No woman has made more of a mark on Palm Springs than Pearl McCallum McManus, the last surviving child of John G. McCallum—who eventually developed much of her father’s land in the desert.
While Nellie Coffman of the Desert Inn was enjoying widespread fame as the “founding matriarch” of modern Palm Springs, Pearl was in the process of resurrecting the neglected family estate. She would eventually become known for establishing the Oasis Hotel, and later the still-famous Tennis Club.
Pearl was born in 1879, the second daughter of John and Emily McCallum. At age 5, she and her older sister, May, and three brothers, Johnny, Wallace and Harry, came to settle Palm Valley (what her father called the area that would become Palm Springs) with their parents.
She then spent much of her youth living in the family’s Los Angeles house on West Adams Boulevard. There, she attended Marlborough Finishing School for young ladies. She remained in Los Angeles to help her ailing mother and became a teacher.
Starting over in Palm Springs
By 1909, her father—the first permanent non-Native American resident of Palm Springs—had been dead for 12 years; the long drought in the area was over; and Pearl and her now-invalid mother had returned to Palm Springs.
Thanks to the lack of water and indifferent hired help, much of their ranch had reverted to the desert it had originally been. Only a few grape vines and apricot trees, with a half-acre of orange trees, were left. The income from that meager yield at first sustained Pearl and her mother, but there were times when Pearl and her mother were so broke that Nellie Coffman sent them food.
Over the next few years, Pearl found herself in the middle of water disputes between the Palm Springs settlers, water agencies, local tribes and what many, including Pearl, referred to as meddlesome government agents.
Having already lost her brothers, Pearl lost her sister, May Forline, who had been weakened by a typhoid attack when she was a girl. When May realized she was dying, she asked Pearl to take care of her daughter, Marjorie Forline. “Auntie Pearl” and Marjorie became inseparable for the next 30-plus years.
In 1914, her mother, Emily, died, and Pearl assumed control of all the McCallum holdings—primarily the land, between 5,000 and 6,000 acres, that her father had bought from the railroad for $2.50 an acre. One of her first transactions was to sell a parcel of land, part of her father’s original 80 acres, for $500. Remembering her father’s admonitions to hang on to the land, she only reluctantly sold small amounts of land after that.
Pearl had little else but that land in 1914, when she met and married Austin G. McManus, a former owner of a men’s clothing store who was working in real estate in South Pasadena. It took a while for the well-groomed Irish city boy from New Jersey to adapt to the desert, but he and Pearl set up a real estate business, Pioneer Properties, in Palm Springs. Pearl became president, and Austin was the secretary. They lived in the old McCallum adobe and spent their summers at the McManus home in Pasadena. Pearl spent much of her life re-acquiring Palm Springs land formerly owned by her father and at one time was the town’s largest individual property owner.
The Oasis Hotel
In 1924, Pearl and Austin began construction of the village’s newest hotel, on McCallum property across the road from the Desert Inn. They hired Lloyd Wright, the then-estranged son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, to design the Oasis Hotel, which opened in 1925.
It was a Modern/Art Deco building made of solid concrete using an innovative slipform technique. Its most distinctive feature was a 40-foot tower which provided access to upper floors and a rooftop terrace. Years later, actress Loretta Young had the uppermost room named after her, as she claimed it was her favorite place in Palm Springs due to the view.
The Oasis Hotel featured a 90-foot dining room and guest rooms surrounding a fountain. It was still standing until the major downtown renovations of the last decade. Today, a corner of the longest-standing hotel in Palm Springs can be seen in a small courtyard behind 121 S. Palm Canyon Drive; a plaque on the sidewalk commemorates the hotel.
Of all her projects, the one that made her proudest was the Tennis Club. It started with tennis courts for some of her English visitors. When completed, they were considered to be among the finest courts in the world. The club’s famous oval swimming pool, under two graceful palms which formed a “v,” became a much-photographed model for resorts for decades.
Pearl traveled widely and brought back ideas from Europe for her designs. She recalled a monastery on the Amalfi cliffs in Italy for the terrace and clubhouse of the Tennis Club, and hired well-known designer/architect Paul Williams of Los Angeles, the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects, to make her ideas become reality. The dining room featured one wall of rugged stone replete with a waterfall.
Today, the Tennis Club and Spencer’s, the accompanying restaurant, is owned by Harold Matzner. There are currently 11 tennis courts, five spas and three swimming pools, with one- and two-bedroom units in the resort destination.
Pearl was a sophisticate and a socialite, and she loved entertaining guests and celebrities from around the world. She was active in much of the social activities of the desert, and she made the Tennis Club facilities available for free for charitable events. She was a charter member of both the Desert Riders and the Palm Springs Polo Club. To some, if “Auntie Pearl” wasn’t involved, it wasn’t a significant event.
Austin McManus and the first City Council
Austin McManus served on the first City Council when Palm Springs was incorporated on April 20, 1938. He died in 1955 and was buried in the Welwood Murray Cemetery in Palm Springs.
A few years later, in 1959, chartered buses brought people in from Los Angeles to the Desert Inn to help celebrate Pearl’s 80th birthday party.
While she could be frugal for herself, Pearl became a tireless benefactor, giving back much to the city she helped found. She donated to all sorts of charities, schools and the arts. She also established scholarships that put a recipient all the way through college. She gave so much to the Palm Springs Woman’s Club, including land, that the first meeting in November each year is now known as Pearl McManus Day. She also donated land to the Boy Scouts and the Chamber of Commerce.
Pearl McCallum McManus died on July 24, 1966, and was buried beside her husband in the Welwood Murray Cemetery.
After her death, the McCallum Foundation was responsible for millions of dollars of civic improvements and educational projects. The beautiful airport fountain built with her financial assistance was named in her honor. The name McCallum is so prevalent in the Coachella Valley due to her work more than her father’s efforts. It is on buildings, parks and schools and the large performing arts theater in Palm Desert—because “Auntie Pearl’ picked up the pieces, eventually thrived, and gave back to the village she loved.
Sources for this article include The McCallum Saga: The Story of the Founding of Palm Springs by Katherine Ainsworth (Palm Springs Desert Museum, 1973); and Palm Springs, The First 100 Years by Mayor Frank M. Bogert (Palm Springs Heritage Association, 1983).
