The chamber of commerce of Needles, California, is proposing a move into the historic El Garces railroad complex, built in 1908 as a Harvey House in that city.
Jerry Telles, a member of the chamber, made the pitch during a recent Needles City Council meeting, according to the Needles Desert Star.
The chamber of commerce now occupies a nondescript, one-story building at 100 G St., about a half-block from El Garces.
The newspaper reported:
“Since the Needles Chamber serves the city and the community as a chamber, a welcome center, a tourist bureau and a local information center, its current lodging is inadequate in several ways: the building is too small to conduct business, entertain tourists, provide office stations for one employee and two volunteer,” said Telles. “The proposal to relocate the chamber to the El Garces has much public support, local business support and it makes sense.”
Telles stated that the chamber can provide exposure to the “Crown Jewel of the Desert” to the traveling public, local visitors, Tri-state contacts and casual walk-ins and promote more interest in gaining other occupants.
“If the chamber were to locate to the El Garces, the chamber employee or volunteer could be available to assist in El Garces tours, since the chamber is open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,” said Telles.
The council instructed city staff to bring back an action item at its next meeting so it could set up a subcommittee to discuss the proposal further.
The idea to house the Needles chamber in El Garces makes so much sense, I’m surprised it wasn’t proposed earlier after it reopened to the public in 2014. If you’re trying to attract tourists to your city, why not house your chamber of commerce in the city’s arguably most distinctive and historic building?
El Garces, which served as a hotel and restaurant by the Fred Harvey Co. for about 40 years, closed in 1949. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
Allen Affeldt, savior of La Posada, another Harvey House, in Winslow, Arizona, sought to also restore El Garces as a hotel and restaurant starting in 2007. He abandoned the plan two years later after the Federal Transit Administration wouldn’t allow the city to deed the property to him.
Affeldt years later bought La Castaneda in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and is restoring that former Harvey House, with a tentative reopening date of 2019.
(Image of the restored El Garces in Needles, California, in 2015)