Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures
> LEBEC
Hotel Lebec
Lebec, California

Click image to enlarge


Detail. Click to enlarge.

Hotel Lebec. Unused real photo postcard by Dorman Bros. of Bakersfield, 1921-1923. Back is undivided and otherwise blank. Card reads:

HOTEL LEBEC — Altitude 3600 feet. Where you leave the world behind and enjoy all the comforts of the most modern hotel. Near beautiful Lake Castac, 3 hours from Los Angeles and 42 miles south of Bakersfield.

(Lake Castac, aka Lake Castaic, is a natural water body in Lebec and should not be confused with the California Department of Water Resources' Castaic Lake Reservoir of the 1970s.)

We know the approximate date of the photograph because it's from the same issuance as this view, which is no earlier than 1921 and no later than 1923.

About Dorman Bros.

According to Henley's Photo of Bakersfield (accessed 2018), Charles F. Dorman, a photographer from The Denver Post, and his younger brother, Claude, began working at a haberdashery in Bakersfield in 1904. In 1907 they went into business with John B. James and formed James & Dorman, a portrait studio at 1677 Chester Avenue. The partnership dissolved in 1911. The name changed to Dorman Bros., same address, while James opened a studio elsewhere in Bakersfield.

The brothers split up in 1928. Claude, the younger brother, stayed at 1677 Chester Avenue but changed the business name to Dorman's Photo Shop. Charles opened his own studio at 1724 Truxton Avenue. Charles died in 1935. Claude sold Dorman's in 1945. It changed hands again in 1946, 1947 and finally in 1948 when it was purchased by Joe and Ann Henley. Claude Dorman died in 1950. In 1954, Joe Henley formally changed the name from Dorman's Photo Shop to Henley's Photo Shop. Henley's opened a second shop in 1962 and moved in 1977 from its original location on Chester Avenue, where the Dorman brothers started out, to the company's present (2018) location at 2000 H Street in Bakersfield where it is owned and operated by the former Henley's sales manager, Jimmy Bunting and family.

About Hotel Lebec.

About the Lebec Hotel.

Harrison Scott in Californian Historian (Vol. 43 No. 4, Summer 1997) writes:

The last major structure in place during the highway's glory was the Lebec Hotel. Construction began Jan. 15, 1921, and it opened for business four months later, on May 21. The hotel was the brainchild of entrepreneur Thomas O'Brien, a saloon-keeper from Bakersfield. Financing for the opulent hotel was provided by Cliff Durant, an automobile manufacturer.

The Lebec hotel was a "complete gambling joint with a ball-room, rooms and apartments" during its heydays from 1925 to 1934. Clark Gable and his actress wife, Carole Lombard, as well as gangster Benny "Bugsy" Siegal, frequented the Lebec Hote1. A 1926 touring guide describes it: "Hotel Lebec is new and high class, 80 rooms, thoroughly modern single $2-$3, with bath $4, coffee shop open 24 hours."The Lebec Garage nearby was the largest and best equipped on the ridge. Labor was $1.75 an hour, increasing to $2.40 after 6 p.m.

Shortly after the hotel opened, Durant sold his interest to Foster Curry (son of the concessionaire at Yosemite) of San Francisco. Early postcards from this period show the hotel under its brief stint as "Curry's Lebec Lodge," once located along the west side of Lebec Road just north of the Lebec off-ramp.

The hotel fell into disrepair and was officially closed on November 13, 1968, in response to health department charges concerning its substandard water system and dilapidated condition. The hotel went into receivership and was purchased by the Tejon Ranch Company. They torched the hotel and demolished the remains on April 27, 1971, only two weeks after acquiring the property. Two tall Italian Cypress trees mark the former location.

Read more here.


LW3226: 9600 dpi jpeg from original RPPC purchased 2018 by Leon Worden.
HOTEL LEBEC

thumbnail

Pollack Story

thumbnail

First Lebec Hotel 1910s

thumbnail

Hotel Durant 1921

thumbnail

Durant's Dining Room 1922

thumbnail

Curry's Room Key & Fob, 1922/25

thumbnail

Curry's Lebec Lodge, Early 1920s x4

thumbnail

Postcard 1920s

thumbnail

Postcard 1921-1923

thumbnail

Postcard 1921-1923

thumbnail

1920s

thumbnail

Curry's March 1924

thumbnail

At Sunset ~1920s

thumbnail

3 Views ca. 1926

thumbnail

1-18-1927

thumbnail

1927

thumbnail

Coffee Shop, Late 1920s

thumbnail

Tourist 7/30/1929

thumbnail

Postcard 1920s/30s

thumbnail

Postcard 1920s/30s

thumbnail

Postcard 1920s-30s

thumbnail

Lindbergh 1930

thumbnail

Late 1930s

thumbnail

Postcard 1940s

thumbnail

Matchbook 1940s

thumbnail

Coffee Shop, Santa Fe Buses 1940s

thumbnail

Coffee Shop 1940s

thumbnail

Napkin 1940s

thumbnail

Coffee Shop Menu 1949

thumbnail

Postcard September 1952

thumbnail

Snow Day 1/6/1955

thumbnail

July 1957

thumbnail

Menu ~1960s

thumbnail

Hotel Burns 1971

thumbnail

Lamp Posts 2012 x4

thumbnail

Hotel Site 2013

RETURN TO TOP ]   RETURN TO MAIN INDEX ]   PHOTO CREDITS ]   BIBLIOGRAPHY ]   BOOKS FOR SALE ]
SCVHistory.com is another service of SCVTV, a 501c3 Nonprofit • Site contents ©SCVTV
The site owner makes no assertions as to ownership of any original copyrights to digitized images. However, these images are intended for Personal or Research use only. Any other kind of use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication in any medium or format, public exhibition, or use online or in a web site, may be subject to additional restrictions including but not limited to the copyrights held by parties other than the site owner. USERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for determining the existence of such rights and for obtaining any permissions and/or paying associated fees necessary for the proposed use.
comments powered by Disqus