Because the hotel was mainly wood, firemen could only control the possible spread of the blaze.

On December 9 the oldest building in Tijuana burned down, after 117 years of history. The Hotel St. Francis witnessed the transformation of the Tia Juana rancheria into one of the cities in Mexico that in the last century has grown the most.

The hotel was built in 1904 and was first called the Hotel Imperial Beach, where it spent its first years. Hilario Castillo from Tijuana’s Historical Archive explained that Miguel Gonzalez bought the hotel in 1920, one year after the Prohibition Act took effect on June 30, 1919, and moved it to Tijuana.

Miguel Gonzalez bought the hotel in 1920 and moved it to Tijuana.

[Gonzalez had owned a famous curio shop on Revolucion, was owner of the Mexicali beer company, eventually owned the Long Bar on Revolucion, and was the scion of the Ibs Gonzalez family of Mission Hills.]

According to Castillo, Tijuana at the time started to expand due to Americans who crossed the border to drink or gamble. “There was a construction boom, but the St. Francis Hotel was the first two-story hotel; it had a Wild West style."

Last Thursday around dawn the fire department got a report of the fire, but because the hotel was mainly wood, firemen could only control the possible spread of the blaze.

Gonzalez had owned a famous curio shop on Revolucion, was owner of the Mexicali beer company, eventually owned the Long Bar on Revolucion.

Pedro Sanchez, great-great-grandson of Gonzalez in Tijuana, noted that the building's structure was recently reinforced. The family had plans for the hotel to be used as a gourmet seafood restaurant, taking advantage of its historical character and convenient location on Second Street, one block from Revolucion.

“We wanted to restore the building and make it a tourist attraction remembering that historical time of the city. We are five generations of Tijuanenses, so the loss of this building is harsh for us; it has many memories for our family.”

This is not the first time an old building has burned down near Revolucion. In 2018 the Chiki Jai restaurant, which opened its doors in 1947, went up in flames. Now a high-luxury condos project is currently under construction on the site.

“We wanted to restore the building and make it a tourist attraction."

Pedro Sanchez claims they won’t sell the land to any project like that but would maybe rebuild it through a concept that would encompass the history and the downtown's modernization.

Furthermore, he pointed out that he has heard about speculations of what actually caused the fire and if it was arson. Sanchez stated that because of the age and the material of the Hotel no insurance company would cover them.

"The police and the civil protection department think that the fire could have started by homeless who start fires to warm themselves in winter, or even people using fire to consume drugs could have started a fire like this."

Whatever purpose the land where the St. Francis Hotel stood will have, Hilario Castillo believes that the loss of historic buildings like this one could have been avoided if authorities would have considered them as a cultural patrimony of the city.

"I think we should give more importance to the cultural patrimony of the border cities. We can't lose any other historic building, we need to make an effort, we have a perfect example in San Diego that history and modernity are not against each other."

According to Pedro Sanchez, the family will gather soon and decide along with their partners if they will continue the gourmet seafood project