For a number of many years beginning in 1896, a distant Arizona resort positioned about 50 miles north of Phoenix performed host to a gentle stream of well-to-do vacationers, together with Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Roosevelts, and different Gilded Age muckety-mucks.
They had been drawn to Citadel Sizzling Springs for the seclusion, sunny climate, Southwestern pursuits like horseback driving, and the supposed restorative properties of the identical pure sizzling springs that had as soon as made the realm a therapeutic web site for Native Individuals.
(Undated picture, courtesy of Citadel Sizzling Springs Resort)
As a matter of truth, the resort was additionally a therapeutic web site for future president John F. Kennedy, who stayed right here for 3 months within the Nineteen Forties alongside different navy veterans recuperating from World Conflict II.
The recognition of Citadel Sizzling Springs took a dip within the ’50s and ’60s. Then an enormous fireplace in 1976 destroyed the once-grand most important lodge and the place grew to become a ghost city.
However this October Citadel Sizzling Springs is, effectively, springing again to life.
Acquired by a bunch of native traders in 2014 and now managed by luxurious specialists Westroc Hospitality, the property is getting an enormous, costly restoration designed to pay tribute to the resort’s previous whereas bringing it into the twenty first century.
The unique buildings which can be nonetheless standing have their basic look again, with a number of yellow clapboarding on the surface and dark-wood Mission furnishings indoors. (The inside of a surviving three-bedroom bungalow is pictured on the prime of this put up.)
Spacious new cottages with patios are sprinkled alongside a spring-fed creek. Different additions within the works embody natural vegetable gardens and a brewery.
The 200,000 gallons of mineral water pumped out every day by the recent springs will likely be as central a spotlight as ever, filling the swimming pool, sizzling tubs at lots of the cottages, and a artifical lake.
One other holdover from the previous: room charges that solely a Vanderbilt may afford. Based on the Arizona Republic, a keep on the new Citadel Sizzling Springs will price round $800 to $1,500 per evening.
