The Rosalie Palm Springs

The Rosalie: A Short History of 711 South Riverside Drive

Long before it was a hotel, the property at 711 South Riverside Drive was simply where people lived.

It was built around the middle of the 1950s, in the Tahquitz River Estates tract — one of the residential neighborhoods that filled in south Palm Springs after the war. The exact opening year has slipped through the cracks of the record, but by 1962 the Desert Riverside Apartments were fully part of the neighborhood. That spring, a family welcomed a baby boy home to one of the flats. That June, a...

The Rosalie: A Short History of 711 South Riverside Drive

Long before it was a hotel, the property at 711 South Riverside Drive was simply where people lived.

It was built around the middle of the 1950s, in the Tahquitz River Estates tract — one of the residential neighborhoods that filled in south Palm Springs after the war. The exact opening year has slipped through the cracks of the record, but by 1962 the Desert Riverside Apartments were fully part of the neighborhood. That spring, a family welcomed a baby boy home to one of the flats. That June, a pair of newlyweds moved in straight from their wedding. The following summer, a daughter of the house announced her engagement in the Desert Sun.

The building was a typical mid-century desert apartment court: about a dozen garden-style studio flats arranged around a swimming pool, air-conditioned, furnished, utilities paid. Period ads described it plainly as “modern garden-type” apartments with a pool and a TV, available by the month.

The line between living somewhere and vacationing there has always been thin in the desert, and this address blurred it early. By the late 1980s the property was doing business as the “Desert Riverside Apartment Hotel” — part residence, part retreat, and an early sign of what it would eventually become.

That change came the following decade. A group of local owners converted the aging apartment court into a boutique hotel, keeping its mid-century character — original artwork, simple materials, and flats guests entered with a code rather than through a front desk. By 2015 it had a name, The Wesley, and a steady following of travelers who liked that the whole place felt private, like a pool house they were sharing with a few friends.

The property changed hands again in 2016, to Longley Hospitality, and later came under the management of AvantStay, joining the Palm Springs Preferred Small Hotels. The format that set it apart stayed the same: nine to ten flats, a courtyard built around the pool, and the option to rent the entire property — for a wedding, a reunion, a company retreat, or a group that simply wanted the place to themselves.

In 2026 the property closed for a full renovation and reopened under a new name: The Rosalie. The update brought refreshed interiors in blush, white, and warm neutrals and reworked outdoor spaces, with the same courtyard pool at its center. Today it offers nine flats that sleep up to thirty, along with a jacuzzi, a firepit, and a putting green among the palms.

Seventy years on, through each of its names, 711 South Riverside Drive still does the same thing it always has — giving people a private, comfortable place in the sun to gather.