100 Years Of Palm Springs History – Vic Yepello Real Estate

Chairman Jeff Grubbe: ACBCI Announces New Cultural Center

On October 6th, Agua Caliente band Of Cahuilla Indians (ACBCI) Chairman Jeff Grubbe announced the Tribe’s plans for their new cultural center in the heart of Downtown Palm Springs. The location is on their 5.6 acre site at the intersection of Indian Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way. ACBCI Announces New Cultural Center

Groundbreaking is for the early part of 2018 and should take about 2 years to complete. It will feature a cultural museum, a new hot mineral springs spa, a gathering plaza plus gardens and an oasis trail.

From Jeff Grubbe: ACBCI Announces New Cultural Center

“This new cultural center provides an incredible opportunity to share and celebrate our history, culture and traditions with this community and visitors from around the world,” Tribal Chairman Jeff L. Grubbe said. “Each of the 566 federally recognized tribes throughout this country has a distinct culture that includes traditions, language, historic clothing and housing styles as well as historical food and medicine preparations. We want to share that with others as well as acknowledge the fact that we are alive and well today living in the modern world.”

The sacred waters are 12,000 years old and are very unique containing minerals not found anywhere else in the world.

The newly planned oasis trail will meander between the spa and the museum with lots of natural features that include gardens, waterfalls, a sandy beach, a fire pit, and a meditation labyrinth. The idea here is to build on the traditions and features of the ACBCI ancestral lands.

This will leave a true legacy for generations to come who will visit Palm Springs.

ACBCI Announces New Cultural Center

From the ACBCI website:

About the Tribe

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is a federally recognized Indian Tribe located in Palm Springs, California, with 31,500 acres of reservation lands that spread across Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, and into the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains. The Tribe currently owns and operates two 18-hole championship golf courses, the Spa Resort Casino in downtown Palm Springs and the Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa in Rancho Mirage. For more information about the Tribe, visit www.aguacaliente-nsn.gov

About the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum

The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum inspires people to learn about the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and other native cultures. The museum educates people about the issues and challenges of Native and indigenous people. The museum currently operates at 219 S. Palm Canyon Dr. in downtown Palm Springs. For more information, visit www.accmuseum.org

About JCJ Architecture

JCJ Architecture is a nationally recognized planning, architecture and interior design firm with offices in Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Hartford and New York City. Since its founding in 1936, the firm has worked with a diverse range of clients, including over 50 Tribal Nations, on projects ranging from hospitality and leisure, to cultural, community, gaming, education, public safety, and civic and having a comprehensive planning and design process that is formulated to address each project’s unique challenge, context and purpose. JCJ is made up of more than 100 employee-owners who are proud to have created buildings and places of exceptional and enduring quality.

Images from the ACBCI website www.aguacaliente-nsn.gov

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100 Years Of Palm Springs History, Lifestyle

100 Years Of Palm Springs History 1914 – Otto Adler Started Our First Newspaper

August 14, 2012 Vic Yepello

100 Years Of Palm Springs History 1914

Otto Adler and The Red Front Store News

100 Years Of Palm Springs History 1914 saw Otto Adler, born in 1874, arriving in Palm Springs. He set up a tent and began to sell food and supplies. Soon after, he built a store and hotel called the Red Front Store and Hotel.August 1, 1914, Palm Springs got its first newspaper. It was a non-commercial, 4-page X 3 column affair called the Red Front Store News. Continue reading “100 Years Of Palm Springs History 1914 – Otto Adler Started Our First Newspaper” →

100 Years Of Palm Springs History, Lifestyle

100 Years Of Palm Springs History – 1913 Cabot Yerxa Comes To DHS

June 20, 2012 Vic Yepello

1913 Cabot Yerxa Settles In Desert Hot Springs – 100 Years Of Palm Springs History –

In our continuing series on Palm Springs History, we can now learn about Cabot Yerxa. As an early settler and explorer, he’s best known for digging a now famous well in Desert Hot Springs and discovered guess what? The now famous hot mineral springs enjoyed by many tourists; especially those from Europe. Continue reading “100 Years Of Palm Springs History – 1913 Cabot Yerxa Comes To DHS” →

100 Years Of Palm Springs History

100 Years Palm Springs History- 1912

May 4, 2012 Vic Yepello

100 Years Palm Springs History- 1912; The White Sisters

Palm Springs History- 1912; The White Sisters came to town at a time when this place was still a big dry sandy windy desert. So why would these brave ladies venture our into no-man’s (or woman’s) land?

