Peter Moruzzi - Palm Springs paradise : vintage photographs from America’s desert playground

Palm Springs Paradise

Vintage Photographs from Americas Desert Playground

Peter Moruzzi

Palm Springs Paradise

Vintage Photographs from Americas Desert Playground

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2015 Peter Moruzzi

Photographs 2015 from the collection of the Palm Springs Historical Society, except those noted.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

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ISBN: 978-1-4236-3992-3

Head over heels at the Palm Springs Tennis Club. Photograph by Paul Pospesil.

When a lone palm on North Indian Avenue was worth naming a hotel after.

Photograph by Paul Pospesil and Earl Cordrey.

Palm Springs, c. 1887, when it was known as Palm Valley and still part of San Diego County. The low desert was to be an agricultural paradise as well as a sanatorium for sufferers of lung disease. Unfortunately, the Southern California real estate bust and several years of drought put an end to this early land boom in the Coachella Valley. Courtesy of Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Serious men, serious mules, c. 1900, when Palm Springs was an Old West frontier town.

Pedro Chino in the doorway of his home in 1898. Wife Marie, on the left, weaves a large basket.

Lavinia Crockers Tent Homes for Invalids, c. 1899. Dr. Harry and Nellie Coffman would buy Mrs. Crockers property in 1910, initially operating it as the Desert Inn Hotel and Sanatorium.

Palm Canyon Drive, when trees vastly outnumbered people.

Taking a stroll in downtown Palm Springs, c. 1915. At Palm Springs Stage and Store, gasoline was dispensed from metal barrels with spigots. In the middle is Bunkers Garage, operated by local dynamo Zaddie Bunker.

The Agua Caliente Bands original bathhouse.

Of sturdy river rock construction, Otto Adlers La Palma Hotel on Palm Canyon Drive boasted We Never Sleep. Hopefully, that wasnt true of his guests.

The hotels dining room displayed a map showing the two routes to Palm Springs from Los Angeles by miles. The La Palma Hotel, depicted as an oasis at the foot of Mount San Jacinto, was at mile 110. Photograph by Mission Art Company.

Dr. Harry Coffman was the Desert Inn Hotel and Sanatoriums resident physician until he left wife Nellie in 1914 for a new life in the Imperial Valley.

Picnicking in Andreas Canyon in 1912. Photograph by W. W. Lockwood.

A horse-drawn excursion. Photograph by W. W. Lockwood.

Desert Inn tent cabin in 1911. 23 skidoo meant to leave quickly, which Mrs. Browning and daughter Ruth seem disinclined to do.

The new Palm Springs Hotel, c. 1925. RIGHT: Rules and regulations for Welwood Murrays original Palm Springs Hotel, c. 1910. Note that any expectoration, whether in rooms or grounds, be exclusively made in paper napkins, to be carefully consumed by fire.