Week 47: La Hacienda

Many of us are familiar with the story of a pregnant woman by the name of Mary who was forced to stay in a stable when there was no room in the inn. Town founder Alexander J. Chandler turned this story into reality during in 1929 during one of his grand expansion schemes for his financial empire. World famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright enjoyed the experience so much that he came back for a second stay.

When Dr. Chandler’s San Marcos Hotel was built in 1913, it was more than just a hotel – it was Arizona’s first resort. Aside from staying in luxurious accommodations, guests could enjoy horseback rides, swimming, golf, and polo. The polo grounds were located east of the hotel at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Hamilton Street. On the expansive polo grounds, guests could either play polo themselves or act as spectators cheering on the players. At the northeast corner of the grounds was a stable for the polo horses.

By the late 1920s Dr. Chandler and his Chandler Improvement Company planned to build a grand resort hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright which would nestle in the unspoiled desert foothills of South Mountain. Chandler and his improvement company needed a way to raise capital for their planned San Marcos in the Desert. They had already mortgaged the existing San Marcos Hotel for $900,000. They were in need of outside investors. To attract new outside investors, they set up regional offices around the country which organized excursions to Chandler for potential investors. This created an influx of additional visitors that the San Marcos could not accommodate. To alleviate this problem, Dr. Chandler came up with a plan to convert the polo stables into a hotel.

Of course the new hotel couldn’t be marketed as converted polo stables. The hotel, opened in November of 1929, was named Hacienda de la Chandler. A story on the front page of the Chandler Arizonan described its grassy patio, “pleasant dining room with wainscoted walls and a well-appointed kitchen….There is also a well-lighted lounge or reading room with a big fireplace.” In addition, the Hacienda featured a “modern touch…seen everywhere, including the furnishing of each guest room with its individual steam heater with direct gas connection and thermostatic control, hot and cold water, clothes closet and two comfortable beds.” It boasted 24 such guest rooms, ready to house what the paper thought would be the largest group of winter visitors Chandler had ever seen.

Though the financial collapse of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression destroyed any hope that the San Marcos in the Desert would be built, the Hacienda remained open. In the middle 1930s Wright once again cast his eye towards Arizona as he looked for a western winter home for his Taliesin architecture school. Dr. Chandler offered the use of the Hacienda to Wright and his students during the winters of 1935 and 1936. During their time at Hacienda, Wright had his students build a 12 foot by 12 foot scale model of Broadacre City. The model represented Wright’s vision for the ideal suburban development, and was exhibited at an Industrial Arts Exposition in the Forum at Rockefeller Center.

In winter 1937, Wright was making plans to return to Chandler and the Hacienda for the winter. But Dr. Chandler had lost control of the San Marcos and its resources due to bankruptcy proceedings and could not guarantee the space to Wright. The new general manager of the San Marcos, Bobby Foehl, believed he could make more money by leasing the Hacienda to a local company, the Pecos Valley Alfalfa Mill, to be used as their corporate headquarters. Wright, feeling as though he’d been pushed out of Chandler, decided to move his architecture school to Scottsdale that winter. There, he and his students constructed the school and home that they called Taliesin West.

The Hacienda continued to be used as a hotel for several years before it was converted to apartments. By 1985 the last tenant had moved out and the building was left empty. In 1987 it was briefly considered as a future home of the Chandler Museum, but due to the high cost for renovations that idea was quickly dropped. The building was demolished in 1988.