Car crash damages exterior of Lord Fletcher's building in Rancho Mirage early Tuesday
A person crashed their car early Tuesday morning into the former Lord Fletcher’s building in Rancho Mirage, roughly five months after the site came under new ownership.
For more than 50 years, the building along Highway 111 housed the iconic restaurant owned and operated by the Fletcher family, but it went up for sale in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The building was officially sold late last year for $1.4 million to a limited liability company organized by an individual in Rancho Mirage, according to property and business license records. The Desert Sun is attempting to reach the new owner, but those efforts have been unsuccessful so far.
This week's incident likely means the new owner has a bit more work on their hands than originally expected. The crash was reported early Tuesday, with CalFire officials responding to a request for help from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department at 1:28 a.m.
The first officers on scene reported a vehicle on its side in the southeast wall of the building, with one person trapped in the car, according to CalFire spokesperson April Newman.
“They were able to extricate the person within 20 minutes of arriving on scene, and the person was transported with moderate injuries by ground ambulance to an area hospital,” Newman said.
Newman was unable to offer additional information, such as whether drugs or alcohol may have been a factor in the crash. She referred other questions to the sheriff’s department, which is investigating the collision and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The damaged exterior wall – right next to the old restaruant's iconic sign that residents pass heading north along Highway 111 – was already boarded up with a large piece of plywood by Wednesday morning when a journalist with The Desert Sun visited the scene.
It’s unclear what will happen next with the building. When it was listed in 2020, Michael Fletcher, the son of the storied restaurant’s founder, said the family hoped that the restaurant would continue under new ownership.
The Fletcher family built their namesake restaurant in 1966, six years after arriving in the desert from Los Angeles. It was frequented by movie stars in its early days including Carry Grant and Elizabeth Taylor, while Frank Sinatra was a frequent guest and, by some accounts, would occasionally launch into impromptu singing at the restaurant.
The food and decor followed an old-English theme with knickknacks like display China and a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill adorning the space. Dishes included a range of British fare like beef ribs, roast chicken and Scottish Salmon with English rice pudding for dessert.
Fletcher said at the time the property was originally listed that most of those decorations would be sold along with the restaurant, but it’s unclear how many were included in the final deal last year.
Desert Sun Business Reporter James B. Cutchin contributed to this report, which also included reporting from former staff writer Sherry Barkas.
Tom Coulter covers the cities of Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells. Reach him at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Car crash damages exterior of old Lord Fletcher's building in Rancho Mirage
