were a mainstay of the hotel. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt visited Pasadena and the Raymond on his Panama Canal campaign. However, the crowd was not near the size of the one who came to see Charlie Chaplin as he appeared for lunch with opera singer Nellie Melba. Amenities A hotel of this size of course had several amenities and Raymond always set aside profits (or borrowed money) to add something he thought might be important for business. Even though the hotel only opened from December to April (it never opened year round), Raymond kept himself busy over the summer with some sort of improvement. The dining room was the largest room in the house able to seat 400 people. Pasadena City, which boasted of being a “dry” town, had an ordinance disallowing the sales of alcohol — except to the hotel guests. The hotel had a large nursery operation with 500 American Beauty rose plants, of carnations and a reported 3,000 pansies. There was a nine-hole golf course on a lot alongside the hotel, and though it was humble in comparison, it was one of the few good attractions in the area. Much of the landscaping was done by the suggestion of the Mr. Theodore Payne, a famous local horticulturist of the time. The hotel also had card rooms, writing rooms, a reception room, and in the basement was a pool and billiards parlor — with a secret bar. Local competition The Raymond Hotel had its steady guests in spite of the fact that it also had competition from other hotels about Pasadena that were opened year round. Even Raymond's own chief lieutenant opened up his own hotel, the Wentworth, which within ten years had become financially distressed and was assumed by the grand estate of Henry E. Huntington, thus named the Huntington Hotel. There were the Hotel Green, a few blocks north on Raymond Avenue, the Vista Del Arroyo which overlooked the Arroyo Seco, and the Maryland Hotel on Colorado Boulevard. Raymond had reduced the $300,000 mortgage to $75,000, but come the Great Depression (1931) and the large traffic from the east fizzled. The bank which assumed the original loan from Mr. Crane foreclosed on the hotel, and Walter Raymond lost the property. The owner of the Maryland Hotel, Daniel M. Linnard, sought to manage the property for a while, but in 1934, the year of Walter Raymond's