Look on the corner where Fifth Avenue meets F Street, and you’ll spot a grand, five-story red brick building with rounded windows, topped by the name “Geo. J. Keating” and the year 1890 carved above.
Now, let me whisk you back to the Gaslamp Quarter of 1890! Imagine the city buzzing with horse-drawn carriages and sharp-dressed businessmen craning their necks at this mighty Romanesque Revival building, the Keating. Back then, this was the height of modern luxury-steam heat and a gleaming wire cage elevator that would rattle and clang as office workers rode up and down. George J. Keating designed it himself, but the poor guy didn’t live to see it finished; it was completed by the famous Reid Brothers.
The corner you’re facing once held the San Diego Savings Bank, serving up a sense of security along with its vault-rumor has it the old bank safe still snoozed in the building as late as 1980! Flash forward: Italian design house Pininfarina pulled off a dramatic redesign, and by 2007 the Keating wasn’t just a building-it was a hip luxury hotel. Then came 2012, when TV’s most famously fiery chef, Gordon Ramsay, swooped in for Hotel Hell, probably making more noise than the old elevator! Take a moment to soak in those brick arches and imagine all the secrets these walls have heard-if only that old safe could talk!
