Hospitality in the Ojai Valley
by Ojai Valley Museum
Primary sources: Ojai Valley Museum collections and ojaihistory.com archive. Additional facts drawn from contemporary accounts where noted.
This is a growing reference. As new posts are added to the archive, this page will be updated to reflect them. If you have memories, photographs, or documents related to any of these properties, the Ojai Valley Museum welcomes your contribution.The Ojai Valley's mild climate and mountain setting made it a magnet for health-seekers, tourists, and people simply looking for somewhere beautiful to land. Over 150 years, the valley has seen a remarkable succession of hotels, resorts, restaurants, and lodges, each reflecting the era that built it. What follows is a reference for the hospitality properties that appear across this archive.
Blumberg Hotel / Ojai Inn (1874)
The valley's first hotel was built by Abram Wheeler Blumberg on 20 acres offered by town founder Royce Surdam, on the site of what is now Libbey Park. Completed in 1874, it was formally called the Ojai Inn but universally known as the Blumberg Hotel. The first child born in the new town of Nordhoff, Irene May Blumberg, was born there on September 29, 1874. When Edward Libbey transformed downtown Ojai in 1916 and 1917, the Blumberg Hotel was demolished to make way for the wisteria-covered Pergola built in its place.
Gally Cottages (1880s)
Among the earliest resort accommodations in the valley were the Gally Cottages, run by Mary Gally north of what is now downtown Ojai. The property became a social hub for early valley life. In January 1899, Mrs. Gally supervised the laying out of the first golf course in the valley on her grounds, opened to the public at fifteen cents a day. Charles Nordhoff himself registered at the Gally Cottages during an 1894 visit to the valley.
Pierpont Hotel / The Overlook (1892)
In the late 1800s, Dr. and Mrs. Pierpont developed a resort hotel in the East End of the valley, known as the Overlook. A contemporary account in The Ojai from October 1904 described it: "In 1892, the Overlook, three and one-half miles up the valley, became a resort for tourists. It commands a splendid view of the entire lower valley, and accommodates about fifty guests. The buildings are attractive and substantial, the gardens well kept, and everything complete for the entertainment of guests." The Pierpont Hotel became one of the most admired properties in the valley.
San Buenaventura Springs / Matilija Hot Springs (1873)
The first hot springs resort in the valley opened in Matilija Canyon in 1873, originally called San Buenaventura Springs. The healing waters drew visitors from across Southern California for decades, and the resort changed hands many times. A 1904 advertisement promoted "a first class dining room, hot sulfur baths, medicinal waters, no fog and no winds. Board at the hotel is $12.00 a week." The springs closed to the public in 1988 and remain a private property today.
Wheeler's Hot Springs (1891)
Wheeler Blumberg, son of Nordhoff's first hotel builder, homesteaded property in Matilija Canyon in 1888 and opened a public resort in 1891, offering a hotel with a dancing pavilion, swimming pool, and fishing. Visitors arrived by train to Nordhoff and continued by stagecoach up the canyon. The property passed through many hands and suffered fires, floods, and other setbacks across the following century. It remains one of the most discussed properties in this archive, with a long history closely connected to Chumash traditions of healing.
Foothills Hotel (pre-1917)
The Foothills Hotel was among the resort properties built to accommodate the booming California tourist trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was at the Foothills Hotel, open only during winter months, that Edward Drummond Libbey first wintered in the Ojai Valley in 1907. The hotel was destroyed in the great Ojai fire of June 1917, which burned sixty structures. A second Foothills Hotel was subsequently built.
The Ojai Tavern / El Roblar Hotel / The Oaks at Ojai / Hotel El Roblar (1920)
After the 1917 fire destroyed the Foothills Hotel, Edward Libbey and a group of investors formed the Ojai Hotel Company to build a new downtown hotel. Designed by Richard Requa and Frank Mead, the same architects responsible for the Arcade, Pergola, and Post Office tower, the hotel was built in the California Mission Revival style. It went through several proposed names during construction, including The Ojai Tavern and briefly The Ojai Valley Inn, before settling on El Roblar in January 1920, a name of Indian origin meaning "a cluster of, or among, the white oaks."
