More than 200 local citizens bought shares to build the hotel, which broke ground on February 27, 1931, to designs by architect W. H. Weeks. It was going to be called the San Jose Hotel but was named instead for the explorer Juan Bautista de Anza. Its stepped zigzag parapet shows Mayan touches, and the two-story lobby mixes Art Deco with Spanish Colonial Revival beams, iron balconies and a great hooded fireplace.
By the 1970s the hotel was run down and nearly demolished. The city’s redevelopment agency saved it, and it reopened fully restored in 1990. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. A large mural by Jim Miner, finished in 2016, covers its west wall facing Santa Clara Street.