Hotel Coronado, 1905. An early-morning fire destroyed the massive and popular Hotel Coronado at 667 Coronado Street on December 4, 1905, after a delay in communicating by telephone with the fire department. The blaze spread rapidly, and more than eighty guests had to flee, some in their nightclothes. Sarah and Helen Mathewson were lessees of the hotel, which was owned by M.N. Russ Avery and Superior Judge Walter Bordwell. The tourist hotel was one of the most expensive in the city, "being patronized by wealthy persons to whom the cost was not a consideration."