The Pierpont Inn is a Craftsman bungalow-style Inn in

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city on the Southern Coast of California and the county seat of Ventura County. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. Ventura is a popular tourist des ...

on a bluff overlooking the

Santa Barbara Channel The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Southern California Bight and separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the Oxnard Plain in Ventura Count ...

. Built in 1910 for motoring tourists, the complex is City of San Buenaventura Historic Landmark Number 80. The Pierpont Inn and Spa became a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

, in 2002.

History

In 1908, Josephine Pierpont bought land on a bluff overlooking the ocean in

for development as a site for an

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

. She felt the inn could serve the increasing number of automobile enthusiasts who would travel along the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

looking for a place to rest and enjoy a home-cooked meal. She hired Sumner P. Hunt to build a

Craftsman Style American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its ...

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

inn on the site. It opened in September 1910, originally as "The Wayside Inn", later changed to "The Pierpont Inn" Josephine's son Austen Pierpont ran the Inn for the first many years, expanding it in 1925 by adding two English Tudor-style cottages surrounded by a lush, garden setting. He also developed the idea of turning the inn into a country club, but the idea never came to fruition. The inn changed hands several times and fell into disrepair until it was rescued by Mrs. Mattie Vickers Gleichmann in 1928. After Mattie's husband, professional baseball player Gus Gleichmann, was forced to leave the sport after being injured, they decided to pursue a career in hospitality. Mattie borrowed $80,000 from her father Ashby Christian Vickers, a prominent Ventura farmer, to purchase and renovate the inn. It reopened in 1929 as a family affair, as her husband, mother, sister, brother-in-law and children all worked on and around the property. In 1938, Gus Gleichmann was killed in an automobile accident and Mattie decided to continue operation of the Inn without him to fulfill the dream of being able to provide a future for their children. This dream became a reality when her son Ted returned from World War II and embraced the role of general manager. Ted Gleichmann brought modernization to the Inn and added an East Wing with 12 guestrooms including fireplaces in 1954. Later he added the Bluff House and West Wing to bring the total number of rooms to 72. In addition to his duties at the Inn, Ted was a championship-winning, amateur PGA golfer. Among his victories was the 1963 Bing Crosby Invitational Tournament (now known as the

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, held annually at Pebble Beach, California, near Carmel. The tournament is usually held during the month of February on three different courses, currently Pebble Beac ...

). Through his success in the golf world, he attracted many of his famous social contacts to the Inn. In the 1950s, the

Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California, United States, running from the Santa Barbara/Ventura county line to Pasadena in Los Angeles County. It is the principal east-west route (designated north-south) through Ventura County a ...

was built below the bluff that the Inn sits on.Pols, Mary F. (February 11, 1996
"ON THE ROAD: Journeys Along Ventura County's Highways"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' In 1976, Spencer and Scott Garrett (grandchildren of Mattie Gleichmann's sister) leased the then-vacant parcel of land adjacent to the Inn to build one of the nation's first multi-purpose athletic facilities, "The Pierpont Racquet Club". After Mattie's death in 1996 at the age of 100, the Inn was eventually sold to the Garretts. In 2005 the Garretts sold the inn to Central Coast Management Inc. In 2009, Central Coast Management Inc. sold the inn to the Pierpont Group LLC, headed by investor Grace S. Ahn.Hoops, Stephanie (April 22, 2009
"Pierpont Inn is changing hands"
''

Ventura County Star The ''Ventura County Star'' (Marked online as VC Star) is a daily newspaper published in Camarillo, California and serves all of Ventura County. It is owned by Gannett, the largest publisher of newspapers in the United States. It is a successor ...

'' The property went into bankruptcy auction in late 2012 and the Inn transferred from the Ahn Family Trust to Brighton Management. Wyndham Garden Ventura Pierpont Inn was the new name selected when Brighton Management signed a franchise agreement with Wyndham's national reservation system in December 2013. Renovations to the rooms and grounds were needed after a period of neglect.Hoops, Stephanie (January 31, 2013
"Ventura's Pierpont Inn joins Wyndham chain"
''

'' In 2015, DKN Hotels acquired the property and stated that the renovations would continue along with remaining under the Wyndham franchise.

Notable guests

The Inn was a playground for elite society. Tinsel-town notables such as

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...

, Edward G. Robinson and

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

all took breaks from filming in Hollywood by escaping to the charming location. The property was also a hideaway for scandalous lovers such as

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...

Carole Lombard Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 2 ...

and

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...

, many of whom, because they were married to others, desired to have their privacy protected. The Inn's remote location provided the perfect venue to escape the limelight. Local attorney

Erle Stanley Gardner Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry Mason series of crime fiction, detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of ...

authored his "

Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a cli ...

" series in his law office down the road from the Inn and actually used it as a backdrop for many of his novels, particularly in "The Case of the Velvet Claws."

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

along with wife Barbara (with their son

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

in tow) spent considerable time at the Inn between 1949-1950 while Bush senior was apprenticing in the oil business.

References

External links

*City of Ventura. "City Landmarks, Points of Interest, and Historic Districts"
Historic Preservation in Ventura
webpage. {{Ventura, California Hotels in California Buildings and structures in Ventura, California Hotels established in 1910 History of Ventura County, California Landmarks in Ventura, California Tourist attractions in Ventura County, California Sumner Hunt buildings American Craftsman architecture in California Bungalow architecture in California 1910 establishments in California

History

Notable guests

See also

References

External links