The Vista del Arroyo has been host...

The Vista del Arroyo has been host to the rich, the insane, the contagious, the homeless and, most recently, the judicious. So why not a few tourists?

This Friday at 10 a.m., and every third Friday of the month, visitors can tour this former resort, which looms over the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena.

Thanks to a $10.8-million renovation about five years ago, the Spanish-style building and tower became the home of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In the process, several rooms in the 70-year-old structure, which has six stories and a basement, were restored to their original grandeur.

In the 1920s, wealthy Easterners would journey by train to Pasadena and stay a month or more at the hotel, docent Barbara Andrews said. Some built their own vacation bungalows, which resembled mansions more than cottages.

In the ‘30s, like many other resort hotels during the Depression, the Vista del Arroyo fell on hard times. In 1943, the government converted Vista del Arroyo to the

McCornack Army Hospital. The main building often housed soldiers diagnosed as insane; bungalows became isolation wards for those with contagious diseases.

Before the restoration, the building and grounds had become surplus government property, partially occupied by transients.

Tour highlights include the lobby, the law library (once the grand dining hall) and the view over the arroyo from the top floor.

Some visitors are impressed with the craftsmanship and architectural details too costly to put into modern structures, Andrews said. Some elderly ones linger in the comparatively plain courtroom 3, a former ballroom.

“In the 1930s, this is where they had their proms and dinner dances,” one woman said. “That’s where people have the fond memories.”

Telephone (818) 351-9363 or (818) 790-8904 for more information.