History

Nestled between the McDowell Mountains and Camelback Mountain, the rustic community of Paradise Valley is just a short drive away from the bustling downtown core of Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix's history is quite extensive, having been founded three centuries ago by American pioneers. Frontiersman Jack Swilling specifically founded the city in 1868, who was interested in establishing a homestead that could feed the area's outlying mining towns and outposts. He subsequently developed a massive canal that could irrigate the land upon discovering the remnants of several trenches dug by the Pima Indians years earlier. Swilling quickly took to growing several different crops, establishing his quaint farm in what is now central Phoenix. Other settlers quickly noticed his success and migrated en masse to the area to create their own farms. A town rapidly evolved around Swilling’s quaint estate, which its first residents referred to as "Phoenix." Phoenix had grown so much during the first few years of its existence that President Ulysses S. Grant even issued an official land patent for the community. In fact, some 2,500 people called Phoenix home by the start of the 1880s. As such, Arizona's territorial legislature officially charted Phoenix as a city not long thereafter, eventually making it their capital in 1889. The population boom gave rise to a thriving local economy and an extensive railroad network. An influx of new capital into Phoenix subsequently spawned a massive wave of both residential and municipal construction at the start of the 20th century. Some of the city's most iconic municipal buildings debuted, too, such as the Arizona Capitol Building and the Carnegie Free Library. The greatest project developed at the time was the Salt River Dam, which the administration of Theodore Roosevelt built just outside of downtown Phoenix via the National Reclamation Act. (The dam today is known as the "Theodore Roosevelt Dam.") 

Phoenix became Arizona's state capital when it was finally admitted into the Union as the 48th state in 1912. But Arizona was becoming more than just an important economic and political center—it was transforming into a prominent vacation hotspot for tourists all over the United States. The proliferation of both the passenger train and the automobile made it increasingly easier for vacationers to travel all over the country, including the once remote American Southwest. Many Americans soon discovered that Phoenix's perennially warm climate made it an attractive getaway, especially among those who wished to escape the harsh winters of the nation's northernmost states. Real estate developers and hospitality professionals began creating a series of magnificent hotels and resorts over the next few decades, including the likes of Dwight D. Heard and Charles Harris. Phoenix continued to grow in both populations, as well, giving birth to its modern skyline in the 1940s. (Many service members temporarily lived in Phoenix at the time, with many flying military aircraft at Luke Field, Falcon Field, and William Field nearby.) The city eventually attracted the manufacturing operations of powerful corporations, such as Motorola, Intel, and McDonnell Douglas. Dozens of skyscrapers opened in the 1960s and 1970s, as such—including the likes of the Rosenzweig Center, Phoenix Corporate Center, U.S. Bank Center, Valley Center, and the Phoenix Financial Center—with some based around the famous Phoenix City Square. Noted Phoenix city resident Sandra Day O’Connor even managed to break the gender barrier on the U.S. Supreme Court when President Ronald Reagan nominated her for the office in the 1980s. Today, Phoenix continues to occupy a special place in America's cultural landscape. It is home to many fascinating cultural attractions, such as the Desert Botanical Garden, the Heard Museum, and the Phoenix Museum of Art. 

When Lon Megargee set about constructing the building that would become The Hermosa Inn, he chose Spanish Colonial architecture as his main source of inspiration. Also known as "Spanish Eclectic," Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture is a representation of themes typically seen in early Spanish colonial settlements. Original Spanish colonial architecture borrowed its design principles from Moorish, Renaissance, and Byzantine forms, which made it incredibly decorative and ornate. The general layout of those structures called for a central courtyard, as well as thick stucco walls that could endure Latin America's diverse climate. Among the most recognizable features within those colonial buildings involved heavy carved doors, spiraled columns, and gabled red-tile roofs. Architect Bertram Goodhue was the first to widely popularize Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States, spawning a movement to incorporate the style more broadly in American culture at the beginning of the 20th century. Goodhue received a platform for his designs at the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, in which Spanish Colonial architecture was exposed to a national audience for the first time. His push to preserve the form led to a revivalist movement that saw widespread use of Spanish Colonial architecture throughout the country, specifically in California and Florida. Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture reached its zenith during the early 1930s, although a few American businesspeople would continue to embrace the form well into the latter half of the 20th century.  

Muhammad Ali, professional boxer and civil rights activist regarded as one of the best athletes of the 20th century. 

Waiting to Exhale (1995)