Time Machine: 1987

Long after it opened as the Impala Lodge, and long before it reopened as the Triangle Inn Palm Springs, the Inn was converted into apartments.

The Triangle House was rented as a separate home, and units in the two hotel buildings were turned into eight separate rental units. Lots of changes, including the addition of the mailbox unit (still in place as you enter the Inn), and the installation of separate phone lines and separate electric meters were made in order to accommodate individual renters.

We don't know exactly when the Inn was converted into apartments, but our good friend Bob Hoven (the now deceased publisher of MegaScene), told us that it was definitely rented as apartments throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s when Palm Springs, like Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City and other resort destinations that had seen their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s saw significant declines in their popularity.

Bob told us he had wonderful memories of visiting the then-owner of the property, who lived in the Triangle House for a portion of that time. Bob said he held wonderful parties, although Bob was quick to admit that many of this memories from that time were a bit foggy, not because of his age, but rather because of the variety of recreational drugs available at those parties!

We still don't know too much more about that period of time than Bob told us, but we were fortunate, about a two years ago, to come into contact with a fellow who rented the Triangle House in the late 1980s.

He, and a couple of elderly (and reportedly highly eccentric) ladies were, in fact, the last renters to occupy the property before Matthew and Kevin (our predecessors) purchased it, rehabbed it, and opened it as The Triangle Inn. We asked lots of questions about the property, and he shared what he knew with us.

He also promised to return with some photos he had form when he lived in the house, and, in fact did so a year later.

The photos in this blog are from 1987, two years before the property became the Triangle Inn, and although you'll find some of them to be very different, you'll also find a number of quite familiar things that are still very much a part of the Inn today. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into our past!