Alpine Hotel (Gone)
Oakland, CA
Photo courtesy Devil Doll

The old porcelain sign for the Alpine Hotel once hung above Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland. In this photo, it looks as though a little cleaning and some electrical work might have brought it back to life. Even unlit, the sign gave the building a name you could spot from down the block.

The Alpine was built in 1925 as a hotel and apartment building. Its rooms came with wall beds that folded away during the day, leaving a little more space to move around. This was an urban hotel right on the commercial street, with shops and neighborhood traffic outside the door.

Over the years, the building shifted from lodging for travelers to apartments for residents. The old hotel name stayed on the facade, a reminder of the building’s first purpose even as people made it their home.

UPDATE: The Alpine remains a residential building, but its porcelain sign disappeared sometime in the mid-2010s. Whether it was saved or scrapped is unknown. 09-26

H-B Hotel
Oakdale, CA
Photo courtesy Dave & Debra van Hulsteyn

The Western-style sign for the H-B Hotel looks right at home in downtown Oakdale. The brick building dates to 1915 and once offered rooms to travelers. Its H-B name arrived in 1952, when Frank Hendrick and David Bacigalupi opened their business here.

The hotel rooms are gone, but the building is still busy. The H-B Saloon carries on beneath the old hotel lettering, just across from the Cowboy Museum.

UPDATE: The H-B building remains in use as a saloon and dining spot, with its Western-style sign still in place. 09-26

Hotel
San Francisco, CA
Photo courtesy Devil Doll

A plain old Hotel sign hangs over a San Francisco street in this photo. No fancy name is needed to get the point across. For someone looking for a room, those five letters said enough.

The hotel’s name and location were not recorded with the photo, so its story remains a mystery. The sign may still be out there above a sidewalk, or it may have disappeared as the building changed hands.

UPDATE: The identity of this hotel and the fate of its marquee remain unknown. 09-26

Ritz Hotel (Demolished)
Emeryville, CA
Photo courtesy Devil Doll

The Ritz Hotel once stood on a narrow wedge of land along San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville. It was a tidy three-story brick place, with rooms upstairs and plenty happening at street level. The hotel opened in 1929 with a grand announcement calling it “Emeryville’s Finest Hostelry.”

The upper floors held rooms for travelers and longer-term residents. Downstairs, the building later became home to the Avalon Club, a card room that operated here for nearly two decades. It gave the old hotel a second identity that people around town remembered.

After fires damaged the building in the mid-1990s, the Ritz was demolished. The site became Avalon Senior Housing in 1999, with its name recalling the club that once occupied the hotel’s ground floor.

UPDATE: The Ritz Hotel and its signs are gone. 09-26

Hotel Terry (Closed)
Stockton, CA
Photo courtesy Dave & Debra van Hulsteyn

Along Main Street in Stockton, the old Hotel Terry building still stands at the corner of American Street. The blue tiles on its facade give the place a little sparkle, even after its years as a hotel have ended. It is the kind of downtown building that might catch your eye twice: once for its size, and again for the details above the storefronts.

Stockton architect Glenn Allen designed the building, which opened in 1912 as the Hotel Rex. It took the Hotel Terry name sometime in the 1920s. Guests stayed upstairs while the ground floor changed with the neighborhood. Over the years, its storefronts held dry goods, groceries, a drugstore, a jeweler, and a shoe shop.

The hotel later served as residential lodging before closing in 2002. Demolition was proposed, but local preservation efforts helped keep the building standing. Its old exterior sign has disappeared, and there does not seem to be a clear record of where it went.

UPDATE: The hotel remains closed, though cleanup and rehabilitation work was documented as recently as 2025. For now, the blue tile and old storefronts still offer a glimpse of the Hotel Terry's long run on Main Street. 09-26