Pierpont Inn

The Pierpont Inn, also known as "The Lovely Lady By The Sea".

In 1908 Josephine Pierpont (the first "Lovely Lady") bought land on a bluff overlooking the ocean in Ventura, California for development as a site for an inn. She felt the inn could serve the increasing number of automobile enthusiast who would travel along the Pacific Coast looking for a place to rest and enjoy a home-cooked meal.

She hired Sumner P. Hunt to build a Craftsman Style Bungalo Inn on the site. It opened in September 1910 originally as "The Wayside Inn", later changed to "The Pierpont Inn" and instantly became a playground for elite society. Tinsel-town notables such as Cecile B. DeMille, Bette Davis, Edgar G. Robinson and Charlie Chaplin all took breaks from filming in Hollywood by escaping to the charming location.

Josephine's son, Austen Pierpont ran the Inn for the first many years, expanding it in 1925 by adding two English Tudor-style cottages surrounded by a lush, garden setting. He also developed the idea of turning the Inn into a country club...the idea never came to fruiton.

The Inn changed hands several times and fell into disrepair until it was rescued by Mrs. Mattie Vickers Gleichmann (the second "Lovely Lady") in 1928. After Mattie's husband, professional Baseball player Gus Gleichmann was forced to leave the sport after being injured, they decided to pursue a career in Hospitality. She borrowed $80,000 from her father Ashley Christian Vickers, a prominent Ventura farmer, to purchase and rennovate the Inn. It reopened in 1929 as a family affair, as her husband, mother, sister, brother-in-law and children all worked on and around the property.

Local attorney, Earle Stanley Gardner, authored his "Perry Mason" series in his law office down the road from the Inn and actually used it as a backdrop for many of his novels, particularly in "The Case of the Velvet Claws."

In 1938 Gus Gleichmann was killed in an automoble accident and Mattie decided to continue operation of the Inn without him to fulfill the dream of being able to provide a future for their children. This dream became a reality when her son Ted returned from World War II and embraced the role of General Manager.

Ted Gleichmann brought modernization to the Inn and added an East Wing with 12 guestrooms including fireplaces in 1954. Later he would add the Bluff House and West Wing to bring the total number of rooms to 72.

In addition to his duties at the Inn, Ted was a championship-winning, amateur PGA golfer. He even won the 1963 Bing Invitational Tournament (now known as the AT&T Pebble Beach Golf Tournament). Through his success in the golf world, he attracted many of his famous social contacts to the Inn.

George H. Walker Bush along with wife Barbara (with their son George W. Bush in tow) spent considerable time at the Inn between 1949-1950 while Bush senior was apprenticing in the oil business. The property later became a hideaway for scandalous lovers like Clark Gable & Carole Lombard and Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall, many who, due to the fact that they were married to others, desired to have their privacy protected. The Inn's remote location provided the perfect venue to escape the limelight.

In 1976, Spencer & Scott Garrett (Mattie's sisters grandchildren) leased the then vacant parcel of land adjacent to the Inn to build one of the nation's first multi-purpose athletic facilities, "The Pierpont Racquet Club". After Mattie's death in 1996 at the age of 100, the Inn was eventually sold to the Garretts (owners of the neighboring Racquet Club). They remain committed to restoring the Inn while maintaining the original spirit of the "Lovely Lady".

In 2002, The Pierpont Inn was officially installed as a Historic Hotel of America as designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.