When the city of Phoenix acquired Sky Harbor Airport in 1935, it was just a glimmer of what the facility is today. It had one terminal and served a small number of planes. According to Sky Harbor historians, “By December 1940, the airlines at Sky Harbor included American, TWA, Carl Knier’s Sky Harbor Air Service and Southwest Airways, Inc., bringing the total number of planes at Sky Harbor to 35.”
But as the city expanded and industrialized in the wake of World War II, so did the airport, and by 1950, total passenger traffic had soared to more than 240,000. In September 1952, a new Terminal 1 opened, and the $835,000 investment — the equivalent of $10 million today — included a state-of-the-art control tower. Two years later, the Sky Riders Hotel, just northwest of the terminal, opened to the public.
Marketed as “The World’s First Airport Hotel,” Sky Riders featured 42 rooms, along with an expansive pool, at its launch. The Sky Cove restaurant opened in the hotel in 1957, and by 1962, the facility had grown to 200 rooms.
In the October 1954 issue of Arizona Highways, Allen C. Reed authored and photographed an eight-page feature about Sky Harbor and its modern amenities, including the hotel.
“This outstanding airport, in the land of ideal flying weather, as a worthy tribute to the modern science of flight, is well in pace with the present and has an alert outlook to the future,” Reed wrote. “By October 1, 1954, the new Sky Riders hotel, with 42 all modern, air conditioned, sound proof, television equipped rooms and a 62-foot tiled swimming pool, will be in operation.
“Still other additions, a theater, garage, service station, bank, shopping center, miniature golf course, to name a few, are planned to welcome riders of the skies and make their visits more pleasant and convenient, whether they drop in for moments or days. A recent visitor paused to take one sweeping glance over his shoulder at this airfield and the distant Phoenix skyline and said: ‘My first visit out here, but I’ll be back. This place is like a warm and friendly handshake.’ ”
Four decades later, in 1991, the hotel and Terminal 1 were demolished, shortly after the $248 million Terminal 4 opened.