Construction was begun on the Hotel St. Catherine in 1917 to replace Avalon's Metropole, destroyed by a catastrophic fire in 1915. By 1918 it was open for business, but when the island was bought by William Wrigley, Jr., in 1919, a series of upgrades were made to the hotel, ending in the early 1920s. This was the main hotel on Catalina Island until Avalon was rebuilt. According to the back, this postcard was hand-colored.
