The La Quinta Resort and Club, the iconic hotel that gave its name to the city of La Quinta, is celebrating its centennial. Throughout 2026, the resort has announced special events, limited-time offers and other centennial experiences.
The La Quinta Resort was founded in 1926 in a remote desert cove by Walter H. Morgan, who persuaded his wealthy San Francisco father, an oyster-company magnate, to fund the project. It began as an upscale desert escape and soon became a secluded hideaway for Hollywood’s elite, with guests including Greta Garbo. Director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin, a frequent collaborator with Capra, would escape to the resort to write.
Well before the resort came to be, indigenous Desert Cahuilla had established encampments, digging few wells in the area. In 1862, the Bradshaw Trail, a wagon road established by William Bradshaw linking San Bernardino with the gold fields of La Paz, Ariz., became a regular route through the La Quinta area. The wagon trail was later replaced by the railroad.
The first known permanent non-indigenous resident of La Quinta was John L. Marshall, a former Los Angeles paint store owner who settled there in the early 1900s. He built an estate called Hacienda del Gato. Around that same time, Happy Lundbeck established a homestead and a store near the rocky promontory that is now called Point Happy, near Highway 111 and Washington Street. In 1922, Chauncey D. Clarke built a ranch where he founded the Point Happy Date Gardens and Arabian Horse Ranch.
There still wasn’t much in the area in 1926 when Morgan built what was originally called the La Quinta Hotel. He hired noted architect Gordon B. Kaufman, who developed the classic Spanish colonial revival resort that highlighted the isolated location. Horseback riding, a nine-hole golf course and desert solitude became early draws.
In the 1930s, business executive E. S. “Harry” Kiener purchased thousands of acres of land adjacent to the La Quinta Resort. He subdivided and built 63 small “casitas” which he began selling. Due to poor health, he sold his interest, and the new owners added a central building called the Desert Club. It opened in 1937—designed in 1930s Art Deco style, unusual for the area. The Desert Club attracted a number of celebrities early on, but began to have financial problems. In the 1960s, a fire caused significant damage. It limped along, for the most part, before closing for good in the 1980s.
A Town Develops
The town that began to evolve in the 1930s was hastened by the construction of State Route 111, which connects most of the Coachella Valley cities. The expansion of Washington Street in the 1950s and 1960s also linked La Quinta with highways 60 and 99 (which became Interstate 10 in the 1970s). In the 1970s, La Quinta grew dramatically, and in 1982, La Quinta was incorporated as a city—taking its name from the resort.
Over the years, La Quinta Resort grew. Today, there are 796 guest rooms, including 620 California hacienda-style casitas and suites, and 98 villas. There are five legendary golf courses, 41 pools, 21 tennis courts and a handful of pickleball courts.
The United States as a whole became acquainted with the secluded old-world style resort when ABC filmed The Bachelorette there in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The next year, Food Network filmed the cannabis/cooking competition series Chopped 420 there.
About a mile away is Old Town La Quinta, a real estate development that offers 30 restaurants/cafes, shops, boutiques, salons and offices. Old Town was developed by homebuilder Wells Marvin, who moved to La Quinta in 1997. He had been inspired by the Spanish colonial revival architecture in Santa Barbara and Carmel-by-the-Sea, as well as the nearby La Quinta Hotel and Resort. It took him seven years to develop the picturesque and welcoming Old Town, with an inviting and popular Main Street.
Today, there are more than a dozen parks in La Quinta, including the beautiful 710-acre Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park. The 135-acre Lake Cahuilla, nestled against the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains, offers fishing, picnicking and camping. Visitors might also see some bighorn sheep that often visit from the rocky hillsides. The park offers 96 individual and group campsites, picnic tables and barbecues, horseback riding and hiking on nearby trails.
Named for the ancient lake that once covered the valley floor, Lake Cahuilla was created by the Coachella Valley County Water District in 1969 as the terminus of the Coachella Canal, which brings water 123 miles from the Colorado River.
Today, about 40,000 people call La Quinta home. The town is popular with visitors thanks to its tranquil parks, the vibrant Old Town, and world-class golfing—but La Quinta Resort and Club remains the city’s biggest attraction, as has been the case for nearly 100 years.
Sources for this article include the La Quinta Historical Society; Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park; “History of La Quinta” by the city of La Quinta, the La Quinta Resort and Club; and Guideposts to History: People and Places of Historical Significance in Early San Bernardino and Riverside Counties( Santa Fe Federal Savings and Loan, 1977).
