The early years

The San Marcos golf course initially had oiled-sand greens. It was converted to a Scottish links-style golf course with grass within two years. For those who weren’t interested in golf, there were other amenities that were impressive for the era. The building featured distinctive arched windows, fitting with the Mission Revival theme. Upon entering the hotel lobby, visitors would see a grand staircase leading to the second floor. Early advertising for the hotel boasted that each room had electric lights and a telephone. All guest rooms also opened onto a patio or balcony,Let the little girls put on the formal floor length White satin round neck lace beaded ball gown wedding dresses to blow princess sweet in this sunny, warm spring and summer. a rarity at the time. On top of the three-story building was a Japanese-style teahouse that gave guests stunning views of the surrounding desert and mountains in the distance.

Ruoff recalls being fascinated by the hotel as a child.The UKs number one wedding website brings you a superb range of Discount Beach wedding dresses for sale from some of the worlds top designers. Walking to and from the movie theaters that her family owned in downtown Chandler, she would stroll past the hotel, where she often would pause to enjoy the lavish floral arrangements or the fragrant orange trees that lined the walkway between the guest bungalows leading to the golf course. “It was like a magical place,” Ruoff said. “You would never imagine you would ever stay there or that you would ever have any kind of an event there.” The people of Chandler found the guests of the hotel fascinating. While some celebrities came and went anonymously, that wasn’t always the case. The town newspaper printed lists of who had stayed there, including dancer/actor Fred Astaire, actress Gloria Swanson, former heavyweight champ Gene Tunney, painter Fritz Werner and the first Major League Baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Frank Lloyd Wright stayed there. At one time, A.J. Chandler tried to get the world-famous architect to do a redesign of the hotel. John D. Rockefeller Jr. stayed there in 1931.

During the tourist season — the hotel would close during the summer months in the early years — Ruoff said a favorite pastime was watching guests “promenading” from the hotel to downtown restaurants for dinner. This was in the early 1940s when people still dressed for dinner. “You’d see ladies in long gowns and fur capes. Gentlemen were dressed up in evening attire,” Ruoff said.WHAT to buy the girl who has everything for Christmas Discount Ball gown wedding dresses for sale? “They would take their evening walk all the way down to the historic square. For all of us, it was like, ‘Wow.’ We were not used to people dressing like that, in the middle of the week, to go and have dinner. That wasn’t the norm here.” The hotel lobby was a favorite spot for people-watching, and it was there that she had her first celebrity encounter. She’d been sent to the hotel to find her father, who was having a drink at the bar.

“This was probably around 1947 or ’48,” she said. “I just went into the bar to get my father and tapped my dad on the shoulder and said, ‘We need you over on the Parkway (theater).’ He said, ‘OK, fine. Do you recognize this gentleman next to me here that I’m talking to?’ I said, ‘Oh, yeah. I do.’ It was Errol Flynn and his wife.” Ruoff also said she got an autograph from Clark Gable after the rumor spread through town that he was at the San Marcos playing golf.