184: A Grand Hotel in the Middle of Nowhere (Sun Valley Lodge)
This week’s field trip episode started with a question Stacy couldn’t shake: Why is there a beautiful historic hotel in the middle of nowhere, Idaho?
The Sun Valley Lodge isn't just any hotel. It's a grand, carefully designed resort surrounded by mountains and ranchland. When Stacy realized Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the architect behind many of the lodges in the National Parks, was involved, it explained the design—but not the decision to build it there.
So Stacy sat down in person with historian John Lundin to learn how Sun Valley came to be.
He shares how Union Pacific Railroad, led by Averell Harriman, built an ambitious destination from scratch during the Great Depression. It was a bold, "if you build it, they will come" kind of idea.
From opulent hotspot to wartime reinvention to decline, and back again, the history makes one thing clear: building Sun Valley was only the beginning.
Mentioned in this Episode
- Sign up for the Wood Window Workshop at Blake Hill House
- Join Stacy on Substack
- Visit Sun Valley Lodge
- Enter to win John Lundin's book (Rafflecopter has shut down! I'll put instructions for how to enter to win on Substack.)
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Intro and Outro music by AudionautiX
Thank you for listening to True Tales From Old Houses.
Until next time,
