Qualla: San Marcos Hotel

San Marcos Hotel: Introduction

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jamie Kroll, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three miles of copper wire snaked through its walls when the San Marcos Hotel opened in 1913, making it the only building in Chandler, Arizona with electric lights. The rest of the town still flickered by candlelight and kerosene, but here, at the corner of San Marcos Place and Commonwealth Avenue, incandescent bulbs blazed through Mission Revival arcades, beckoning travelers from across the nation to experience the desert's newest wonder. Vice President Thomas Marshall himself attended the grand opening, lending federal gravitas to what founder Dr. A.J. Chandler envisioned as the Southwest's premier winter resort.

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Image: Jamie Kroll | CC BY-SA 3.0

San Marcos Hotel: A Doctor's Desert Dream

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jamie Kroll, CC BY-SA 3.0. Dr. Alexander John Chandler was no ordinary physician. The Canadian-born veterinarian had arrived in Arizona Territory in 1887, eventually becoming the first veterinary surgeon in the territory. But his true passion lay in land and water. He accumulated 18,000 acres of ranch land...

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Image: Jamie Kroll | CC BY-SA 3.0

San Marcos Hotel: Benton's Mission Revival Masterpiece

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jamie Kroll, CC BY-SA 3.0. To design his resort, Chandler hired Arthur Burnett Benton, a Los Angeles architect known for his work in Riverside and Santa Barbara. The San Marcos would be Benton's only project in Arizona, and he crafted something remarkable. The two-story reinforced concrete structure rose w...

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Image: Jamie Kroll | CC BY-SA 3.0

San Marcos Hotel: Hollywood's Desert Hideaway

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jamie Kroll, CC BY-SA 3.0. The San Marcos quickly earned its reputation as a winter getaway for celebrities, dignitaries, and luminaries. In 1924, Chandler brought in another Los Angeles architect, Myron Hunt, famous for designing the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena. Hunt designed sixteen bungalows west of t...

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Image: Jamie Kroll | CC BY-SA 3.0

San Marcos Hotel: Surviving the Decades

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lajurgen, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Great Depression forced Chandler to sell the hotel in the 1930s, though he remained president of the San Marcos Hotel Corporation. The property changed hands multiple times over the following decades, eventually becoming a Crowne Plaza property under InterContinental Hotels G...

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Image: Lajurgen | CC BY-SA 4.0