Hermosa Inn

The Hermosa Inn is a small boutique hotel located in the affluent Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley near 32nd Street and Camelback Road. Though not as well known as some of the larger resort hotels in Phoenix, the Hermosa Inn is highly regarded by many established travel companies, including AAA, Condé Nast Johansens, and Fodor's.The Hermosa Inn is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.HistoryCowboy artist Alonzo "Lon" Megargee purchased 6acre of land in what is now considered Paradise Valley in 1935. He built his studio of adobe bricks in the middle of the site and kept adding to it, calling his home Los Arcos and later Casa Hermosa, meaning "beautiful house."Megargee had no formal plans for the building. Influenced by architecture he had studied in Spain and Mexico, he used old wooden beams from an abandoned mine and poured a mixture of oil and ash from the roof to age the exterior walls. Due to the extended length of the stays of many of his guests, Megargee began running a guest ranch to supplement his artist's income. Local law enforcement suspected that Megargee used the ranch for illegal gambling, so he constructed a tunnel from the main building to the stables to provide an easy escape into the desert should the law make a surprise visit.