Hotel Casa del Mar is currently celebrating its 100th anniversary just steps from the shore in Santa Monica. (photo courtesy of Hotel Casa del Mar)

Would you believe me if I told you there’s a time machine in Santa Monica?

Just steps from the boundless Pacific, a palace of Hollywood’s Golden Age rises from the sand in sweeping stucco arches beneath a monumental red-clay tile roof. Three towers of brick surround a shimmering rooftop oasis – a temple of Babylon where stars lounged, soldiers stood watch and a utopian experiment unraveled.

The historic seaside building now home to Hotel Casa del Mar has lived many lives – at times wading through idyllic waters and at others bracing against unrelenting rogue waves. Turning back the pages of Casa del Mar’s history reveals the many eras of Southern California reflected in its walls.

“It’s incredible. It’s the only seaside building built at the beginning of last century that is still standing,” said Charlie Lopez-Quintana, vice president and managing director of ETC Hotels. “Everything else has been demolished and rebuilt. The fact that Casa del Mar has remained as the only historic building on the beachfront in Santa Monica is pretty fantastic.”

Today, the hotel welcomes visitors from across the world with panoramic views of the coastline in a Mediterranean-inspired setting. The stately lobby, with its intimate cabanas, mahogany columns and antique mirrors, harkens back to the hotel’s early elegance.

Designed by architect Charles F. Plummer in the midst of the Roaring Twenties, the Italian Renaissance-style masterpiece opened as Club Casa del Mar – a private beach club fit for hosting one of Jay Gatsby’s parties.

“It opened in 1926 during the Golden Age of Hollywood, when Los Angeles was becoming an important city, and Casa del Mar became the playground – the most exclusive seaside club for Hollywood,” Lopez-Quintana said. “Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and many others were members because it was like a country club for them.”

Among the club’s early members was Olympic swimmer and “Tarzan” star Johnny Weissmuller, who regularly trained in Casa del Mar’s outdoor pool.

Amid Prohibition, the club offered its elite guests a discreet place to indulge, operating as a speakeasy for the rich and famous. As the Great Depression took hold, the club turned to slot machines and horse betting to generate revenue.

The party continued through the 1930s, until the United States entered World War II in 1941.

“It lost a lot of its glamour at that point,” Lopez-Quintana said. “It stopped being that country club and was taken over by the Navy as a building not only for officers but as an observatory to see if there were planes coming from Japan.”

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, fears of a Japanese bombardment of the West Coast intensified. About two football fields from the shoreline, Casa del Mar housed enlisted soldiers and stood sentinel as Southern California’s reality shifted from peace to war. The building remained in military use until 1960, when it was shuttered for seven years.

But in 1967 – the same year the “Summer of Love” swept across California – Casa del Mar entered its most bizarre period.

Charles E. “Chuck” Dederich had struggled with alcoholism since he was a young man. Through the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program, he cultivated a community of people who shared similar struggles, and often invited members to his house for informal group therapy sessions. At a time when many people struggling with drug addiction had difficulty finding support through AA, Dederich founded Synanon in 1958. The fledgling treatment program grew rapidly into a communal organization that soon needed a permanent home.

When Casa del Mar came on the market, the former beach club offered Dederich an ideal seaside headquarters. Synanon moved into the building in 1967, transforming the onetime playground of Hollywood stars into a residential community for people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. Residents lived in close proximity to one another and shared responsibilities – an idealized commune by the sea.

But what began as a treatment program descended into scandal as Synanon expanded and Dederich exerted greater control over the lives of its members. By the mid-1970s, Synanon had declared itself a religion, largely to avoid paying taxes as Dederich amassed wealth. Members were required to shave their heads, married couples were separated and men were pressured to undergo vasectomies. Allegations of forced abortions and violence followed.

The turmoil culminated in 1978, when attorney Paul Morantz, who had successfully sued Synanon on behalf of former members, was nearly killed after a rattlesnake with its rattles removed was planted in his mailbox. Dederich and two Synanon members were arrested, and Dederich later pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit murder. A court barred him from leading Synanon, which ultimately collapsed amid mounting legal and financial troubles.

