Hilltop House (site)
Newton T. Bass wasn’t just an oilman looking to make money—he was a man with a big dream for the desert. In 1946, he and his partner, Bud Westlund, bought up huge stretches of land in Apple Valley. They didn’t just see sand and scrub; they saw a fresh start, a place where families and celebrities alike could come for health, sunshine, and wide-open skies.
To make people believe in that dream, Bass built the Apple Valley Inn in 1948. It wasn’t just a hotel—it was the heart of the pitch. Come stay in style, see the beauty of the desert, and maybe bump into Bob Hope or Marilyn Monroe at dinner. The Inn soon buzzed with movie stars, politicians, and land buyers. In 1965, Roy Rogers himself put his name on it, cementing its place as a piece of western glamour.
But Bass didn’t stop there. In 1957, he built himself a showpiece home high above it all, on what folks now call Bass Hill. The Hilltop House was something out of a magazine—designed by Francisco Artigas, a modernist architect from Mexico. It wasn’t just a house; it was part sculpture, part desert fortress. Boulders were built right into the walls, the pool straddled indoors and out, and giant windows made the whole desert your living room view. It even had its moment of Hollywood fame in a 1961 episode of Perry Mason.
Sadly, the dream didn’t last. In 1967, vandals torched the Hilltop House. Bass rebuilt it, but the spark was gone. It became an office, then sat empty, slowly crumbling into a ghost of what it once was. For decades, people looked up at the ruin on the hill and remembered what it had been.
The town finally stepped in. Apple Valley acquired the property in 2016, and in 2022, after a lot of tough conversations, the old Hilltop House was torn down. In its place, the Hilltop Legacy Park is planned—a place where people can walk trails, look out over the valley, and learn about Bass’s dream and the bold house that once stood there.
Even though the house is gone, Bass’s mark is still all over town. The stadium and the library carry his name, and Apple Valley itself carries his vision—a desert community built on optimism, sunlight, and a belief that the high desert could be a destination.
The Bass Hill Hilltop House was demolished in September 2022.
