Racquet Club of Palm Springs
- Architect
- Albert Frey
- Year
- 1934
- City
- Palm Springs, CA
The Racquet Club, designed by architect Albert Frey, opened on December 15, 1934, founded by actors Charles Farrell and Ralph Bellamy with just two tennis courts. It grew into a full resort with the Bamboo Room bar, bungalows, and a swimming pool, becoming a gathering and party venue for Hollywood's show-business elite as well as a stop for champion players from Bobby Riggs to Billie Jean King.
the building
Bungalows and the Bamboo Room. Beyond its original two tennis courts, the resort added bungalows, a swimming pool, and the Bamboo Room bar, the amenities that turned a tennis club into a full Palm Springs resort complex.
the architect
Albert Frey, credited as a pioneering desert modernist architect who helped catalyze Palm Springs' modernist building boom, designed the Racquet Club the same year it opened, in 1934.
significance
The club hosted the 1975 Davis Cup Americas Zone before entering a decline. A massive fire on July 23, 2014 destroyed the building, which was subsequently demolished.