This month we are visiting the Arrowhead Hot Springs Company in San Bernardino, California. The mountain region known for its formations of light quartz was popular with Native Americans long before European settlement. There are multiple native legends for the landmark, one being that a flaming arrow led Native American Indians to the valley; hence, the arrow formation in stone pointing to the hot spring waters underneath.
European settlement of the land began in 1860 by David Noble Smith who started a treatment center for tuberculosis. The hotel was visited frequently and investors wished to expand the space, but Smith argued. Three days after he died in 1885, the original hotel burned down and a new one was constructed and stood until 1895, when it again burned down in a forest fire.
A third hotel was built in 1905 and was eventually bought by the Hollywood Consortium, who began promoting it as a luxury resort for celebrities in Hollywood. Celebrities like the Marx Brothers, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, and Humphrey Bogart used its 29 springs along with its mud rooms, steam caves, and natural hot springs, which reach 196 degrees.
A fire again destroyed the hotel, and a new hotel was built in 1939 by Paul Revere Williams. Dorothy Draper completed the look by styling the inside of the hotel, down to its use of toothpicks and the drapes of all 135 rooms.
The hotel was closed to the public during World War II because it was used as a naval hospital for soldiers. Afterwards, the hotel and resort struggled to bring people indoors. Money was tight for vacationers after the war, and the boom in air travel meant people were traveling to further locations than Los Angeles. In an attempt to revitalize, the Arrowhead booked Elizabeth Taylor there for a week-long honeymoon on the 6th floor druing her first marriage to Conrad Hilton. The hotel officially closed in 1956.
It was later used as the headquarters for the Campus Crusade for Christ and eventually was bought in 2016 by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. The land is not open to the public, but the hotel and springs still exist.
Resources:
Arrowhead Springs. (Medical Trade Ephemera Collection) Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.
“Arrowhead Springs-California’s Gold.” Chapman University, January 8, 1998. Website. 1/23/2018. https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/1998/01/08/arrowhead-californias-gold-911/
“Arrowhead Springs Hotel, Arrowhead Springs, CA.” Paul Revere Williams Project. 2019. Wesbite. 1/23/2018. http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/gallery/1940s-hotels/
Nolan, Ruth. “Arrow Rises Again: San Bernardino’s Famed and Forgotten Architectural Wonder.” KCET. May 2, 2017. https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/the-arrow-rises-again-san-bernardinos-famed-and-forgotten-architectural-wonder
Vincent, Roger. “Former playground of stars in San Bernardino is ready for rebirth.” Los Angeles Times. May, 15, 2014. https://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-property-report-20140515-story.html