AgdaPkt 2016-09-12 Closed and Joint SA PFA

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The three-story brick hotel was a massive 100 feet by 100 feet, elegantly and expensively furnished to accommodate those men and their families who came to the county seat to con- duct business. It also offered suites of rooms as apartments for permanent residences. Every two rooms had a bath with hot and cold running water. Public restrooms were on every floor. The ground floor lobby led to a dining room and restaurant which served residents, their guests and the public. At least three comfortable parlors where business meetings and social events could be held were on the second and third floors along with the hotel's 60 rooms. In addition to the lobby entrance and the dining room, the bottom floor was cut-up into retail store spaces with frontage on Main Street and on Broadway. The hotel's lobby entrance was at the very corner, facing the bank entrance on the opposite corner. These two building complexes dominated the heart of the downtown business district for many years. Much of the business of the city and the county was conducted at the bank and at the hotel by the men who were either officers or stockholders of both enterprises, as well as being city and county officers. P.P. Chamberlain, San Mateo County Treasurer for over 40 years, an officer of the bank, the owner-proprietor of the Diller-Chamberlain Store, and who held many positions in different civic and private enterprises, lived in rooms at the Sequoia Hotel. He died there in 1925. 800 Main Street is a flat-roofed, three story building located at a busy corner in downtown Redwood City. Two long facades front Main Street and Broadway. The corner is rounded like that of the Bank of San Mateo County across the street, but lacks its domed turret. The walls are composed of white painted bricks. Around the main entry in the rounded corner section there are a number of classical details; two Ionic pilasters flank two wooden front doors, a transom is above the paired doors. Complex moldings line the entryway and a row of rosettes lie just above the transom. Above the doors is a cartouche enframed by a rounded arch. Above this is decorative plasterwork bearing the hotel's date of construction, 1912. To the left is a fire escape leading from two upper windows. On either side of the pilasters are two fixed windows with glass bowed to follow the building's rounded profile. These windows have a single main pane and twelve lights set above. Along the Main Street and Broadway facades, the first floor street fronts are divided into several spaces for shops. These storefronts generally have large plate glass display windows, with transoms above (some of the transoms have been covered over). A thick cornice molding painted brown separates the first floor form the second and third. The fenestration of these two upper floors consists of a series of identical double-hung wood sash windows. The upper portions of these windows have eight lights. These windows on the higher two floors illuminate guest rooms. Above the third floor series of windows is a large cornice, supported by thick brackets, and ornamented with a large egg and dart band. The upper part of the cornice possesses a curved cove molding. Early signs for the Hotel Sequoia above the main entry and on the roof are still in place. Page 32 7.B. - Page 43