Hotel. It is one of five historic 19th century adobes in the park.