By the 1990s, Synanon had left the building and Casa del Mar had fallen into disrepair, battered by years of neglect and damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Though Casa del Mar has experienced both bright periods and darker chapters, Lopez-Quintana said the complete story is what gives the hotel its unique identity.

“I think you need to embrace history as it is,” Lopez-Quintana said. “You can always explain stories in a positive way, but history is what it is.”

Recognizing the alluring history of the building, the owners of the adjacent Shutters on the Beach Hotel – which opened in 1993 as a New England-inspired getaway – purchased Casa del Mar in 1997.

“The owners of Shutters on the Beach decided to make a bet on Casa del Mar,” Lopez-Quintana said.

And it was no small wager. The Edward Thomas Hospitality Corporation invested $50 million in an extensive restoration, preserving the Italian Renaissance architecture while creating 129 guest rooms and transforming the former beach club into a luxury seaside hotel.

“It was important not only for the owners, but the city too, that the building had to remain a historic place,” Lopez-Quintana said. “The outdoors, the facade, it really looks like it did back in the day.”

After meticulous restoration efforts, Casa del Mar reopened in 1999. The following year, it earned a coveted listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Casa del Mar quickly resumed the role it played decades earlier – an upscale retreat overlooking the Pacific.

More than a quarter-century since its grand reopening, Lopez-Quintana said the hotel still goes to great lengths to take care of its history.

“It’s much more difficult from a maintenance standpoint to run a building that’s more than 100 years old, so we all have to be very careful in the way we look after it and protect every asset inside it,” he said. “When you look back at the building’s history, it really warms your heart … The recent history is full of stories that are about luxury service at its best, but in a way that is relaxed, in a way that is not pretentious – that California coastal laid-back luxury approach.”

In 2014, the hotel was refreshed again by renowned interior designer Michael S. Smith, who previously decorated the White House private residence for President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. Lopez-Quintana said Smith’s keen eye for details provided the hotel with that signature, laid-back Californian touch. Look no further than the lobby, where guests lounge in pinstriped cabana-style booths surrounded by vibrant green ferns that mirror the palm trees swaying just outside.

“You notice details like wallpaper on the ceilings – you usually see wallpaper on walls, but Casa is different,” Lopez-Quintana said. “It feels modern while still keeping the warmth and character of its history.”

With the hotel now in its 100th year, Casa del Mar is celebrating a century of history with special programming and dining opportunities. Visitors can explore different chapters of Casa del Mar’s history with a commemorative wall of archival photographs while sipping a Roaring Twenties-themed cocktail. The lobby lounge also offers light bites with live music, while the signature restaurant, Terrazza, provides a taste of Mediterranean flavors using the bounty of California’s coast.

“I could eat there every day. It’s a very Mediterranean-focused menu, but with everything that a California farm can give us, and we are extremely lucky,” Lopez-Quintana said. “The good Spaniard that I am, I obviously like the jamón that we have on the menu.”

As Route 66 – which ends at the nearby Santa Monica Pier – also celebrates its centennial year, Lopez-Quintana said the hotel has welcomed travelers making the pilgrimage from Chicago, particularly those interested in history.

“The end of Route 66 is only four-tenths of a mile from Hotel Casa del Mar,” Lopez-Quintana said. “When you look into the lovers of Route 66, it’s a love for the road itself, whether it’s in a car or a motorcycle, but it’s also the love for history … Both are part of the history of this country, the history of Santa Monica, and both were born in 1926.”

Like the mighty Pacific it overlooks, Casa del Mar has persisted on L.A.’s western frontier, riding both waves of prosperity and enduring stormy tides. Now, Lopez-Quintana said, the hotel offers its guests a chance to add their own stories to its history.

“Today the building is living a story of service – taking care of people, touching people’s hearts, making someone’s day and creating stories for families that have been coming here for generations.”

Hotel Casa del Mar is located at 1910 Ocean Way.

For information, visit hotelcasadelmar.com.

The hotel opened as a private beach club in the 1920s. (photo courtesy of Hotel Casa del Mar)