El Garces Hotel: The Crown Jewel of the Desert

Restoring another Harvey House

Groundbreaking for the El Garces Hotel rehabilitation project took place on March 7, 2007. Project Manager Allan Affeldt unveiled the new hotel interior design, which includes 53 guest rooms, each with a private balcony or patio, and a four-star restaurant and lounge.

To learn more about our restoration efforts, visit the El Garces website.

A Brief History

El Garces Hotel was built in 1908 by the Santa Fe Railroad for the Fred Harvey Company. Architect Francis W. Wilson designed a neoclassical structure with Doric columns lining the ground floor and ionic columns supporting the second story. The name El Garces was
chosen to honor Father Francisco Garces, a missionary who was the first European known to have crossed the Mojave Desert.

Harvey Hotels were renowned for excellent food and service, and El Garces had an elegant restaurant and a lunch room that had three horseshoe lunch counters and hand-glazed ceramic tile murals and mosaic tile floors.

The food was served by the famous Harvey Girls. Harvey placed adds in Eastern Newspapers
seeking "Young women of good character, attractive and intelligent, 18 to 30, to work in
Harvey Eating Houses in the West." One of the few respectable jobs a single woman could have in the West was the position of Harvey Girl, and the women were strictly supervised, living in Harvey dormitories complete with dorm mothers. With good food and Harvey Girl
service, Fred Harvey built his hotel and restaurant empire.