Southern Hotel - Perris, California - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

Bernardo Bernasconi, Swiss immigrant and local cattle and sheep rancher, travelled to San Francisco in 1883 where he met a fellow Swiss immigrant and his wife-to-be, Marcellina. After a whirlwind courtship, they were married on September 1, 1883.

Bernardo returned to his ranch near Perris and Marcellina followed three weeks later.

Marcellina persuaded Bernardo to purchase a plot in town and build the Southern Hotel, which was completed in 1886.

After giving birth to seven children, Marcellina moved herself and the children into the hotel, removing the sign and turning it into a private residence. Some say she had grown tired of life on the ranch; others say it was so that the children would be closer to school. Marcellina occupied the hotel until she died at the age of 100. Her daughter then occupied the former hotel until she died in 1982 at the age of 97.

For four years the hotel sat abandoned and neglected, deteriorating until there was almost nothing to salvage before being acquired by the Perris Redevelopment Agency in 1986. A fire supposedly caused by transients damaged the rear of the hotel and then almost immediately another fire of suspicious origin damaged the front portion.

In 1990, Leon and John Motte purchased property and restored the hotel to its former glory.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/23/2011 brwhiz visited it