The Wigwam, also known as the Wigwam Hotel or Wigwam Resort, is a resort hotel in

Litchfield Park, Arizona Litchfield Park is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is located west of Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,847, up from 5,476 in 2010. History The town of Litchfield Park is a historically a ...

which opened in 1929.

History

The Wigwam Hotel originally served only as guest housing for executives of the

Goodyear Tire Company The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturing company founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling and based in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, S ...

when they visited their cotton farms located in the area. Goodyear executive and primary overseer of the company’s cotton production, Paul W. Litchfield, built the hotel on his land in what is now Litchfield Park. The hotel opened to the public for the first time on Thanksgiving Day 1929. The first building on the property was the Organization House, a meeting place for Goodyear built in 1918. The structure still stands today. The hotel has since expanded into a resort with 331 rooms. The resort boasts such amenities as three golf courses, nine tennis courts, and three swimming pools. During the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

, in 2008, the property had gone bankrupt. Local businessman

Jerry Colangelo Jerry Colangelo (born November 20, 1939) is an American businessman and sports executive. He formerly owned the Phoenix Suns of the NBA, the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, the Arizona Sandsharks of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the Ari ...

, purchased the property. Colangelo’s company, JDM Partners, invested heavily in the resort making historically sensitive renovations. The Wigwam Hotel has been listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a member of the

Historic Hotels of America Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program accepts nominations and identifies hotels that have maintained their authenticity, sense of pla ...

since 2010. In 2022, the hotel was named by Historic Hotels of America as the best historic resort in the United States. Among the celebrities which have stayed in the hotel are Maya Angelou,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

Daniel Day Lewis Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English retired actor. Often described as one of the preeminent actors of his generation, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, incl ...

and Paul Newman.

Golf Courses

In 1930, less than a year after the hotel opened to the public, a nine hole golf course was developed and opened at the resort. In 1935, this course was expanded to eighteen holes by VO “Red” Allen. In 1965,

Robert Trent Jones Robert Trent Jones Sr. (June 20, 1906 – June 14, 2000) was a British–American golf course architect who designed or re-designed more than 500 golf courses in 45 U.S. states and 35 countries. In reference to this, Jones took pride in sayi ...

was brought to the resort to design and oversee the development of the properties’ second course, as well as redesign the first course built in the 30s. These courses were renamed the “Blue” and “Gold” courses. The resort’s third course, the “Red Course,” was built in 1972. The hotel's golf resort is the only 54-hole golf resort in the state of Arizona.

References

{{Reflist Hotels in Phoenix, Arizona Hotels established in 1929 Historic American Buildings Survey in Arizona Tourist attractions in Phoenix, Arizona Spanish Colonial architecture 1929 establishments in Arizona