Inside the newest hotel in Ojai, which is also the oldest

Hotel El Roblar occupies two acres on Ojai Avenue and originally opened in 1919 in a blend of Spanish Revival and California Mission Revival styles. The property includes 39 guest rooms, 11 bungalows, a pool, event space, a dinner restaurant (the Condor Bar) and a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant (La Cocina). New owners restored the hotel to evoke Old California and highlight Ojai Valley flora, fauna and rustic, horsey character, even adding a hitching post and welcoming horseback visits. Design elements include kiva-style fireplaces, a stacked-stone lobby hearth, a wrap-around mural and a bottle-wall bar feature. The hotel reopened this summer with nightly rates starting at $455.

Downtown Ojai's newest hotel, which is also its oldest, stands along Ojai Avenue like a rancher in his best string tie and leather vest. This property, now known as Hotel El Roblar, has been a fixture on Ojai's main street for more than a century - party to multiple civic dramas, one fraud conviction, repeated closures and four decades of fitness retreats.

In a town that's short on lodging supply, the Roblar stands out for its size, its place in local history and the way it wears that history on its walls. Oh, and the two giant tortoises out back. It went up in 1919, a blend of Spanish Revival and California Mission Revival styles. Its 2 acres include 39 guest rooms, 11 bungalows, a pool, an event space, a dinner restaurant (the Condor Bar) and a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant (La Cocina).

"There are so many trendy design hotels out there, and we certainly didn't want to do that," said Eric Goode, the partner with the most longstanding ties to the area. "Ojai is rustic and horsey. It's not Montecito." The hotel entrance is framed by an arch that echoes those in Ojai's downtown arcade building. Most of the bungalows have kiva-style fireplaces. In the Cocina breakfast-and-lunch room, the bar wall is a stack of colored bottles mortared together with concrete like a ghost town bottle-house. The centerpiece of the lobby is a stacked-stone fireplace.

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