The celebration of the first centenary of the Independence of Peru from the Spanish crown, brought the construction of a series of monuments.

In 1921 the Plaza San Martín was inaugurated, designed by Manuel Piqueras Cotolí. In front of this the Pathé Tent, the Cardboard Palace and the World Theater Cinema were installed.

And it was not until 1924 that the Gran Hotel Bolívar was inaugurated, the work of Rafael Marquina.

In order to get the building to be finished according to the scheduled time, more than 600 men were hired to work 24 hours a day, and finally the work was completed within a very short period of six months.

El Bolívar was part of a series of works that tried to modernize the city, and was one of the first to be built around the Plaza San Martín, creating the environment and inspiration to the construction of the other buildings.

The initial building comprised two hundred rooms and the main dining room could serve five hundred people comfortably installed. All the rooms were decorated with very luxurious furniture, crystal chandeliers, Belgian carpets and alabaster lamps.

The architect Marquina arranged all the original furniture of the hotel, which was ordered to be made  in the Waring & Gillow house in London,  and which has been preserved till now.