In the
French colonial Vietnam days, Saigon's roads were simply named by ordinal numbers. Starting from the
Saigon River bank, Đồng Khởi Street was the Sixth Road and was a busy commercial street. In 1865, the French Commander Admiral De La Grandiere renamed these roads and Sixth Road became Rue Catinat. In 1878, Pierre Cazeau, a home-appliance and construction material manufacturer, started building a hotel with the purpose of providing travelers a French style of luxury accommodation after a long cruise to the new continent. This project took two years, and in 1880 the Hotel Continental was inaugurated. The hotel was refurbished in 1892 by Mr Grosstephan. In 1911, the hotel was sold to Duke Montpensier. In 1930, the hotel had a new owner, Mathieu Franchini, a reputed gangster from Corsica, and later his son Philippe who ran the hotel until the
Communist takeover in April 1975. The Continental had a notable role in the social and political life of Saigon during the French Colonial Era. During the
First Indochina War the Hotel Continental was frequently referred to as
Radio Catinat, since this was the rendezvous point where correspondents, journalists, politicians and businessmen talked about politics, the business news, and current events. Following the partition of Vietnam in 1955,
Rue Catinat was renamed
Tự Do Street, while
Place Garnier was renamed
Lam Sơn Square. During the
Vietnam War era the hotel was renamed the
Continental Palace and became popular with journalists who nicknamed the ground-floor bar the
Continental Shelf.
Newsweek and
Time magazines each had their Saigon bureaux on the second floor of the hotel. Following the
Fall of Saigon in April 1975 ownership of the hotel was taken over by the Ho Chi Minh City Government and
Tự Do Street was renamed
Đồng Khởi Street. The hotel was closed in 1976 and reopened again in 1986. The hotel was completely restored from 1988-9 and reopened in 1989 as the
Hotel Continental. ==Notable guests==