Historical Facts
The site where the hotel sits was the location of the first school in Phoenix. The four room adobe school was inaugurated in 1874. It was replaced with a larger structure in 1879. The school was enlarged several times but was condemned in 1916, with construction of a luxury hotel in mind. In addition, many area children died during the 1918 swine flu epidemic that attacked the United States.
In 1919, the land was bought by the Babbitt family (relatives of Bruce Babbitt, former Secretary of the Interior and Arizona Governor, who intended to build a hotel. The San Carlos Hotel project was finally begun by Charles Harris and Dwight D. Heard who purchased the property from the Babbitts. Construction began in 1927. The hotel was designed by Nationally known architects in the Italian Renaissance style. The hotel was state of the art with air conditioning (the first in Phoenix), elevators, circulating chilled water in the rooms and steam heat. The hotel grand opening was on March 19, 1928. The hotel was built at a cost of nearly $850,000.
The hotel competed with the posh, nearby Westward Ho hotel, completed the following year, which was located on what once was Phoenix's first radio transmitter and whose list of clientele include such celebrities as Jack Dempsey and John F. Kennedy. The San Carlos had its share of celebrities such as Mae West, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Marilyn Monroe and Gene Autry.
On May 7, 1928, The Arizona Republic reported the death of Leone Jensen. The article's headline read "Pretty blonde jumps from (the) San Carlos (hotel) early today". Based on what she wrote on her death note, it could be assumed that the 22 year old woman was physically abused by her boyfriend, a bellboy at the Westward Ho. Speculations have been made as to whether Jensen was pregnant and/or her boyfriend was having an affair with another hotel worker. Because of these theories, the way she died is also debated. While most evidence pointed to suicide, many have said that she could have been pushed off by her boyfriend or her boyfriend's other girlfriend.
Another ghost frequently mentioned by hotel employees is that of a little girl, possibly around six to nine years old, who is rumored to visit hotel rooms at night and sit crying. Ghost believers think she was probably one of the area children affected either by the school's closing or the flu epidemic.
On December 9, 2004, yet another death happened at this hotel, when an unidentified man jumped to his death from the hotel's roof.
The Hotel San Carlos in Phoenix, a member of Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, underwent a $1,000,000 remodel in 2003. Work continues on this historic boutique hotel. The hotel faces stiff competition from such five-star hotels as The Phoenician, Arizona Biltmore Hotel the Ritz Carlton, many Hilton Hotels and the Hyatt Regency Phoenix. However, as downtown Phoenix continues its dramatic growth the Hotel San Carlos remains in the heart of downtown Phoenix, 6 blocks from Chase Field home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5 blocks from U.S. Airways Arena, home of the Phoenix Suns, and less than 3 blocks from the Dodge Theatre, Symphony Hall Phoenix, Orpheum Theatre, the Phoenix Convention Center and the Herberger Performing Arts Center.
The hotel can be briefly seen in the opening shot of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho, as the camera pans the then-skyline of downtown Phoenix.
Read more about this topic: Hotel San Carlos (Phoenix)
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