445 S. D St., Perris, Ca.

Welcome to the Southern Hotel!

History:

The Southern Hotel was built in Perris in 1886 by Swiss immigrant couple Bernardo and Marcellina Bernasconi. It was Marcellina who planned and urged her husband to purchase the hotel site. 

It was one of the first commercial buildings in early Perris. It catered to visitors arriving on the train and to gold miners working in the area.

The twenty-four-room hotel was furnished with marble-top washstands, ironstone pitchers, and towering rosewood or brass beds. 

Over the next one hundred years, the hotel included a restaurant, saloon, ice cream parlor, and a real estate office. It also served as the personal residence of the Bernasconi's.

One of their daughters, Tillie, made it her home until her death in 1982 at the age of ninety-seven. For many years, it was Tillie's routine to stand in front for a while and greet locals and others as they walked past her hotel. 

In 1984, the Southern Hotel was declared an eyesore and public nuisance. In 1987, it was damaged by two back-to-back arson fires. The first blaze broke out on March 29 at 11 a.m., damaging the rear of the hotel, which included the wine cellar and add-on kitchen. The second fire broke out the following day at 8 p.m. and spread quickly to the corners of the balcony.

After years of neglect and two back-to-back fires, the hotel was completely restored in 1990, thanks to the John Motte family, the city of Perris, and the county of Riverside. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. 

Today the Historic Southern Hotel holds the offices of Joshua D. Naggar, Attorney at Law. 

Learn more about the Bernasconi family here.