The Arizona Inn opened on December 18, 1930, with a dinner and dance attended by a select group of couples from the nearby University of Arizona. In four years, the establishment’s founder and owner, Isabella Greenway [1886-1953], would be sworn in as the first congresswoman in the state’s history, continuing an important legacy of public service. During the inn’s opening reception, Greenway declared it, “A simple, home-like, cottage hotel, complete in its luxuries and convenience of service, and built with the desire to give its guests privacy, quiet, and sunshine.” Those three principles would be a guiding vision for decades as the family steered the property through additions and improvements, judiciously restoring the first generation of buildings.