Among the historic attractions dotting Route 66, there may be none more hapless and ill fated as the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia.
As Route 66 celebrates 100 years of open-road adventure, very few road-trippers are stomping on the brakes in front of the Aztec. I should know. I live within walking distance and drive almost daily past the Mayan-themed building.
I have also visited the storefront businesses on the ground floor and toured the empty hotel rooms upstairs, and can put to rest the often-circulated rumors that the hotel is haunted or cursed.
No, it’s just a victim of poor timing.
A stop along the ‘Mother Road’
Exterior of the Aztec Hotel on Foothill Boulevard in Monrovia.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
The story of the Aztec dates back to the post-World War I optimism when what is now known as Foothill Boulevard through Monrovia was widened and made part of Route 66 — the “Mother Road” from Santa Monica to Chicago. The good folks of Monrovia decided a hotel along the busy thoroughfare made sense.
Around that time, English architect Robert B. Stacy-Judd was designing highly distinct temples, homes, churches and banks, among other projects on the West Coast. He was smitten by anything Mayan-related, so he proposed a Mayan-themed hotel. Only it would be called the Aztec Hotel because the name “Aztec” was thought to be better recognized than “Mayan.”
The 44-room, two-story hotel was completed in August 1925 at a cost of about $140,000. Celebrities such as Clark Gable and Bing Crosby reportedly checked into the hotel in the early days.
But the enterprise struggled almost from the get-go. Route 66 was realigned away from the hotel in the early 1930s, taking with it all of that money-generating traffic.
The strange hotel never caught on
The courtyard at the hapless and ill-fated Aztec Hotel in Monrovia.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
In 1933, a local newspaper story dubbed it a “White Elephant” and described the crude murals and the dark interior as “too barbaric, too weird, too gloomy.” The exterior is replete with intricate Mayan-styled geometric patterns.
Robert Di Do, a board member at the Monrovia Historical Society, said he believes the hotel’s biggest problem was that the rooms did not have bathrooms — guests had to share bathrooms on each floor. (Bathrooms and air-conditioning units have since been added to the rooms.)
“It never really caught on as a hotel,” he said.
It had been shuttered for years when the latest owner, Qin Han Chen, bought it out of foreclosure in 2012. Shortly after, Chen submitted a proposal to the city to turn it into a boutique hotel. But then, according to local news reports, he got into a legal battle with a former hotel manager that involved allegations of discrimination, fraud and financial malfeasance.
Over the years, several businesses on the ground floor — a restaurant, a bar and a gift shop — have come and gone. The current storefront tenants are a cafe, a barber shop and a cigar lounge. Workers have been seen recently cleaning up the ground-floor restaurant space for the launch of a Szechuan noodle eatery, expected to open soon.
Today, the hotel remains closed, with no signs of an imminent reopening.
Preserving California’s lost history
Local historians are not giving up on the Aztec.
The 101-year-old hotel could be brought up to standards, updated and rejuvenated as a viable business if someone were willing to spend the money needed, said Vicky Hansen, a member of Monrovia’s Historic Preservation Commission.
“I don’t think it’s been presented in the right light,” she said. “It’s old and tired,” but “it’s still fabulous inside.”
As for the rumors that the hotel is cursed or haunted, Hansen believes that such talk could be “part of its lure” to draw thrill seekers and ghost hunters.
I got a private tour of the building this week, including the empty rooms, the cluttered kitchen and the expansive weed-choked courtyard. I felt no unholy presence or tortured souls — just a strong smell of cigars and dust, and rooms crammed with highly decorative, antique furniture. (One of the rooms did have a life-size Freddy Krueger figure propped up by the window. Why? I don’t know.)
As I walked through the dimly lit lobby and upstairs hallway, I felt as if I was exploring an outdated, abandoned Disneyland attraction.
But there could be some good news to report: The Aztec Hotel is for sale. The listing describes it as “charming” but in “need of some attention to the interior.” John Faire, the listing agent on the property, said he doesn’t know what short-term plans the owner has in mind, but he is serious about unloading it for the right price.
The listed price tag: $15 million.
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