Vista del Arroyo Hotel and Bungalows

About this property

The Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals is a historic building originally constructed as a Spanish Colonial Revival style resort known as the Vista del Arroyo Hotel and Bungalows located at Pasadena in Los Angeles County, California. During World War II, it served as the McCornack General Hospital, and was thereafter in use as a general-purpose federal government building for several decades. It now serves as a courthouse of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals Building is set on the crest of a steep hill overlooking the Arroyo Seco River and dominates the view from across the Arroyo. Originally built as a hotel during the late stages of Pasadena's great resort hotel age, the main building was constructed in two sections—the two-story north wing, in 1920, and the six-story bell tower with flanking wings, in 1930. The site's resort history dates to 1882, when Emma C. Bangs opened the original La Vista del Arroyo Hotel, a two-story, wood-frame building, and series of small cottages. In 1919, hotel tycoon Daniel M. Linnard, associated with such elegant Pasadena hotels as the Huntington and Green, purchased La Vista del Arroyo with the vision of developing the property into an opulent resort. Linnard commissioned the architectural firm of Marston & Van Pelt to design a large, two-story Spanish Colonial Revival hotel to replace the original structure. Once the popularity of the Vista had been established, select guests also built bungalows on the property. In 1926, Linnard sold the resort to former business partner H.O. Comstock. Comstock hired architect George H. Wiemeyer to redesign the hotel and add a grand six-story addition that consisted of a central bell tower and flanking wings set at an angle. The new Vista opened in 1931 with iridescent color, entertainment, and social gaiety. In 1936, Linnard repurchased the property and hired landscape architect Verner S. Anderson to improve the hotel's grounds by designing formal gardens and adding fountains, tennis courts, and a swimming pool. In 1943 the U.S. War Department acquired the hotel complex and converted it into the McCornack General Hospital and offices for the U.S. Army. The hospital was named after Brigadier General Condon C. McCornack, Command Surgeon of the Western Defense Command. In 1949, the hospital was closed and the old hotel, under the care of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), housed a variety of Federal agencies from 1951 to 1974. In 1981 the Vista del Arroyo was placed in the National Register of Historic Places and GSA began design work to restore the building as the southern seat of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1995, the building was renamed to honor Judge Richard Harvey Chambers, whose concept it was to bring a Federal courthouse to Pasadena.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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