Historic Palm Springs Araby rock homes for sale for the first time in 45 years

Up a winding private dirt road, above the Palm Springs neighborhoods filled with tourists and snowbird retirees, sits a 20-acre community made almost entirely of rocks. “Hopi Village,” also known as the Araby rock homes, consists of four houses built into a ridge, designed by prolific Palm Springs designer and contractor R. Lee Miller around 1929. Two of these homes are for sale for the first time in 45 years — and both just got drastic price cuts. 

Local lore swirled around these unique homes for years, likely due to the town’s connections to the movie “The Wizard of Oz.” The film’s producer, Mervyn LeRoy, had for decades lived in Palm Springs, as did other contributors to the film, including a writer, an actor, a special effects artist and a film editor, who all had homes in the region. The rumors go that some of the little people who starred in the Munchkinland parts of the film used their earnings to build the rock homes, crafting them to fit their size. 

But this is just a myth passed around by local teens that stretches back generations, said real estate agent Nyla Patzner, who is representing both properties for sale. “There’s a lot of folklore up there,” she said. “People used to call it Munchkinville, Hobbit Land, saying dwarves lived up there.” 

In reality, Miller himself dreamed up the tiny enclave of small rock dwellings. Historical documents suggest the homes were developed within four years, with Miller himself residing in one of the residences while he oversaw the project. Palm Springs was growing rapidly in the 1920s and ’30s, becoming known as an escape from the city for both artists and the Hollywood elite. The prevailing architecture at the time embraced natural materials, so most of the stone used to construct the buildings is likely native to the area, according to historical documents. 

Though Miller was never formally trained as an architect, he became a local celebrity of sorts due to his designs; he also built the nearby Andreas Canyon Club. 

The late architect David Levy, who died in 2022, had owned both properties since the 1970s, and they were “his pride and joy,” Patzner said. His daughter is now selling them. The two-bedroom, one-bathroom home at 2501 S. Araby Drive is listed for $599,000, down from its original price tag of $1 million in September 2022. It blends into the hillside and includes a patio and detached garage.  

Priced at $649,000, down from its initial list price of $1.1 million, 2550 S. Araby Drive is a one-bedroom, two-bathroom home, plus a garage and a “casita” with a full bathroom that was once used as an artist’s studio. The main home also includes a hidden room accessible behind a bookcase. 

Patzner said she’s had “thousands of phone calls” since the homes hit the market two years ago, with interest from celebrities, small hoteliers, fashion designers and artists from all over the U.S. — and even the U.K. But both homes need extensive renovation work to bring them up to today’s standards. “This is a needle-in-a-haystack buyer,” she said. “They need the heart of an artist but the savvy of a business person.”

Each has a historic resource designation from the city of Palm Springs, but that shouldn’t intimidate potential buyers, said city planner Ken Lyon. He said it’s possible to build a more modern home on the lots while restoring the other structures or adapting their use. “When people associate Palm Springs, they think of midcentury, but these really tell the story of an early part of Palm Springs history, when it was much more bohemian and it was a place artists would come and go into the surrounding mountains,” Lyon said.

Use as a short-term rental is also a possibility, though Patzner said she doesn’t think it’s likely given their fragile nature. “It’s a piece of Palm Springs history,” she said. “These probably won’t come back on the market for another 50 years.”