Ruth May Herdrich Hardy was born in Indiana in 1892, graduated from Indiana University in 1915, and worked as a Teacher, a Medical Social Worker, and as a General Contractor and Interior Designer. She also studied law and was admitted to the bar in Indiana and Arizona.
A visit to Palm Springs in 1935 led to her lifelong love of the desert. She built her first hotel, Casitas Del Monte, on five acres of land near Palm Canyon. When she sold Casitas a few years later, the profits on the sale enabled her to buy the Humphrey Birge estate located at Ramon and Belardo Roads. Ruth transformed the luxurious estate into an exclusive retreat which she named Ingleside Inn. Her devotion to "the carriage trade," as she called it, attracted international attention and the Inn was frequented by movie stars as well as leaders in business, politics, and the military. Norman Vincent Peale was a frequent guest, calling the Inn a "little gem of a resort, a charming retreat from the world of tensions, a place to renew body, mind, and spirit."
In addition to running Ingleside Inn, Ruth served as a City Councilwoman for Palm Springs from 1948 to 1960. During her tenure, she initiated the practice of lighting the palm trees that still line Palm Canyon Drive, and was responsible for the creation of a number of parks in the area, including Tamarisk Park, which was renamed Ruth Hardy Park in her honor shortly after her death in 1965.
Ruth was honored by her alma mater, Indiana University, with its Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1959. Part of the award reads, "…from small beginnings, fortified with rare courage and wisdom, she has built in the arid wilderness a retreat from a world of tension where a myriad of her friends may renew body, mind, and spirit."
A visit to Palm Springs in 1935 led to her lifelong love of the desert. She built her first hotel, Casitas Del Monte, on five acres of land near Palm Canyon. When she sold Casitas a few years later, the profits on the sale enabled her to buy the Humphrey Birge estate located at Ramon and Belardo Roads. Ruth transformed the luxurious estate into an exclusive retreat which she named Ingleside Inn. Her devotion to "the carriage trade," as she called it, attracted international attention and the Inn was frequented by movie stars as well as leaders in business, politics, and the military. Norman Vincent Peale was a frequent guest, calling the Inn a "little gem of a resort, a charming retreat from the world of tensions, a place to renew body, mind, and spirit."
In addition to running Ingleside Inn, Ruth served as a City Councilwoman for Palm Springs from 1948 to 1960. During her tenure, she initiated the practice of lighting the palm trees that still line Palm Canyon Drive, and was responsible for the creation of a number of parks in the area, including Tamarisk Park, which was renamed Ruth Hardy Park in her honor shortly after her death in 1965.
Ruth was honored by her alma mater, Indiana University, with its Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1959. Part of the award reads, "…from small beginnings, fortified with rare courage and wisdom, she has built in the arid wilderness a retreat from a world of tension where a myriad of her friends may renew body, mind, and spirit."
Ruth May Herdrich Hardy was born in Indiana in 1892, graduated from Indiana University in 1915, and worked as a Teacher, a Medical Social Worker, and as a General Contractor and Interior Designer. She also studied law and was admitted to the bar in Indiana and Arizona.
A visit to Palm Springs in 1935 led to her lifelong love of the desert. She built her first hotel, Casitas Del Monte, on five acres of land near Palm Canyon. When she sold Casitas a few years later, the profits on the sale enabled her to buy the Humphrey Birge estate located at Ramon and Belardo Roads. Ruth transformed the luxurious estate into an exclusive retreat which she named Ingleside Inn. Her devotion to "the carriage trade," as she called it, attracted international attention and the Inn was frequented by movie stars as well as leaders in business, politics, and the military. Norman Vincent Peale was a frequent guest, calling the Inn a "little gem of a resort, a charming retreat from the world of tensions, a place to renew body, mind, and spirit."
In addition to running Ingleside Inn, Ruth served as a City Councilwoman for Palm Springs from 1948 to 1960. During her tenure, she initiated the practice of lighting the palm trees that still line Palm Canyon Drive, and was responsible for the creation of a number of parks in the area, including Tamarisk Park, which was renamed Ruth Hardy Park in her honor shortly after her death in 1965.
Ruth was honored by her alma mater, Indiana University, with its Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1959. Part of the award reads, "…from small beginnings, fortified with rare courage and wisdom, she has built in the arid wilderness a retreat from a world of tension where a myriad of her friends may renew body, mind, and spirit."
A visit to Palm Springs in 1935 led to her lifelong love of the desert. She built her first hotel, Casitas Del Monte, on five acres of land near Palm Canyon. When she sold Casitas a few years later, the profits on the sale enabled her to buy the Humphrey Birge estate located at Ramon and Belardo Roads. Ruth transformed the luxurious estate into an exclusive retreat which she named Ingleside Inn. Her devotion to "the carriage trade," as she called it, attracted international attention and the Inn was frequented by movie stars as well as leaders in business, politics, and the military. Norman Vincent Peale was a frequent guest, calling the Inn a "little gem of a resort, a charming retreat from the world of tensions, a place to renew body, mind, and spirit."
In addition to running Ingleside Inn, Ruth served as a City Councilwoman for Palm Springs from 1948 to 1960. During her tenure, she initiated the practice of lighting the palm trees that still line Palm Canyon Drive, and was responsible for the creation of a number of parks in the area, including Tamarisk Park, which was renamed Ruth Hardy Park in her honor shortly after her death in 1965.
Ruth was honored by her alma mater, Indiana University, with its Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1959. Part of the award reads, "…from small beginnings, fortified with rare courage and wisdom, she has built in the arid wilderness a retreat from a world of tension where a myriad of her friends may renew body, mind, and spirit."
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