Palm Spring's Mesa Gatehouse

At the entrance to Palm Spring's Mesa neighborhood there's a small masonry structure that looks like it's out of the Wild West. I've heard two stories about it, one that's factual and the other that might be embellished with a bit of romantic embroidery.

The gatehouse was built in the 1920s-1930s as an initial flourish for a housing development situated at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains. This timeframe is also when Prohibition was in force in the US. I've been told by a resident that the gatehouse served as a lookout for a speakeasy located up the street. I'm not sure whether this tale would pass the fact checking department of a newspaper, but I thought it was too charming of a tale not to pass along.