Western Hotel

Myrtie Sullivan came to Lancaster widowed in 1908 and took work in this hotel. She married its English owner, George Webber, in 1910, and ran the place for thirty-seven more years after he died in 1934. She and her staff fed as many as 250 aqueduct men in a single day, with tents pitched west of the building when the rooms filled. In 1918 she turned it into an influenza hospital and nursed in it herself. She left in 1971 and died at 110. The plaque does not name her.

What the plaque says

This building, erected by the Gilroy family in 1874, was purchased in 1902 by George T. Webber, who operated it as the Western Hotel. The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce was organized in its dining room. Between 1905-1913, construction crews of the Los Angeles-Owens River Aqueduct were housed here, and it became a center of commercial and social activity in the early life of the community. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 658 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the History and Landmarks Association of the Antelope Valley and San Fernando Parlors, Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West; the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce; and Joshua Tree Parlor No. 288, Native Daughters of the Golden West, November 28, 1958.

Where it stands

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