Hilltop House’s fate a sign of High Desert’s vanishing history

Marcella “Marcy” Taylor, head of the Apple Valley Legacy Museum.

In March, the Apple Valley Town Council voted unanimously to demolish the Hilltop House, the abandoned structure that any resident of the High Desert can easily identify.

While the house has fallen into disrepair, many residents are saddened by the imminent demolition because the Hilltop House has not only been ingrained into the mountainside but also the communal memory of desert residents.

The Hilltop House and the adjacent Apple Valley Inn have acted as a refuge to prominent figures, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers, to name a few.

Famously, it was where Nixon retreated after his defeat in the 1960 Presidential Election and where he would write his best seller, “Six Crises.” The Hilltop House’s allure of grandeur was developed by one of the High Desert’s most eccentric personalities, Newton P. Bass.

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Bass, having earned his wealth from real estate and oil drilling, retired at 43 in Apple Valley. Partnering with fellow businessman Bud Westland, Bass founded the Apple Valley Ranchos Land Company in 1943 and bought 6,300 acres of land to develop. Bass built the Hilltop House with Francisco Artegas as the home designer.

Famed for exaggerating, Bass hoped to utilize the house to entice white men and women to purchase land in the city. Quickly, profits arrived with the rich and glamorous of Hollywood and the political world.

Despite its hopes for longevity, the Hilltop House and the Apple Valley Inn would fall into disrepair after Bass’ death in 1983. The inn that once played host to Carey Grant, John Wayne, and Jayne Mansfield now only entertains the tumbleweeds that dangle in the rusted gate surrounding the empty pool.

Marcella “Marcy” Taylor, head of the Apple Valley Legacy Museum, has been inundated with visitors since the City Council voted for demolition.

“We love answering any questions the residents have, and many of those questions are about the demolition,” says Taylor.

With her trademark silver hair that reaches past her shoulders, Taylor poured over the rich history of the Hilltop House. That history includes the house being a site of idyllic desert weddings, rambunctious nights for Hollywood actors, and the 1965 film “Saturday Night Bath.”

“It’s a ridiculous little movie, but people here love it because it was filmed at the Hilltop House. There’s a connection there, and the older people love having that,” says Taylor as she displays the historical items with care and a touch of nostalgia.

The presence of a long forgotten age is replete throughout Apple Valley and Victorville. To many outsiders, the desert is a desolate dirt-covered region that, ostensibly, possesses nothing to analyze.

Yet, similar to desert rock strata, the Victor Valley contains, preserved in time and cross-section, social and cultural strands of a regime of memory. Any local can recognize the American Western paradise that was attempted to be fashioned in the city.

From thoroughfares named Rodeo Drive to parks dedicated to Dale Evans and Roy Rogers, the persistent presence of the want to hold onto some strand of the past is persistent.

“Everything is getting knocked down,” Taylor says as she leaves through binders of newspaper clippings that detail the Hilltop House’s story. “People want to have something to hold onto, but whenever something is demolished, it’s like someone dies. There’s mourning because memories are being lost.”

In 2020, the abandoned school campus of Victor Valley High was demolished, much to the chagrin of former students and residents of the High Desert. The campus was built in 1937 and educated a large number of desert residents before it was damaged by a fire in 2018.

The gym was also demolished despite the building being a local historical point of interest. The demolition of historic buildings has been an increasing trend in recent years.

More buildings in the cities of Apple Valley and Victorville are planned for demolition and are being bought by outside developers, Taylor said.

It is not hyperbolic to state that the High Desert is experiencing an identity crisis, she said. The recent demolitions are not just examples of destroying abandoned buildings but the destruction of everything that ties the High Desert to a historical past.

Consequently, the city’s residents have been forced into a historical limbo, a liminal space of modern artificiality, Taylor said.

The work of the Apple Valley Legacy Museum has acted to preserve local history, but such actions need to be bolstered by a civic governmental commitment, Taylor said.