Dr. Florilla White and Miss Corneila White were explorers, budding nature lovers and so they spent a lot of time exploring the desert especially the nearby canyons. Story has it they also never wore dresses and were comfortable on a horse too. Now a third sister, Isabel, was much more proper in her attire so I guess she was the “lady” in the bunch.

The sisters purchased Welwood Murray’s Palm Springs Hotel deriving much of their business from The Desert Inn. At that time, Palm Springs had only 15 buildings in the village. They purchased the entire 100 block of North Palm Canyon Drive and later purchased the entire block south of Tahquitz Canyon Way. Apparently these ladies were very well off for those times.

The current Corneila White house, pictured above, was the one built by Welwood Murray of railroad ties in 1893. It was located in the area south of Tahquitz and then was moved in 1944 to the area of Indian Canyon then later in 1979 to its current location.

For more information, read below about the fascinating and dangerous times in early Palm Springs History.

In other events:

Oasis Date garden is founded

The Titanic departed Queenstown Ireland bound for New York City

The Girl Scouts are founded in Georgia

Tarzan Of The Apes is published

San Francisco launches the first municipally owned street cars

For more information, contact the Palm Springs Historical Society.

100 Years Of Palm Springs History

100 Years Of Palm Springs History- Palm Springs CA History – 1911

March 30, 2012 Vic Yepello

100 Years Of Palm Springs CA History ~1911

Welcome to the next post in our series about Palm Springs CA History ~1911. The highlight today is J. Smeaton Chase. Who? Joseph Smeaton Chase, a man I would call an explorer, adventurer and author of books about California life in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Born in London, he arrived with an inheritance that was lost in the Bank panic of 1890. Down on his luck, Chase moved to San Diego for a time then moved to Los Angeles where he became a social welfare worker. His first book was entitled Yosemite and was published in 1911. Then in 1915, he made his way to Palm Springs to take advantage of the healing powers of the local hot mineral springs.

His most famous books about Palm Springs, “Our Araby” and “Palm Springs And The Garden Of The Sun” are still in print.

He married Isabel White in 1917 then proceeded to write several books about California-based on his travels with Kaweah, is trusty horse.

From the Wiki article:

Chase was born in Islington, a neighbourhood in the London Borough of Islington, in April 1864. He arrived in Southern California in 1890, although information surrounding his motive for doing so is sparse. It is known however, that he lived on a mountainside and managed to obtain a job tutoring a wealthy rancher’s children in the San Gabriel Valley. Chase was drawn to the plants, animals, and Spanish-speaking individuals who resided in California. Subsequently, in 1911 he took a trip with local painter Carl Eytel, traveling on horseback from Los Angeles to Laguna and then down to San Diego.

Chase journeyed through the uncouth California land and detailed his escapades in his book California Desert Trails.[1] He was passionate that the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains be preserved as a national park. Chase appeals to readers who appreciate the unspoiled west and California history.

Chase died March 29, 1923 in Banning, California, after several years of poor health. His wife (Isabel, née White, April 18, 1876 – September 30, 1962) continued to live in Palm Springs. They are buried in a graveyard at the foot of Mt. San Jacinto in Palm Springs. Also his name is engraved at his parents’ (Samuel and Jane) headstone in the St. Mary the Virgin Cemetery, London Borough of Bexley, England

Category: 100 Years Of Palm Springs History