History
RANCHO MIRAGE HISTORIC SITES
The promotion of Rancho Mirage as a destination desert community began as early as 1924 with efforts of R.P. "Bert" Davie and E.E. McIntyre, who purchased hundreds of acres from Southern Pacific Railroad. Shortly thereafter, Davie established a ranch house at Clancy Lane and built a north south thoroughfare to connect his new desert paradise to the Bradshaw Highway (present-day Highway 111). He named this road Rio del Sol (River of the Sun), which was later renamed Bob Hope Drive.
Promoted as Rio del Sol Estates, the development became known as Little Santa Monica for the many new residents. Clancy Lane was named after Les M. and Helen Clancy, the first "gentleman farmers" to build their home in the development in 1932.
The name, "Rancho Mirage," was probably coined in 1934 when Louis Blankenhorn and Laurence Macomber launched a new real estate promotion on parcels in the area of Highway 111, Bob Hope Drive, and Indian Trail Drive. While this subdivision was quite successful, the demographic and activity center of the community continued to be Davie's Rio del Sol Estates through World War II. After the war, Ronald Button and Dave Culver created small subdivisions around the "original" Rancho Mirage along Highway 111, the first to be filed in 1946.
Post World War II also saw a new era in development that eventually gave Rancho Mirage its predominant image as a world class resort residential community, characterized by its high quality planned residential golf course developments. The first of these was Thunderbird Country Club, opened in 1951, and Tamarisk Country Club, which opened in 1952. It was not until 1971, with the opening of Desert Island Country Club and the completion of its first residential units in 1972, that a new country club community was developed in Rancho Mirage. Desert Island was also the location of the City's first City Council hearings after its incorporation in 1973.
The relatively recent development of Rancho Mirage has resulted in architectural resources that predominantly reflect the achievements of mid-century Modern architecture. Consequently, with so few building older than 50 years of age, no properties in Rancho Mirage were identified as historic resources listed in the California Inventory of Historic Resources database. Nevertheless, the City's 2003 Historic Resources Survey identified over 100 properties that are considered to be local architectural and historic resources. One property of particularly note is Casa Chiquita, originally constructed circa 1934 adjacent to Clancy Lane. The oldest documented residence in the City, Casa Chiquita was disassembled in 2004 and reassembled adjacent to Whitewater Park.
