John Lyndon’s earlier Los Gatos Hotel had been moved across the street for the railroad and later burned. He replaced it with the Hotel Lyndon, built of Santa Cruz Mountains redwood, with about 60 rooms, garden cottages and two dining rooms; nearly the whole town came to its opening day.
For sixty years it was the place for banquets, weddings and dances. By the 1960s it was run down, a demolition permit was issued on March 30, 1963, and Lyndon Plaza took its place. Two palm trees Lyndon planted by the entrance still stand.