THE US GRANT has “presided” over downtown San Diego for nearly a century and rightly so given its impressive ranking on the United States National Register of Historic Sites and the National Trust Historic Hotels of America. More than a dozen U.S. presidents have stayed at San Diego’s “grand dame” of hotels. Following an unprecedented $52 million renovation, the 11-story, 270-room property is more opulent than ever with crystal chandeliers, European and Native American artwork, marble floors and plush carpets not to mention Italian linens, pillow-top beds, flat-screen televisions and Jacuzzi tubs. The hotel also has 33,000 square feet of elegant ballroom and event space plus a roof-top terrace. A member of the Starwood Hotels Luxury Collection, THE US GRANT has interwoven nine decades of history and architecture with 21st technology and design.

The Horton Grand is the restoration of two separate hotels – the elegant, ornate Grand Horton and the cowboy/Victorian-flavored Brooklyn Kahle Saddlery Hotel that was once home to Wyatt Earp. Both date back to San Diego’s “building boom” of the 1880s when 26,000 visitors flocked to the tiny seaside town of 5,000. Scheduled for demolition in the late 1970s, the hotels were instead bought from the city for $1 each, dismantled brick-by-brick, stored and then rebuilt during the initial stages of San Diego’s revitalization of the historic Gaslamp Quarter in 1986. Today, the Horton Grand is a full-service Victorian-era hotel with 132 unique rooms, each furnished with hand-crafted antiques, period décor, gas-fired marble fireplaces and 21st century amenities. The Horton Grand has more than 8,500 square feet of meeting/banquet space, including a New Orleans-style open-air courtyard, the Regal Ballroom, which can accommodate 350-plus people and a 250-seat theater.

In 1890, Frannie Keating hired the Reid brothers, architects of the Hotel Del Coronado, to construct an office building in tribute to her late husband, George J. Keating. It soon became one of downtown San Diego’s most prestigious buildings with tenants ranging from the founder of the American Institute of Architects to the San Diego Public Library to San Diego Trust & Savings Bank to the set of the 1980s TV series “Simon and Simon.” Now, a multi-million dollar renovation by Italian automobile designer Pininfarina has transformed The Keating into a sleek, sophisticated European-style hotel while retaining its historical name and the original 19th century Romanesque-Revival façade. Decorated predominantly in red, The Keating features 35 luxurious stanzas (Italian for guestroom) and suites with high ceilings, exposed brick walls, custom-designed contemporary furnishings and Bang & Olufsen Beo Vision electronics. A subterranean lounge, exclusive to guests, features The Vault, a former bank vault-turned-wine bar.

When the Pickwick Co., a touring car firm that transported tourists between two destinations, opened the Pickwick Hotel in 1926, it was widely recognized for offering the most modern accommodations in San Diego. Eight decades later, the Pickwick Partners spent $16.5 million renovating and re-inventing the hotel as The Sofia, a chic, boutique-style hotel with 212 modernized guest rooms, a yoga and fitness center and a business center. While the building’s gothic exterior architecture and basic structure has been retained, the tranquil interior features an organic theme with mahogany furniture, earth-tone fabrics, leaf-patterned carpet, diffused lighting, fossil sculptures and a fireplace in the lobby. Guest rooms are equipped with flat-screen televisions and down comforters, but The Sofia’s 21st century bathrooms still hint of the past with their vintage faucets and porcelain bowl sinks. And the Sofia’s recent inclusion in the National Trust Historic Hotels of America reconfirms how deep its historical roots go in San Diego.