City of LA QUINTA… and the LA QUINTA RESORT & SPA
The Cahuilla indians first roamed this warm land in the shadows of the Santa Rosa mountains and fittingly called it "Land of the Eternal Sun".
In the early 1920's, wealthy San Francisco businessman, Walter H. Morgan commissioned renowned architect Gordon B. Kaufman to build a secluded hacienda-style hotel. Formed from more than 100,000 hand-formed adobe bricks, and 60,000 locally fired clay roof tiles, local artisans crafted a small grouping of quaint casitas and a cozy dining room. Morgan called this place La Quinta.
La Quinta Hotel opened during the Christmas season of 1926, soon after, Morgan built a nine-hole golf course on the hotel grounds. Designed by Norman Beth, it would be our very first Coachella Valley golf course, with green fees of $1.
The buzz was out in Hollywood about this charming getaway, beyond Palm Springs... and just a few hours from LA. It would become a retreat for stars and celebrities from around the world, including Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Katherine Hepburn, Greta Garbo, and Shirley Temple. Frank Capra boasted that he wrote his huge hit, It Happened One Night, right here at the hotel!
La Quinta became the only incorporated city to take its name from a hotel!
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