Howard P. Lapham was born in Oklahoma City, OK on May 11, 1914, and died on April 16, 2008, at 93. He was a developer, carpenter, draftsman, contractor, land planner, and architect. Lapham, a registered designer, arrived in the Coachella Valley from Stamford, Connecticut in 1954 at age 40. Initially intending to become a builder in his new desert home, Lapham soon was designing residences for wealthy and influential members of the Thunderbird Country Club along the Club’s fairways and up the slopes of what became known as Thunderbird Heights. Several of Lapham’s buildings appeared in Architectural Digest, including the Hyatt Robert von Dehn Residence (1960, Thunderbird Heights), the Peter Kiewit Residence (1960, Thunderbird Country Club), the Clarke Swanson Residence (1961, Thunderbird Country Club), the Bill Morrow Residence (1961, Silver Spur Ranch, Palm Desert), and the 1961 remodel of the Thunderbird Country Club clubhouse. He remodeled the famous Chi Chi Club in 1959, giving it an ultra-modern new façade. Lapham also designed Lord Fletcher’s English Pub in 1966 on what became known as ‘Restaurant Row’ on Highway 111 in Rancho Mirage. One of Lapham’s largest residential projects was the Mayan-themed Cook House, known as Ichpa Mayapan, built atop Thunderbird Heights in 1970. Between 1959 and 1963 some of Lapham's Palm Springs buildings were designed with assistance from Haralamb H. Georgescu, a Romanian-born architect.

6 Flat File Drawers

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