Cathedral City marked its centennial at last week’s city council meeting with a special presentation and proclamation ahead of a community event later this month to celebrate the occasion.
“Before the streets and houses appeared, Highway 111 traced a ribbon through the desert, curling along the foot of the mountains,” Cynthia Schultz, associate planner for the city, said at the August 13 meeting. “When two real estate developers from Los Angeles met up with local investors, they stitched together a team to build the start of a city at the mouth of Cathedral Canyon.”
Though the city wasn’t incorporated until 1981, the community’s modern founding dates back to August 1925 when those four men — George Allen, Jack Grove, Glenn Plumley, and M.V. Van Fleet — hired a surveyor to map out a desert subdivision. Allen and Plumley later opened a real estate office selling desert lots with prices that started at $300, Schultz said.
Stay up to date with the latest from The Record. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter today!
“The city grew and by the 1930s the city had a volunteer fire department and a town hall,” Schultz said. “The growing city attracted tourists, artists, gold miners and outsiders seeking solace, affordability, sunshine and a sense of freedom.”
The city continued to grow, Schultz said, due to the unincorporated community’s lax regulations on gambling halls and related businesses that allowed them to operate more freely than in neighboring cities until a statewide crackdown shuttered them.
“As those shadowy chapters faded, the artistic community flourished, especially in the cove, where many artists made their homes and contributed to the cultural fabric of the city for generations,” Schultz said. “This dual identity as a haven for creativity and a place of reinvention defined Cathedral City long before it became a municipality.”
But even before Allen, Grove, Plumley and Van Fleet set out to make their mark on the community, the Cahuilla Indians inhabited the land, living throughout the Coachella Valley for more than 2,000 years, according to the city’s website.
In 1876, the Agua Caliented Band of Cahuilla Indians established a reservation, which was expanded in 1877, according to the tribe. The reservation includes parts of Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage.
“Sometimes we feel like we don’t have a long history here in Cathedral City, as our incorporation is still fairly [recent],” Mayor Pro Tem Raymond Gregory said. “Although the incorporated history may not be that long, we have a long history and a lot to be proud of here in Cathedral City.”
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the city’s first modern development, the Cathedral City Historical Society is hosting a special event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on August 30 at the Mary Pickford Theatre.
The event is free to attend and will include a screening of the short film, “Cathedral City: Built by Grit and Grace,” as well as the 1963 film, “Palm Springs Weekend,” which was filmed at the Desert Palms Inn in Cathedral City.
More information about the event can be found here on the city’s website.
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet providing Riverside County with high-quality journalism free of charge. We’re able to do this because of the generous donations of supporters like you!