The lakeside Thunderbird Lodge estate, built by multimillionaire George Whittell in 1936, is one of the last and best examples of residential architecture on Lake Tahoe in the days when wealthy San Francisco Bay Area residents built summer homes at the blue mountain lake.
The property was Whittell’s playground, with exotic animal cages and barns, a separate poker cottage and secret passageways cut through granite. At one time, the millionaire owned most of the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe, and today, the retreat remains his legacy.
The Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society conducts tours and special events at the site, which it pledges to protect and preserve for the public. The society has raised more than half the $10 million it needs to preserve the Thunderbird Lodge National Historic District, thanks to a major gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The work involves restoring the interior and two outbuildings to the style of the property’s heyday.
For more information or to request a tour, please call 775‐828‐3536 or visit www.thunderbirdlodge.org
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