It begins with a road.
In the early 1920s, California was threading a new highway north through the towering redwood forests of Humboldt County, a route that would eventually carry motorists all the way from the Bay Area toward the Oregon border. The Benbow family had already been building something out in their 1,290-acre valley, and when the Redwood Highway was laid practically at their doorstep, a modest ranching ambition quietly became something else entirely.
Arthur Benbow had nine children, and by most accounts the family had very little growing up. Despite this, these nine siblings pooled their skills as engineers, artists, and inventors, convinced a group of investors to believe in their vision, and built one of the most beloved historic inns in California. They broke ground in 1924. By July of 1926, the doors were open.
The Architect Who Built for Jack London
To understand the Benbow Inn, you have to start with the man who drew it.
Albert Farr was a San Francisco-based architect with a fascinating résumé. His most famous commission had been the Wolf House, a 15,000-square-foot home designed for novelist Jack London in Glen Ellen. That house burned before London could ever live in it, long thought to be arson before a later analysis of the ruins pointed to spontaneous combustion. It was a tragic commission, but it didn’t define Farr’s career. His influences ranged widely, from Arts and Crafts and Tudor Revival to Spanish Colonial and American Colonial, and he was considered one of the most prominent architects of his era.
For the Benbow family, he settled on Tudor Revival. A century later, that choice still stops people in their tracks. The inn, clad in Douglas fir, rises from the banks of the Eel River looking like something that got lost on its way from the English countryside and decided to stay. Guests pulling off Highway 101 have been doing double-takes ever since.
The Benbows had big plans. This was meant to be the cornerstone of an entire resort community, not just a hotel but a golf course, riding stables, a dam, and a power company. The hotel itself was supposed to be built in three stages. The Great Depression had other ideas, and the third wing was never finished.
The Guestbook That Reads Like a History Book
By the late 1920s, word had spread down the Redwood Highway and into the living rooms of Los Angeles. The Hotel Benbow had become a destination for people who could afford to go anywhere, and kept choosing here.
The names in the guestbook read like a Golden Age Hollywood call sheet: Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Basil Rathbone, Alan Ladd, Charles Laughton. Joan Fontaine honeymooned at the inn twice, with two different husbands. There is something both romantic and quietly amusing about that detail. Whatever else changed in her life, the Eel River and the Tudor gables apparently stayed constant.
The political ledger is equally striking. Herbert Hoover made the trip north. So did Eleanor Roosevelt. So did Lord Halifax, who it is worth remembering was among the most consequential figures in British foreign policy during the lead-up to World War II. That he passed evenings in these redwood-paneled rooms is the kind of detail that tends to stop you mid-bite at dinner.
What drew them all here? Fine dining, horseback riding, golf, hiking, swimming, boating, and fishing in the Eel River all played their part. But seclusion was the real amenity. The inn sat far enough from the cities to feel like escape and close enough to the highway to be reachable. For the Hollywood crowd, privacy in a beautiful place was worth the drive.
Surviving the Century
The Great Depression hit hard in those early years. To their credit, the Benbow family kept the hotel open and its reputation for quality intact through both the Depression and World War II before finally selling the property in 1962.
The years that followed were uneven. Ownership changed hands multiple times, and the hotel that had once drawn presidents began to show its age.
Things turned around in 1978 when Chuck and Patsy Watts purchased the inn and got to work. Their restoration was serious and sustained. Through their efforts, the Benbow Historic Inn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and became the only full-service four-diamond property in Northern California at the time.
John and Teresa Porter, along with the late Jack Macdonald, took ownership in 1994 and became genuinely dedicated stewards of the place. Teresa spent over two decades researching the Benbow family history, reading hundreds of letters and cataloging historic artifacts, many of which are now displayed throughout the inn. She is reportedly finishing a book timed to the centenary, due later in 2026.
In 2024, Macdonald’s three daughters, Jill, Polly, and Sally, acquired the inn. Sixth-generation Humboldt County residents who grew up in the lodging industry, they seem like exactly the right people for the job.
The Benbow Inn Today
The rooms are named after the Benbow children now. Family artifacts line the corridors. The wine list has earned the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. Afternoon tea and scones are served daily in a lobby where a president once sat.
Some hotels survive because they are renovated into something new. The Benbow Inn has survived by remaining, insistently, itself. It has added elevators and ADA-compliant rooms without surrendering the Douglas fir ceilings or the Tudor arches that Farr drew nearly a century ago. That is harder to pull off than it sounds.
One hundred years in the redwoods. The Eel River still runs below. The highway still brings travelers north. Joan Fontaine’s room is still there, probably, waiting for someone who does not yet know this place will change how they travel.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sources
- Benbow Inn Official History Page
- Historic Hotels of America, Benbow Inn history
- Wikipedia, Benbow Inn and Albert L. Farr
- Hotel Essence Photography, Benbow Historic Inn Profile
- California’s North Coast, “Benbow Historic Inn Shines Again”
- The Press Democrat, “Wolf House Architect Also Designed Petaluma Mansion”
- Bay Area Architects: Albert L. Farr