Once Upon a Time in the Desert: The Canyon Country Club

Following President Eisenhower’s landmark signature of legislation in 1959 which permitted ninety-nine-year terms, Canyon Country Club became the largest Indian lease land development in Palm Springs’ history. It was also the city’s answer to the wave of golf-driven, luxury real estate development that had already started the “down valley” migration of investment and population growth. The rise of Canyon Country Club, charted in the master plan by architects Wexler & Harrison, landscape architect David Hamilton, and golf course architects William Bell & Son, adapted Garden City principles of community design to the unique desert environs and the evolving leisure sports culture of the 1960s. While many of Palm Springs’ treasures were researched and documented when the great rediscovery of the city’s celebrated collection of midcentury architecture began in the late 1990s and early 2000s, not all corners of the city have received their proper attention. Now, nearly a quarter-century into the Palm Springs’ architecture-driven cultural renaissance, Canyon Country Club is ready for its long-awaited close-up. Join Palm Springs Preservation Foundation board member Steve Treinen whose research chronicles the neighborhood’s social and architectural history through vintage and contemporary imagery.

The Palm Springs Preservation Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is “to educate and promote public awareness of the importance of preserving the historical resources and architecture of the city of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley area.”  PSPF offers free membership as a public benefit.  To learn more about the work of the foundation see www.pspreservationfoundation.org.  

Free, Ticketed Event

Things to Know
No children or pets and no smoking.
This is a popular event so if your plans change and you need to cancel please notify us at [email protected] so that we may make the space available to someone else.
Free parking available.
Handicap parking is available. This event is wheelchair accessible.
The organizer of this event is Palm Springs Preservation Foundation.

Event Check-in Location
Camelot Theatres at the Palm Springs Cultural Center
2300 E Baristo Road
Palm Springs, CA 92262 
View Map

Photo Credits: Vintage Postcard, Steve Treinen