coaches, and managers taking part in the spring training Cactus League of Arizona stayed at the hotel, including Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Leo Durocher, the latter requesting Room 103 every time he visited, for its nearness to the lobby. Chicago-based sports reporter Dave Hoekstra writes that he and his "Bleacher Bum" colleagues did not have enough money to stay under the same roof as the baseball players they were watching, and instead crowded into rooms at the nearby Safari Hotel. Hoekstra notes that, throughout the 1960s, "the Ho was the high-roller place in the Sun Valley". The Valley Ho competed favorably with the Safari Hotel, erected about the same time east of Scottsdale Fashion Square. Both hotels offered premium hospitality, and helped Scottsdale expand its public image. With the Valley Ho an immediate financial success, in 1958 Varney designed and built two more wings of guest rooms to the northwest of the original complex. The same materials and style were employed on the expansion buildings, but instead of single exterior corridors with rooms to one side, the added wings loaded central corridors with rooms on both sides. Another Scottsdale landmark hotel, the Mountain Shadows Resort, opened the following year, in 1959. These three tourist havens reflected a desired cosmopolitan and exotic feel on Scottsdale. Renovation In 1973, Robert Foehl died and Evelyn Foehl sold the hotel to Ramada, a hotel chain. The Ramada managers remodeled the hotel, stripping out and covering much of what they considered an outdated interior. The hotel was named Ramada Valley Ho. Though it remained a fashionable location for a while, its original character was largely absent and it began to suffer from neglect and disrepair. It continued to host conferences and business meetings, such as the Natural Health, Aromatherapy and Herb Conference & Trade Show in early 2000, and the Arizona LANBasher's League party in early 2001. Later that year, the hotel closed and was put on the market. Plans for its demolition were considered when no offers were made. To protect it, Alan Hess wrote a letter detailing its importance, and a successful campaign was mounted in Scottsdale to place it on the Scottsdale Historic Register in recognition of its significance to city history and its architectural connection to the past. To save it from demolition, business partners Scott Lyon and Bill Nassikas of Westroc Hotels & Resorts bought the property and undertook