1880 UNION HOTEL

The 1880 Union Hotel rests in Los Alamos, at the northern edge of the Santa Ynez Valley, where Santa Barbara wine country begins to unfurl into ranchlands and vineyards.

1880 UNION HOTEL

A BRIEF HISTORY

A cowboy sitting on the grass, smoking a cigarette. He is wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a denim shirt, and jeans. There are ropes, boots, and other gear around him, suggesting a rural or ranch setting.

Travelers arriving dusted from the road, whiskey catching the amber light beneath dark timber, conversations stretching late into the saloon. Outside, ranchland ran toward the horizon. In time, vines were planted across the valley, cellars filled, and the landscape surrounding Los Alamos acquired the deep greens, golds, and quiet indulgence of Santa Barbara wine country.

Black and white photo of a cowboy riding a bucking horse, with two other cowboys in the background.

In the 1950s,

Johnny Cash’s

bass-baritone was sounding through the saloon,

the man in black

framed by timber,

whiskey, and the outlaw West. 

The room suited him, and it suited the camera, too. The Union’s staircases, shadowed corridors, weathered façade, and smokey saloon became recurring scenery for film and photography.

A man in a jacket and pants leaning against a large wooden barn wall, with his hands on his hips, casting a long shadow.

in 1983, Michael Jackson

and Paul McCartney

danced through its rooms

in "Say Say Say," 

And millions got a glimpse inside.

White socks flashed against old floorboards; McCartney moved through the saloon; the Union’s nineteenth-century façade became the backdrop to one of modern music’s most recognizable pairings. Beyond town, the same landscape continued: vineyards ascending the hills, ranch roads slipping behind gates, and estates disappearing from view

Two women on a stage with a wooden backdrop. One woman is holding a guitar case, and the other is holding a suitcase. The stage has a sign above with letters that spell 'HOTEL'.

Michael Jackson would later make his home

only miles away at Neverland,

deep in the Santa Ynez Valley, a place of its own trilogies amid

a countryside already accustomed to privacy, horses, and spectacle.

Black and white photo of desert landscape with mountains in the background, tall sparse trees, and some desert plants in the foreground.

Meanwhile, the Union

grew more elaborate.

Under Richard Langdon, hidden doors and secret passageways appeared beside antique-filled parlors and jukeboxes, and red-felt billiards occupied rooms dense with rumors and stories.

A roulette wheel in a casino, with a ball on the number 13.
Person lighting candles on a table with glasses and bottles, illuminated by candlelight.

And as the vineyards surrounding

Los Alamos matured,

wine entered the story

as naturally as

whiskey had a century before.

Kurt Russell poured his own GoGi wines behind the Union bar, bottles from the Santa Ynez Valley opened beneath the same beams that had watched generations before him. Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Matt Bellamy, Jon Bon Jovi, filmmakers, musicians, winemakers, and other familiar faces crossed the same worn floors and swung through the same wooden doors.

The image shows several dusty and dusty bottles arranged horizontally with corks facing outwards, some of which appear to have cork crumbs inside.
Vineyard with rows of grapevines on a hillside and two people walking on a dirt path in the foreground.

Stagecoaches became

motorcars.

Whiskey shared the bar with

Santa Barbara Pinot.

Black and white photo of a man driving a convertible car on a winding dirt road lined with tall cypress trees, with a hilly landscape and trees in the background.

Johnny Cash gave way to

movie cameras,

movie cameras to

Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney,

and the ranches beyond town became

vineyards and

private estates.

ITS FIRST EVENINGS BELONGED

TO OLD CALIFORNIA.

A film crew shooting a scene in a dimly lit room with a spotlight. There are four men, one sitting and three standing, with one operating a vintage film camera. A poster on the wall mentions a reward for a criminal named Frank McMillan.

Nearly 150 years after the first guests arrived,

the Union still presides over Bell Street

beneath the cottonwoods of Los Alamos,

its doors opening onto one of

California’s most storied little rooms.

Front of a rustic wooden building with a sign that reads 'Union Hotel' above large windows with lace curtains.
A couple dancing and kissing under an arch in a courtyard with tiled floor and clouds in the sky.

On May 1, 2027, they open for us.

1880

UNION HOTEL

362 BELL ST, LOS ALAMOS, CA 93440

1880 Union Hotel