Coronado Beach, San Diego County, California. The Coronado Beach Company Has Been Organized With a Capital of One Million Dollars...

Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1888 Brochure. Very fine. Soft cover. First edition, third and most important issue. Octavo. 8¾x5¾ inches. Pp. 39, [1]. 10 full-page engravings, full-page ground plan, large folding map at rear. Light blue wrappers decorated and lettered in black. Slight crunch to lower corner. A very fine, clean copy, plates and large folding map in superb condition. Very rare promotional for the new Coronado Beach resort area, including the Hotel del Coronado. Construction of the Hotel del Coronado began in March of 1887. Construction was completed and the hotel opened in February of 1888. This third issue of this promotional is the first to have 10 full-page separate engravings, most showing fabulous exterior and interior views of the Hotel. The inner cover of this work provides a full ground plan for the Hotel del Coronado. The final plate shows a bird's-eye-view of San Diego Bay. The engraved plates show various full-page views of the Hotel del Coronado from the northwest, east and the west; various interior shots (the inner Court; Dining Room; Ladies Billiard Parlor; etc.). Also included are a few general views of the beach area. The large folding map (14½x20½ inches) of Coronado Island, produced for the Coronado Beach Company, shows the proposed subdivision and development, the site of the "Hotel del Coronado", with an outline of the finished hotel and its inner courtyard, with an inset of the general area in Southern California around Coronado. The primary director of the Coronado Beach Company was E. S. Babcock, Jr. He and other investors bought the island in 1885 for $110,000, but just as development was underway the land bust occurred and sugar magnate John D. Spreckles had to bail out the company. The famed Hotel del Coronado was the first structure by the famed architecture firm, Reid Brothers. It was also the first hotel to have electric lighting. The hotel provided electricity for the entire Coronado Beach community until the 1920's. Very rare, most especially in this condition and with the large folding map intact. None of the bibliographies, including OCLC mention this issue of the promotional with the ten full-page plates. Earlier and later issues are listed. [Cowan: p.840; Rocq: 7567; this issue not noted by O.C.L.C.]..