Built in 1930, the Hoover Hotel was financed by Aubrey Wardman, a local businessman and influential member of the Whittier community. Wardman moved to Whittier from Cleveland in 1902. He began working for the Whittier Home Telephone Company in 1904 and later became the president. He was a great benefactor of Whittier College and a financier of many Whittier-based enterprises. In 1925, he and his wife built a Spanish-style residence on Summit Drive which is now used as the home of the president of Whittier College.
Wardman personally financed the construction of the Hoover Hotel, although it is arguable whether a large hotel was necessary for Whittier at the time. The Hoover, as with the Wardman Theater across the street, was built to create local jobs and put money into the fragile economy of the community. The initial drawings for the Hoover Hotel illustrated a four-story reinforced concrete structure with sixty rooms and ground floor retail. The scale of the project was increased to six stories, and one-hundred rooms prior to its completion in March of 1930. As with the Wardman Theater, the contract for the Hoover Hotel required that local workmen be used wherever feasible. David S. Bushnell, a local structural engineer was hired to design the building. Bushnell was responsible for the design of other prominent landmarks in Whittier such as the Whittier Theater (1929, demolished), the Wardman Theater (1932), and the Goodyear Building (1928).
Prior to completion, the hotel was leased to Consolidated Hotels of Los Angeles. A quality restaurant was planned for the ground floor, but no tenant could be located. A coffee shop restaurant was therefore developed and run by the Wardman family until it was leased. Charles Cooper, in his biography of Wardman, states that the combined development efforts of the Wardman Theater and the Hoover Hotel put approximately $365,000 back into Whittier's economy, a large sum for the Depression years. The building was named for Lou Henry (Mrs Herbert) Hoover, the First Lady of the United States from 1929-1933. Mrs Hoover resided in Whittier as a young girl, and eventually became a member of the Whittier College Board of Trustees. Mrs Hoover visited Whittier in 1933 and was entertained by Wardman, and Walter F Dexter, president of Whittier College. The event was held on the first floor of the Hoover Hotel. In 1936, Mr Wardman traded the Hoover for a citrus ranch consisting of 120 acres, located near Disneyland. - NRHP, 1 February 2002