Sovereign Hotel

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.

From the record

“The Sovereign is a large five-story, 86 unit hotel and apartment building in Santa Monica, California, United States. Built in 1928, it was designed by architect Kurt Meyer-Radon and the Anglo American Building Company in the Mission Revival-Spanish Colonial Revival styles.”
Wikipedia article Sovereign Hotel (California), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · listed in 1997 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 205 Washington Ave., Santa Monica, 90403
When was it listed? October 1997
Category. building
Census division. Santa Monica
Architectural style. Spanish Colonial Revival architecture
Architect. Kurt Meyer-Radon
National Register reference number. 97001236 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1903 to 1979

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 76 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Sovereign Hotel, surveyed 1979

Topographic sheet covering Sovereign Hotel, surveyed 1903

Fires near this property

37 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 37 fires within 5 miles of Sovereign Hotel between 2003 and 2020, burning about 258 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	22
Misuse of fire by a minor	4
Smoking	4
Debris and open burning	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Natural	1
Recreation and ceremony	1
Other causes	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
30 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area	CALVARY
18 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
16 September 2019	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Los Angeles County Fire Department	not named
15 September 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7.0 acres	Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area	RUSTIC
11 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
22 August 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area	BRONCO
8 July 2009	Misuse of fire by a minor	80 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
29 July 2010	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area	ENTRADA

Every fire recorded in Los Angeles County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Sovereign Hotel: 7 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay, Gold, Flagstone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Pacific Beach Mining & Dredging Co	Gold	Past Producer
Santa Ynez Canyon Quarry	Flagstone	Past Producer
Acme Brick Co. Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Gladding-Mcbean-Santa Monica Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Santa Monica Brick Co.	Clay	Past Producer
Simons Brick Co.-Santa Monica Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Western Brick Co.	Clay	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Los Angeles County

Storms near this property

3 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Santa Monica, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 1 funnel cloud, 1 flood, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
February 2026	Flood	Santa Monica	-	Heavy rain produced significant flooding on Interstate 10 at the intersection with 4th Street.
February 2026	Flash Flood	Santa Monica	-	Heavy rainfall produced flash flooding from the McClure Tunnel to eastbound Interstate 10. Several vehicles were stuck in the flood waters.
March 1998	Funnel Cloud	Santa Monica	-	A spotter in the Santa Monica area reported two funnel clouds.

Every storm recorded in Los Angeles County

Maps showing this location

13 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1903 USGS Calabasas quadrangle1:62500 - 8 printings
1903 USGS Camulos quadrangle1:125000 - 5 printings
1928 USGS Topanga Canyon quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1944 USGS Calabasas quadrangle1:62500
1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1952 USGS Topanga quadrangle1:24000 - 8 printings
1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1976 USGS Topanga quadrangle1:24000
1979 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:100000
1991 USGS Topanga quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Charmont Apartments	0.2 miles	1996
Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome	0.8 miles	1987
Henry Weaver House	0.8 miles	1989
Isaac Milbank House	0.8 miles	2023
Bradbury House	0.9 miles	2010
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium	1.1 miles	2024

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 97001236 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Los Angeles County	All 616 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.