Cosmopolitan Timeline

History of San Diego's Unique Cosmopolitan

TIMELINE:

1827-29 Don Juan Bandini builds this one-story, thatch-roofed adobe off Old
Town's plaza. The adobe “mansion” becomes the social and political center of town. Bandini hosts grand, week-long fiestas and fandangos that cost thousands of dollars. At every meeting, revolt, or conspiracy, Juan Bandini is one of the leaders, and his home is the usual meeting place.

1846 Commodore Robert F. Stockton used the house as his headquarters during the U.S. occupation of San Diego

1850 Bandini opened a general store in the front room

1856 Bandini’s son-in-law leases out mansion to Jacob Elias and H. Mannassee where they open a retail shop in “Casa Bandini” and sell fancy goods and ready-made clothing

1856-1867 Mansion converted to stable and feed storage

1869 Sold to Albert L. Seely who restored and converted the old adobe into the Cosmopolitan Hotel adding a second story

1869-1887 “The new hotel…," according to the San Diego Union in 1869, "is truly an elegant building. Its broad verandas above and below extending on three sides of the whole building give the place a comfortable southern air.”

1928 Bandini’s grandson bought the property and restored to the “Casa de Bandini” which he leased to various tenants for use as a hotel and restaurant under the name, Miramar Hotel

1945 Bought by the Cardwell family, it was converted to an upscale tourist motel adding stuccoed columns, rustic wooden posts and railings on the balcony and other items to give the exterior a quasi-Spanish colonial appearance

1968 State of California purchases property

2005  Plaza del Pasado operates property as park concession restaurant called     Cosmopolitan Restaurant and Hotel named after the original 1869 hotel

2008  Archaeology and rehabilitation begins

2009  Newly renovated completion date