It was 100 years ago this year that Coronado’s city father John D. Spreckels moved into his new Coronado mansion home. And a century later, we can’t help but think Mr. Spreckels would be proud as a peacock at how revered his home has become over these many years.

His original home is resplendent in its original grandeur – indeed, a player baby grand piano continues to provide music in his much beloved Music Room with its ornate molding (including the faces of his grandchildren smiling down), the grand marble staircase with leather-padded handrails leads guests to the newly refurbished Mansion’s rooms. While they still retain their individuality, all rooms also feature state-of-the-art LCD flat-screen TVs, free high-speed internet, safes and CDs. Even Spreckels’ historic brass-caged elevator continues to whisk visitors up to his former Solarium, now enclosed and resplendent as the 1,000- square-foot Penthouse Suite, featuring some of the most outstanding views of the island and its surroundings from any vantage point.

Spreckels would also be pleased to know that his former home was voted last month by readers of Sign On San Diego (the website of The San Diego Union- Tribune newspaper) as the Number Two Luxury Hotel in all of San Diego County (second only to the hotel that he brought to life just across the street, the Hotel del Coronado). The Spreckels Mansion was two years in the making. Spreckels and his family, including eight children, were living in San Francisco when the 1906 earthquake sent them scurrying south on his yacht. Unnerved by the crumbling walls and subsequent fire of the bay quake, Spreckels contracted a Los Angeles-based architect, Harrison Albright, who was pioneering a new type of construction, steel-reinforced concrete, to design and build his home on the bay (and a twin home, constructed on nearby Ocean Boulevard in which Spreckels never lived, bestowing that home as a wedding present to one of his sons.) In 1917 Spreckels and his partner, brother Adolph, would continue with Albright’s solid construction technique in creating Coronado’s signature three-story stores and apartments that today occupy much of the 1100 and 1200 blocks of Orange Avenue and that today bear the name, “The Spreckels Building.” That complex also houses Lambs’ Players Theatre.

Spreckels resided in the home until his death in 1926. Two years later, the mansion was sold to Ira Copley, publisher of The San Diego Union-Tribune, who renamed the five-acre property “Dias Alegres,” Spanish for “Happy Days.” Copley added some bedrooms and enclosed the third-floor solarium. He resided at the inn until 1949 when it was sold to local Realtor Louis DeRyk Millen, who then began renting out rooms in a bed-and-breakfast style and the mansion became known as “Millen Manor.” The property next was sold to Barney Padway who began adding the buildings that today comprise 89 contemporary guest rooms. In 1975, the current owners, three San Diego business people, acquired the Glorietta Bay Inn and embarked on a major renovation and historic revitalization of the property. The Music Room, which had been used for floor-to-ceiling storage, was restored to its original glory and its eight French doors now lead to a restored breakfast porch. All the Mansion rooms were given complete face-lifts with fixtures and hardware, where possible, repaired or replaced with circa 1920 period pieces.

In 1977, the Glorietta Bay Inn was designated a Coronado Historic Landmark by the Coronado Historical Association, and in 1997, the Inn received the city’s highest honor, a Golden Hibiscus Award, for excellence in historic preservation.

Glorietta Bay Inn Manager Holly Ansley is planing a celebration of the Centennial late this spring but kicked off the Centennial Year by hosting the Coronado Chamber of Commerce’s holiday party.