Of all the famous former “hot spots” in Palm Springs, the El Mirador Hotel may have been the most renowned. The Hollywood celebrities, political dignitaries and other prominent visitors it attracted helped establish and perpetuate a Palm Springs image of glamour, romance and carefree fun in the sun.
The El Mirador opened with a flourish on Dec. 31, 1927, with a gala opening party costing $15 per head (the equivalent of about $260 today). Celebrities flocked to the new resort, and almost all of the stars of the era spent time there. Guests during the first months included Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish, Kenneth Maynard, Pola Negri, Eddie Cantor and Gloria Swanson.
The El Mirador was the brainchild of Prescott Thresher (P.T.) Stevens, who formed a company with Alvah Hicks and other developers in 1926 to build the sprawling hotel just north of downtown Palm Springs. It featured a 60-foot Renaissance-inspired bell tower which dominated the landscape and offered a view over the entire valley. The hotel was aptly christened El Mirador—Spanish for “the lookout.”
A successful Colorado cattleman, Stevens married a former teacher from the Midwest, Frances Stephens. Because of her respiratory problems, in 1912, the couple divested their Colorado holdings and relocated to California, first settling in Hollywood. They later moved to Palm Springs for the dry, warm therapeutic air.
They stayed at the Desert Inn while building a home in the 900 block of North Palm Canyon Drive. The astute P.T. immediately began buying up land, primarily on the northern end of town; he also invested in Hollywood real estate. By 1920, he had considerable Palm Springs holdings—and the water rights that went along with them. Stevens bought several thousand acres from the Southern Pacific Railroad, to the east and north of the village, embracing much of the alluvial fan from Chino Canyon, adding a great source of mountain water.
In 1927, he formed the Whitewater Mutual Water Company, which piped low-cost water from Whitewater Canyon, around Windy Point, to fill the village’s agricultural needs. Many older neighborhoods in Palm Springs utilized this water source for decades. When I bought my home in 2001, it was still initially served by Whitewater. Stevens also developed and was the principal owner of the Palm Springs Water Company.
He helped fellow pioneer Alvah Hicks subdivide, develop and sell some 20 acres owned by Hicks. Together, Stevens and Hicks sold much of the Old Las Palmas land for residences—and together, they built the El Mirador.
P.T. Stevens also built the desert’s second golf course—and first 18-hole course—at the El Mirador. It opened in 1929 and was open to the public with low greens fees. Stevens enlisted longtime aide Lawrence Crossley to design and build the course. Stevens declared the golf course a nonprofit venture and turned over all net proceeds to a Los Angeles children’s group. The gesture was noble, but the timing was terrible: The Great Depression arrived just months later, and there were not enough golfers to sustain the course, so it closed.
The Depression was tough on Stevens. Construction of the hotel, while projected to cost about $750,000, exceeded $1 million. By 1931, Stevens was forced to sell it to bondholders for $327,000, wiping him out. He died just months later, in 1932.
The bondholders then hired Warren Pinney, a Los Angeles lawyer, to reorganize and protect their interests. Under the 1931 reorganization, San Diego businessman and leading investor Ralph Lacoe assumed majority ownership, and Pinney took over as general manager.
When Pinney was given the opportunity to pull the popular desert resort out of the debilitating Depression ennui, he did so with flair. Due to his guidance, the El Mirador Hotel continued to attract the Hollywood crowd, politicians, business leaders and statesmen. The resort was so sumptuous that the Desert Inn had to elevate its own hospitality and amenities to compete.
Courteous bellboys wore in white shirts, ties and gold-trimmed maroon suits with shiny brass buttons and an “El Mirador” monogram. The hotel’s South Pacific Room offered fine dining on maroon-trimmed dishes complete with the El Mirador tower logo. Island-inspired meals, which ranged from $2 to $3.25, included curried lobster Malayan style, Mandarin duck, beef tomato Cantonese style, and pork with chestnuts and green peas.
The hotel swimming pool, at 75 feet long, was the biggest around, and had a see-through underwater window and both high and low diving boards. Johnny Weissmuller and Esther Williams were among the legions of celebrities to swim at the El Mirador. High-diving exhibitions featuring daredevils diving from 100 feet delighted the guests.
The hotel also offered tennis courts, hiking and riding excursions, bicycles, buckboard rides, archery, golf and even an early sauna that looked like a space capsule and was affectionately nicknamed the “sweat box.”
Pinney hired Tony Burke to handle publicity and promotions. His photos of celebrities strolling across the El Mirador grounds helped further the resort’s reputation. He later included many of those photos in his book, Palm Springs, Why I Love You, and went on to become a prominent local real estate agent.
The end of the carefree days
With the United States’ entry into World War II, the carefree years ended. Gen. George Patton was sent to the Coachella Valley to train troops for the desert war in North Africa. A new airport was built and leased to the Army Air Corps to house the 21st Ferrying Command Group. The government also needed an Army hospital for war casualties—and bought the El Mirador, converting it into the Torney General Hospital, named for Brig. Gen. George H. Torney, the U.S. surgeon general from 1909 to 1913.
Upscale El Mirador guest cottages quickly became hospital wards; the renowned Coral Room was turned into the nurse’s lounge; and the Tennis Court Club was converted into the officers’ club.
After the war years, the El Mirador enjoyed a renaissance. A Midwest group, led by eccentric oil tycoon Ray Ryan, spent more than $2 million to remodel the hotel, reopening it in 1952. The celebrities returned to a larger, more opulent hotel than before, and the stars of the ’50s and ’60s discovered the El Mirador to be as hedonistic as their earlier counterparts.
P.T. Stevens’ wife, Frances, gave much back to Palm Springs, including land and equipment for the Frances Stevens School. Daughter Sallie Stevens Nichols and her husband, Culver Nichols, inherited the water company and developed residential property on the site of the old golf course on the other side of the El Mirador.
After its 21-year second life, the El Mirador closed its doors as a hotel for good in 1973, and again became a hospital. (A smaller hospital actually began on a portion of the hotel grounds in 1948 as the Palm Springs Community Hospital, in one 33-bed building. In 1951. it became the Desert Hospital, owned by the Desert Healthcare District.) The Desert Healthcare District bought the rest of the property and the expanded hospital, which eventually became the Desert Regional Medical Center.
The El Mirador tower remained—until it was destroyed by a fire in 1989. It was then rebuilt using the original plans, reopening in 1991.
Sources for this article include Palm Springs, Why I Love You by Tony Burke (Palmesa, Inc., 1978); and Palm Springs, The First 100 years by Mayor Frank Bogert (Palm Springs Heritage Association, 1983).
