The Historic San Carlos Hotel in PhoenixRead Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link: http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/hotels/arizona/phx/carlos/carlos.html
The courtesies of a gentler era can still be found at
only historic hotel still operating in downtown Phoenix, grand Hotel San Carlos, this year celebrating 75 years of graceful and elegant service.
At a reception attended by Phoenix and Arizona Historical Societies and Phoenix business leaders, mayor of Phoenix and governor of Arizona presented a proclamation and plaque to hotel. It was not first time Hotel San Carlos has received accolades; its history is rich in glamour and significance.
On this same site native Americans once worshipped a god of learning. Perhaps this is why Phoenix's first school, a one-room adobe structure, was built here for a handful of Indian children in 1874. By 1893 a brick schoolhouse with an expansion to sixteen rooms had replaced adobe building. For almost a quarter century, new schoolhouse served children of Phoenix. Then, in 1927, it was condemned to make way for construction of Hotel San Carlos.
The historic Hotel San Carlos is a perfect selection for your romantic Phoenix week-end getaway.
In Phoenix of 1920s there was a growing need for tourist hotels. The Hotel San Carlos, touted as one of most modern hotels in entire Southwest, was welcomed as a state-of-the-art establishment with steam heat, elevators and air cooling, justifying $1.00 higher average daily rates over other three area hotels. The Hotel San Carlos featured circulation by ice water in every room and "automatic cooled air that changed in each room every three minutes." Elegant tapestries of medieval Italy adorned walls of lobby and a high molded ceiling graced entrance.
The Hotel San Carlos, is just seven stories high, featuring rooms & suites facing picturesque Central Avenue.
The front page headline of Arizona Gazette (today's Arizona Republic) of March 19, 1928, announced that Hotel San Carlos had reached its goal and would hold its formal opening following evening. At seven stories, it was tallest hotel in town, and its construction served as testimony to Phoenix's rising reputation as a tourist destination.
Immediately Hotel San Carlos occupied a prominent place in Phoenix social arena. There were not many places that could be called "fashionable", where one could go to be seen. The Hotel San Carlos, with card rooms and a place for dancing, was called "smart". The Arizona Gazette noted that hotel had a "smoking lounge and writing room". The Palm Room of lobby served as cocktail area. The hotel's French Café restaurant became a noted dining spot. Literature for hotel boasted that its French onion soup was best in town, and fashionable Phoenicians were known, according to newspaper columns of day, to enjoy onion soup on Sunday afternoons. Members of state legislature would have drinks in Palm Room after a day at Capitol building.
During heyday of Hollywood in forties and fifties, celebrities such as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow, Cary Grant, Gene Autry, Marilyn Monroe, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, and others stayed - and played - at Hotel San Carlos.
"Mae West stayed here during her run at Orpheum theatre," says hotel general manager Bruce Barnes. "After one performance, she stopped at front desk, asked that champagne be delivered to her suite with two glasses, and that she not be disturbed until 3 p.m. next day."