The hotel passed through many owners over the following decades. In 1965 a community enterprise of 300 local shareholders bought the financially troubled property at auction for $230,000 and revived it. In the 1970s it was reinvented as The Oaks at Ojai, a fitness-oriented spa resort. The Oaks closed after the 2017 Thomas Fire and the property sat empty for more than seven years. It reopened in 2024 as Hotel El Roblar, restored to its original name and Spanish Revival character.
Ojai Valley Country Club / Ojai Valley Inn (1923)
The Ojai Valley Country Club was developed by Edward Libbey with architect Wallace Neff, opening in 1923 as a private club on a hillside west of downtown. The golf course became one of the most celebrated in America. Unlike the El Roblar, which served everyday visitors, the Ojai Valley Inn was from the beginning a more exclusive destination. It has operated continuously and remains one of the leading resort properties in Southern California.
First Schoolhouse / Cannon School / Ojai Manor Hotel / Moon's Nest Inn / The Lavender Inn (1874)
At 210 Matilija Street stands one of the most storied properties in the archive, and one with the longest history of any building on this list. The original structure was a brick schoolhouse built in 1874 by Abram Wheeler Blumberg, the same man who built the valley's first hotel. Around 1910 the Freeman family moved in, adding a second story and cladding the building in a way that camouflaged the original brick exterior. The Alton Drown family lived there through the 1920s and 1930s. In 1946 Major Richard Cannon bought it and reopened it as the Cannon School; one year later, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Cataldo converted it to the Ojai Manor Hotel and began renting seven rooms.
In the 1980s Mary Nelson converted it to a bed and breakfast. By 1999 it had been beautifully remodeled and reopened as Moon's Nest Inn. In 2003 it was renamed The Lavender Inn, to reflect the prevalence of lavender being grown in the valley. It is now Ojai Landmark No. 14. Abram Blumberg's original misshapen bricks can still be seen on the inside kitchen wall.
Troy Lodges / Valley Outpost Lodge (1940s)
At the upper end of Mallory Way in Meiners Oaks, a crescent of small cabins was built in the early-to-mid 20th century as exclusive retreat getaways for affluent visitors, many of them from Hollywood. The property was at some point known as Valley Outpost Lodge, with individual units of roughly 200 square feet that could be driven up to, embodying the postwar American tradition of automobile tourism. The woodsy setting offered seclusion while remaining within walking distance of downtown Ojai.
The Ojai Valley Museum holds primary source ephemera related to this property, including a postcard and a matchbook. The property is also known by the name Troy Lodges. Over the decades it transitioned from a motor lodge into a long-term residential enclave of single-story bungalows and cottages. A 2006 preservation fight over the site brought out dozens of Ojai residents to oppose a condominium development, reflecting the community's attachment to this small piece of mid-century history.
The Ranch House (1948)
Alan and Helen Hooker came to Ojai drawn by Krishnamurti, and in the late 1940s opened a vegetarian boarding house on Besant Road in Meiners Oaks for attendees gathering to hear his talks. Guests paid $14 a week for food and lodging. As the boarding house grew in popularity, the Hookers obtained a restaurant license in 1950, and The Ranch House gradually evolved from a spiritual gathering place into one of the most celebrated restaurants in America.
Alan cooked from the garden with an instinctive, improvisational approach that anticipated the farm-to-table movement by decades. Beatrice Wood, a close friend, helped the Hookers financially when the restaurant struggled in its early years. The Ranch House served meals on her ceramic ware, and her artwork adorned the gardens. Aldous Huxley ate there regularly. Paul Newman reportedly called it the best restaurant in the world.
Hooker authored several cookbooks illustrated by Beatrice Wood that remain in print. The Ranch House changed hands over the years and closed most recently in early 2026. It is remembered with deep affection by generations of valley residents and visitors, and its story connects nearly every thread that runs through this archive: Krishnamurti, Beatrice Wood, the Meiners Oaks community, and the valley's long tradition of welcoming people who came here to find something.
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