The Rise and Fall of America's Most Glamorous Desert City: Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs wasn't built on industry, a railroad, or a port. It was built on a clause in a Hollywood contract. In the 1930s, studio bosses required actors to stay within two hours of Los Angeles during production. Palm Springs sat at the outer limit of that leash — and a generation of movie stars turned a desert village of two thousand people into the most glamorous small city in America. The story begins with Nellie Coffman, who arrived in 1908 with bad lungs and turned a cluster of tent houses into the Desert Inn, the resort that gave Palm Springs its identity. It follows P.T. Stevens, who spent a million dollars building the El Mirador Hotel and lost it in the Depression. It traces the Racquet Club, where Charlie Farrell and Ralph Bellamy bought two hundred acres at thirty cents an acre and created Hollywood's favorite hideaway. It lands on Frank Sinatra, who walked into an architect's office wanting a Georgian mansion and walked out with a mid-century modern house that changed the look of a city. The Alexander Construction Company built over 2,200 affordable modern homes across the Coachella Valley — then the entire family died in a plane crash in 1965 and the company vanished overnight. Section 14, a square mile of tribal land in the heart of downtown, was home to the Black and Latino workers who built Palm Springs' resorts and celebrity estates until the city burned their neighborhood to the ground in the 1960s. Spring break riots in 1986 drove away what remained of the city's elegance. Sonny Bono became mayor to fix a sign ordinance and ended up founding the Palm Springs International Film Festival. What brought Palm Springs back was the last thing anyone expected: the architecture itself. LGBTQ buyers restored forgotten Alexander homes. Modernism Week turned tract housing into a pilgrimage. The buildings that were designed as weekend escapes became the only things that lasted. Sources "CV History: Nellie Coffman, Founder of the Desert Inn, Is Often Considered the 'Mother' of Palm Springs." Coachella Valley Independent, March 15, 2023. "El Mirador — A Grand Hotel." Palm Springs Life, April 23, 2016. "CV History: How Windswept Vacant Land Became the Palm Springs Racquet Club, a Haven for Hollywood's Biggest Stars." Coachella Valley Independent, February 11, 2023. "Alexander Family Transforms Palm Springs into Modernism Mecca." Palm Springs Life, March 15, 2024. "Section 14: The Agua Caliente Tribe's Struggle for Sovereignty in Palm Springs, California." National Museum of the American Indian Magazine (Smithsonian). "How Gay Palm Springs Came Out of the Closet." Palm Springs Life, March 8, 2024.