The Naval Postgraduate School campus originated as the Hotel Del Monte, built in 1880. After the first two Stick-style resort hotels were lost to fires, the third Hotel Del Monte opened in May 1926. Designed by associated architects Lewis P. Hobart and Clarence A. Tantau of San Francisco, the hotel showcased the contemporary Spanish Colonial Revival style. Before the hotel was completed, Hobart and Tantau expanded guest accommodations with six stylistically complementary cottages east of the hotel and three larger cottages southeast of it. The U.S. Navy began its tenure on the Hotel Del Monte property in 1943 and initially used the six cottages as sick bays, naming them Relief, Solace, Comfort, Repose, Mercy, and Henderson after hospital ships. These cottages, along with two other outlying cottages, eventually served as officers' quarters. In 1952, during construction of the Naval Postgraduate School academic buildings, the Navy moved two outlying cottages north of the six. The Hotel Del Monte Historic District is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Along with the Hotel del Monte, the district includes these six cottages, four other buildings, the Roman Plunge, and 40 acres of surrounding landscape. The district is significant as the work of master architects Hobart and Tantau, for its assemblage of Spanish Colonial Revival and Classical Revival architecture, and for its association with Pacific Coast tourism in the industrial age.
