Short answers, pulled from the story.
William Butler Thornburgh built the large wooden home called a castle around 1870. This early settler from Jefferson County, West Virginia, established the property before his death in 1878.
The hotel opened its doors in 1915 to welcome travelers heading to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Erik Lindblom invested substantial funds to finish the project after work resumed briefly in 1910 following delays caused by the 1906 earthquake.
The central tower reaches an elevation of 160 feet or 49 meters. The building is constructed entirely of wood and stands as one of the world's tallest wooden structures with this height record distinguishing it among similar buildings globally.
A state law enacted in 1873 prohibited alcohol sales within one mile of the University of California perimeter. The law changed in 1937 to measure distance following street routes rather than straight lines which allowed the hotel to serve liquor legally after decades of restriction.
Key System tracks were removed in 1958 along with the rest of the transit network. Passengers could previously walk from the lobby steps onto trains traveling over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge before the tracks terminated between tennis courts now part of the Berkeley Tennis Club.
Ohana Real Estate Investors acquired the hotel again in May 2023 for $163 million according to SF Gate reporting. On the 3rd of March 2025, the hotel left the Fairmont group entirely and was rebranded as the Claremont Resort & Club after departing from the management company.