52 Ancestors: Challenging

Another challenging post.  We had this blog prompt earlier this year but I didn't remember what I'd written about.  Not surprisingly, it was the challenge of identifying photos, especially since my great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer, was a photographer.  And being that my memory really sucks these days, I didn't even remember that I'd pulled out some of the photos I was going to post for this blog post.

But the photos of the Hotel Del Monte had me scratching my head again and the photos got even a little more challenging.

First are the beautiful photos that Abe took.

Hotel Del Monte, Monterey, California
Photo by Abraham Gunzendorfer
Date Unknown

I learned that the Hotel Del Monte opened in 1880 and was one of the finest luxury hotels in North America until it ceased operating as a hotel in 1942.  It later became the Naval Postgraduate school of the U.S. Navy and today is known as Hermann Hall and functions as administrative offices and a hotel for the school.

There have been three buildings on the same site.  The first was designed by architect Arthur Brown, Sr. and was destroyed by fire on June 1, 1887.  The hotel was then damaged and two guests were killed during the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.  And then on October 28, 1924 the hotel was again destroyed by fire.

Which leads to the extra challenge when I found these two photos.  I'm not certain these are the hotel but it sure looks like it to me.

What is going on here?  It seems like it could be during the earthquake but the chances of getting such an action shot seems unlikely for 1906.  But could it be?

Here's another photo that leads me to believe this really is the hotel.

Oh geez, now that I compare the two photos I'm not sure they are the same building even though the damage looks the same.

Now my challenge is to find an expert in the history of the Hotel Del Monte.  Time to renew my contact with the Monterey historian I met when I first started this journey.