Arrowhead Springs Hotel

Naval Convalescent Hospital Arrowhead Springs in 1944, the 1939 Arrowhead Springs Hotel

Arrowhead Springs Hotel a resort hotel, and during World War 2 Naval Convalescent Hospital Arrowhead Springs, is near the City of Arrowhead Springs, north of San Bernardino, California. Naval Convalescent Hospital Arrowhead Springs was a U.S. Navy medical treatment facility during World War 2. The hotel/hospital has an outdoor swimming pool, a 130-person theater, natural hot springs, a lake, tennis courts, and recreational facilities on 1,700 acres in the mountains. From 1961 to 1992, the resort hotel was the headquarters, training center and conference center of Campus Crusade for Christ. In May of 2017, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians purchased the resort.

History

The land was originally home to the Yuhaaviatam clan of the Serrano people. The site has natural hot springs, and on a nearby hill is an arrowhead-shaped natural landmark, which combines to give the place its English language name.

A small tuberculosis sanitarium center that had a natural steam cave and mud baths opened in 1864. An 1886 fire bunt down the sanitarium building. A new hotel was built in 1905 and at the same time, the Arrowhead Springs Company was founded selling bottled spring water, Arrowhead Springs water.

In 1938 the resort was sold to Hollywood group: Jay Paley, Joseph M. Schenck, Constance Bennett, Al Jolson, Darryl Zanuck and Claudette Colbert for $800,000. A 1938 fire burnt down this second resort. The group spent $1.5 million and built the current resort. The Arrowhead Springs Hotel opened in 1939 as a resort hotel in the San Bernardino Mountains. The resort was designed by African American architects Paul R. Williams and Gordon Kaufmann in the art deco style. The main building is a four-story with two wings. The center also had 10 bungalows. The interior was designed by Dorothy Draper of New York. Hollywood guests included Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, and Clark Gable. Bugsy Siegel was a regular guest also. The resort was used for filming movies, including Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra in 1941.

The U.S. Navy leased the resort hotel on a 7.5-acre and turned it into a 149 room hospital that opened in June of 1944, also called Naval Special Hospital, Arrowhead Springs. It was opened to help with the overcrowding at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Corona. In June 1944, 500 patients were transferred from Corona to Arrowhead Springs. At the end of the war, in November 1945, when the Hospital closed over 5800 troops had been cared for at the Hospital. After the war it returned to a resort hotel.

Esther Williams made a movie, Thrill of a Romance in 1945. In 1946, the resort was purchased by the Hull group of Chicago. Then in 1946, sold to Conrad Hilton for $2 million. In 1950 Elizabeth Taylor and Conrad Hilton Jr. honeymooned at the resort. Sold again in 1951 to Hilton Hotel, then to Campus Crusade for Christ in 1961. Campus Crusade for Christ moved to Orlando, Florida in 1991. In March of 1992, the resort went for sale with no buyers.

The resort was vacant till sold to San Manuel in 2017.

Gallery

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  First Arrowhead Springs Hotel, opened in 1864 and burnt down in 1886
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  Second Arrowhead Springs Hotel, opened in 1886 and burned in 1895
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  Third Arrowhead Springs Hotel, opened in 1905 and burned in 1939
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  Arrowhead Springs Hotel, circa 1907
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  Arrowhead Springs Resort Archway. circa 1929
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  Natural Arrowhead shape near Arrowhead Springs Hotel

Panorama of the Arrowhead Springs site showing the Arrowhead Hot Springs Hotel, 1908.

See also

• California during World War II
• American Theater (1939–1945)
• United States home front during World War II
• DeWitt General Hospital