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Padre Hotel

hotel in Bakersfield, California

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ7123937 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Padre Hotel is a historical landmark hotel located on the corner of 18th and H streets in Bakersfield, California. Originally constructed in 1928 as a luxury hotel and restaurant, the eight-story building went through an extensive renovation and reopened in 2010.

History

Originally built in 1928, the eight-story Spanish Colonial Revival hotel had an auspicious and flamboyant beginning in the Central Valley's early and notorious oil rush days, but none quite so colorful as that of Milton “Spartacus” Miller, who purchased The Padre in 1954. For the next 45 years, he did spirited battle with Bakersfield's city fathers over a myriad of issues, even mounting a fake missile on the roof, defiantly directed at City Hall with no small disdain. Miller died in 1999.

A fire on the seventh floor in the 1950s resulted in many deaths, including children. There have also been many suicides from the roof of the Padre Hotel.

The Padre Hotel fell into disrepair and was a derelict hotel from the 1960s until its most recent renovation in 2010. Prior to that renovation, the upper floors were condemned but often had squatters occupying the rooms. The bar downstairs stayed open.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Padre Hotel” is hotel in Bakersfield, California. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Padre, Hotel and hotel, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1928, 2010, 1954, 1999—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1928-01-01. For this dossier, Padre, Hotel and hotel is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “hotel in Bakersfield, California” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7123937. Authority coordinates are 35.375, -119.022. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1928, 2010, 1954 and 1999.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Padre Hotel”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Padre Hotel primary sources, Padre Hotel archive and Padre research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Padre Hotel”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Padre Hotel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.