Stout's Hotel - Gila Bend, AZ
N 32° 56.843 W 112° 42.966
12S E 339584 N 3646760
Stout's Hotel, the Jewel of the Desert, served railroad traffic, highway traffic, and then again, railroad traffic in Gila Bend, Arizona.
Waymark Code: WMZR6B
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 12/26/2018
Views: 3
Stout's hotel opened in 1927 between the railroad and the main highway in the town of Gila Bend. The original building had combined a hotel and a market starting in the early 1920's. The market burned down but the hotel survived. Albert Stout decided to focus on the hotel and hired the architectural firm of Henry C. Trost to design a building. Trost, famous as the architect of many buildings throughout the southwest, designed the hotel with the main entrance facing the street rather than the railroad. Stout owned an ice house in the town and took advantage of the location to open an ice cream parlor in the hotel, catering to drivers in Model T's crossing the desert at 25 mph. The hotel used abalone shell and coral in the flooring and registration desk giving it the nickname Jewel of the Desert. Always reliant on the railroad traffic for business, the hotel closed in 1985 when the railroad stopped. The structure remains in place and efforts are underway to restore the building.
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