Casa Loma still hints at earlier days as Tempe hotel

Need a room for the night?  Not counting Airbnbs, there is something like 80 hotels and motels within Tempe’s 40 square miles.

That’s roughly one inn every half mile.

Almost from the beginning, Tempe has offered welcoming hospitality to its visitors. Charles Trumbull Hayden started things by converting his former residence into a hotel.

Others followed, mostly in the downtown along Mill Avenue — the Tempe Hotel, the Arlington, the Gregory, the Olive (“Moderate Priced Rooms-First Class Dining Room”).

Unlike other cities that celebrate their historic lodgings, Tempe has sadly lost all of its first hotels. Two substantially altered buildings are the only reminders of the early hospitality trade — the Hayden House, which lost its second floor in 1924, and the Casa Loma at Fourth Street and Mill Avenue that was converted to offices, retail and restaurants in 1984.

Even in its altered state, the Casa Loma hints at its earlier life.

Opening in 1888

It began in 1888 as the two-story Tempe Hotel. Like many wood-framed structures, it was destroyed by a fire in 1894.

Six years later the Atwood, a new $13,000 (about $383,000 today) “fire-proof,” 3-story brick hotel had risen form the ashes. In 1902, after a scandal involving the hotel’s namesake, the Atwood was changed to Casa Loma — a name it retains today.

Confidently advertised, as “… the Sunshine Hotel because of its policy not to charge … guests for days on which there was no sunshine …,” the Casa Loma was Tempe’s premier place of lodging. President William McKlinley stayed there just months before his assassination in 1901.

Ownership changes

Over the years, the hotel went through successive owners and operators. In 1927 Tempe residents, S.J. Carter and Frank Fogal, and Ezra Thayer of Phoenix bought the aging property.

They promptly decided it was in much need of a facelift. A December 1927 Arizona Republican article declared, the “Casa Loma hotel … at one time one of the most popular and fashionable hostelries in the Valley, will open shortly after the first of the year ... (as) one of the most modern and attractive tourist hotels in the valley.”

The building was converted from its exposed-brick, Victorian appearance to stuccoed Spanish Revival, a popular style in the late-twenties.

Cost of the extravagant renovation totaled $48,000 — more than 3½ times the original price.

Remodeling complete, the “new” Casa Loma reopened for business March 17, 1928. And continued to operate as a hotel for two more decades.

Changing demographics

After World War II, Tempe’s growth and changing demographics forced the closure of the then nearly half-century-old lodging veteran. It began a new life as residential apartments.

In the 1950s, when Mill Avenue was widened as part of the federal highway system, the Casa Loma endured a severe “façade-ectomy,” where its east face was cruelly removed and replaced by gigantic wire mesh screens.

In 1984, as part of urban renewal, the venerable National Register-eligible structure was restored to its 1928 appearance — paying homage to its esteemed past.

Reach historian Jay Mark at jaymark@twtdbooks.com