A hotel in the heart of Ojai, California, is returning to its roots after a storied history for the last half century. Hotel El Roblar originally opened in 1919 but fell into disarray. It was converted into a spa in the 1970s but closed due to the Thomas Fire in 2017. Now Ojai’s longest-standing hotel is reopening on June 19, according to the Ojai Valley News.
Eric Goode, Jeremy McBride, Warner Ebbink and Ramin Shamshiri purchased the property and transformed Hotel El Roblar to highlight its Spanish Revival and early Californian architecture while updating its bones.
The hotel was designed by architects Frank Mead and Richard Requa, who helped shape and design Southern California in the early 20th century. According to news reports at the time, the name “El Roblar” was chosen to reflect a cluster of white oaks.
The hotel was later transformed into the Oaks, an all-inclusive spa that was established in 1977. The business was owned by Sheila Cluff, a professional figure skater-turned-aerobics guru who once starred and hosted a fitness show on TV in Southern California. When she purchased the property, she called it “an old run-down hotel,” but she gradually updated the property, which sits in view of the Topatopa Mountains…