Rancho de las Lomas

Situated on a ninety acre tract of rolling foothills in the Tucson Mountains, surrounded by untouched Sonoran Desert and centuries-old saguaros, stands Rancho de las Lomas, a surviving iconic example of Guest Ranch architecture and the most important design achievement of one of America’s first female architects, Margaret Fulton Spencer. Arriving in Tucson in 1938, Margaret purchased a 190-acre former chicken farm at the edge of the Tucson Mountains. Over the next several years, Spencer designed and oversaw the construction of Rancho de las Lomas. The design and construction was in the architectural tradition of Mary Jane Colter, whose work at the Grand Canyon for the Fred Harvey Company had helped define the regional architecture of the Southwest.