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purchased Catalina Island from the Bannings the following year, he added on to the Spanish-style hotel, installing a second guest wing and a swimming pool, among other amenities. Catherine opened its doors on June 28th, 1918. Designed by the Milwaukee Building Company, St. After a November 1915 fire destroyed many of the island’s tourist areas and lodgings, the Bannings decided to build an upscale resort on the grounds of their former home (which was also wiped out by the blaze), an idyllic plot of land overlooking Descanso Bay. Catherine as it was also known, which was established in 1918 by the Banning Family, who owned Catalina at the time. Thank you, Nat! (Most of the pictures featured in this post are Nat’s, but a couple are ones that I took during my last trip to the island in 2009.)ĭescanso Beach Club is situated on the former site of the famed Saint Catherine Hotel, or Hotel St. I also expressed that I would love her forever if she headed over there to snap some photos for me, which she happily did. I told her about Descanso Beach Club and what a great lunch spot it is. My good friend Nat, who lives in San Francisco, made an impromptu trip to Catalina while in SoCal and texted me to ask if I had any area recommendations. So I had to hold off on writing about it. I sat down to do a post on Descanso the following morning and was shocked to discover that, despite my many visits there, I hardly had any photos of the place. So I was thrilled when I spotted it while re-watching an early episode of NCIS recently.

I have visited the site more times than I can count over the years, but had no idea it was a filming location. One of our favorite spots to grab lunch or an evening cocktail while there is Descanso Beach Club, a toes-in-the-sand restaurant situated along the shore of Descanso Bay. My family has long had a love affair with Catalina, the idyllic island located about 22 miles southwest of Los Angeles.

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