Albert Clay Bilicke (June 22, 1861 – May 7, 1915) was a millionaire hotelier and builder in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Bilicke and his father ran the Cosmopolitan Hotel in

Tombstone, Arizona Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Prospecting, prospector Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona, Pima County, Arizona Territory. It became one of the last ...

. After it was destroyed by a fire in 1882 he moved to California. In Los Angeles he built the

Hotel Alexandria The Hotel Alexandria is a historic building constructed as a luxury hotel at the beginning of the 20th century in what was then the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its elegant design and the fact that its public rooms sat disused for dec ...

(1906) and was president of the Alexandria Hotel Company. He partnered with Robert Rowan in a building company. He was presumed drowned after being lost at sea while a passenger on the

Cunard The Cunard Line ( ) is a British shipping and an international cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its four ships have been r ...

liner RMS ''Lusitania'' which was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine SM ''U-20'' off the coast of Ireland. His wife Gladys survived. His parents were German immigrants and his father was the proprietor of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in

. Bilicke was born in Coos Bay, Oregon. Bilicke was acquainted with

Wyatt Earp Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American lawman in the American West, including Dodge City, Kansas, Dodge City, Wichita, Kansas, Wichita, and Tombstone, Arizona, Tombstone. Earp was involved in the gunfight ...

and testified at his trial after the

shooting at the O.K. Corral The gunfight at the O.K. Corral pitted law enforcement officer, lawmen against members of a loosely organized group of cattle rustlers and horse thieves called the Cochise County Cowboys, Cowboys on October 26, 1881. While lasting less than ...

. The Cosmopolitan was destroyed by a fire in 1882. A. C. Bilicke planned to rebuild it. Bilicke bought the Hollenbeck Hotel in Los Angeles in 1893. He joined with Robert Rowan to form the Bilicke-Rowan Fireproof Building Company, a construction firm the built the Alexandria Hotel. The Rowan Building in Los Angeles is named for Rowan.

References

1861 births 1915 deaths American billionaires American people of German descent People from Coos Bay, Oregon Businesspeople from Los Angeles People from Tombstone, Arizona 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople American hoteliers Deaths on the RMS Lusitania {{US-business-bio-1860s-stub