The modest Santa Fe Hotel, a Modified Renaissance Revival building, was built by Telesfuro Jance and named for the Santa Fe Depot across the street. The facade of the second storey is intact, but the original glass windows at street level have been filled in and modernized.

The hotel was built to serve the Basque community in California, and like similar hotels in other American cities, the Santa Fe Hotel stands near the passenger train station.

The Santa Fe helped newly arrived bascos find employment. It was a seasonal home to nomadic Basque shepherds and a place for them to receive mail and store belongings when they were on the range. According to tradition, the hotel storeroom has held as many as one hundred bedrolls, some for men who had not been seen for decades.

The Santa Fe served the Basque community as a clinic for the injured or ill, as a place to birth babies and board children during the school year, as a retirement home for elderly bachelor shepherds.

The restaurant, Shepherd's Inn, continues to serve Basque fare.