The Wrigley Mansion was built in 1932 as a 50th wedding anniversary gift to Ada, the wife of chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. The Wrigley’s named the home La Colina Solana or Sunny Hill. This summer “cottage” was built atop a knoll located just above The Biltmore Hotel & Resort and commanding spectacular views in all directions. At 16,850 square feet, this was the smallest home the Wrigley’s owned with 24 rooms and 17 baths. William Wrigley only enjoyed the home a few times before he fell ill and died here.
The Wrigley Mansion is open to the public for meals and a fabulous brunch on Sundays. It can also be rented for weddings and other events. The service is impeccable and the views are outstanding. Check the link for more information about the services and some fantastic photos.
The Wrigley Mansion is another Phoenix Point of Pride.
Great idea to post the Wrigley Mansion. We have gone there for special occasions, such as Mother's Day brunches, birthdays, etc.
ReplyDeleteHere a couple of other tidbits about it. Whenever Mrs. Wrigley bought a pair of shoes, she bought 6 and kept one pair in each of their houses.
The Wrigley Mansion was purchased in the earl 1980's by the civic-minded Western Savings and Loan, which was owned by a family that included a former Phoenix mayor. Western bought it as a very reasonable price because it needed modernization. For example, the building had no air conditioning! If you were the Wrigleys with 6 other houses, why would you come to Phoenix in the summer?
When they bought the mansion, they thought it had lots of wrought iron chadeliers and fixtures. It turns out that they were brass in need of lots of polishing.
The Wrigley Mansion was more recently owned by Gordie Hormel of the Hormel meat packing company. He would frequently play the piano for the Sunday brunches, and may patrons had no idea they were being entertained musically by a billionaire.
The lobby of the mansion has an original Renoir portrait of a young girl, by the way.
A beautiful vista! The stories of wealth and extreme indulgence (Dave's tidbit re. the shoes) gives me pause. My interpretation is that one's life has to be very vapid to be so involved in such self-indulgence.
ReplyDeleteWho'd have thought gewing gum would make that much money. Perhaps some of the income from his wealth could go to cleaning up the millions of gum spat out on streets all over the world.
ReplyDeleteA chewing gum magnate! This would never cross my mind!
ReplyDeleteWow, I could cope with this as my small country pile! You could probably fit 10 or 15 of my flat in there!
ReplyDeleteOops, that last comment was me! Pressed enter by mistake!
ReplyDeleteFor JM, Mo and Jackie,
ReplyDeleteEach of you is a European, so you perhaps are not as familiar with other aspects of the Wrigley family. In addition to dhwing gum, they also owned the Chicago Cubs major league baseball team and the stadium in which the belovd Cubs play is still called Wrigley Field.
The Wrigleys also owned virtually all of Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles, where they also had a home. They donated it to a nature conservancy so about 95% of its land is left undeveloped for animals.