Winslow, Arizona

By Kristy McCaffrey

Located in northeastern Arizona lies the town of Winslow. In 1880, Winslow became a division point for the Santa Fe Railway and in 1881 became a regular terminal. A post office was established in 1882. The town, originally just a tent settlement, was named for General Edward F. Winslow, president of the railroad.

Winslow in 1890.

Long before Flagstaff and Sedona became popular vacation towns in Arizona, everyone visited Winslow and the La Posada Hotel for special occasions. Built in 1929 by the Santa Fe Railway, it was the work of esteemed architect Mary Jane Colter, known for the design of many structures at the Grand Canyon. La Posada, however, was her masterpiece and favorite project.

Winslow in 1921.

La Posada is one of the last of a series of hotel-depot complexes built across the Southwestern United States in a collaboration between Fred Harvey and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Designed for a railroad traveling public, the original front door faced the tracks to the south. It was thought that most guests would arrive by train and stay for several days, so day tours to the Petrified Forest and Indian sites were made available. For a fee you could get a driver, a guide, a picnic, and a custom Packard or Cadillac touring car.

La Posada Hotel.

The Winslow-Lindbergh Regional Airport was designed by Charles Lindbergh and is the last remaining airfield in the world drafted by the famed pilot. Currently there are no commercial flights, but in the 1920s and ’30s TWA ran eight flights a day. Howard Hughes, the owner of TWA, was a frequent visitor.

Winslow was the biggest city in the region through the 1950’s. Fred Harvey thought it would grow to be like Santa Fe and become the cultural and money capital of northern Arizona. Downtown Winslow was so busy that Route 66—originally routed through the town—became the first divided highway in Arizona, and hosted department stores like Sears, Pennys and Wards, a 400-seat theater, and over a hundred local businesses. Unfortunately, the town declined as train travel became less prevalent and Interstate-40 bypassed the town.

Winslow was made famous in the Eagles’ 1972 song “Take It Easy”, written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey, and a monument on a street corner in town commemorates the reference.

Kristy standin' on the corner.

“...standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and such a fine sight to see. It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.”

Today, La Posada Hotel has been restored and tourism benefits the town, which lies in close proximity to the Navajo Reservation, the Painted Desert, and Meteor Crater.

Connect with Kristy

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Newsletter

Mary Jane Colter, Architect of the Southwest

One can only imagine how difficult it must have been to be a woman in the nineteenth century trying to have a career.  Mary Jane Colter, born in Pennsylvania and brought up in Minnesota, certainly succeeded by both strokes of luck and strokes of genius.

When Colter’s father passed away in 1886, she apparently took it upon herself to learn a trade in order to help with family finances.  She attended California School of Design—apparently in an all women’s class. Graduating in 1890, she apprenticed with a Californian firm and learned the then-popular, revived California Mission style. Sadly, her talents were put to other use for several more years, teaching at the Mechanic Arts High School and University Extension School in St. Paul. Then, by a stroke of good fortune, she came to the attention of Minnie Harvey Huckel, daughter of Fred Harvey who was building hotels and restaurants along the line of the Santa Fe Railroad.  While my colleague, Julie Lence, will be telling you all about Fred Harvey and the ‘Harvey Girls’ in a blog in a couple of weeks, I will concentrate on Colter’s works for the firm.

Mary Jane colter reading blueprints, 1921

Colter was originally hired for a summer job in 1902 decorating the Indian Building at the  Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque. The building was the hotel’s gift shop basically, and Colter created a series of rooms of both Hispanic and Native American design. She would go on to work for the Fred Harvey Company for thirty-eight years, doing both architecture and decor. It was Harvey’s exclusive contract with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad to provide hotels and restaurants between Chicago and Los Angeles that would afford Colter those years of work.

Colter spent time working as a display manager for a department store in Seattle before being hired permanently by Harvey in 1910. It was then she branched out into being both architect and decorator.  Her first works continued at Grand Canyon.  The area had been declared a National Monument in 1908 by President Teddy Roosevelt and while it was not until 1919 that it was established as a national park, tourism was definitely on the rise. When the ATSF Railroad brought in trains from Williams to Grand Canyon in 1901, making what had been a bone-jarring trip over rutted roads obsolete, the Grand Canyon’s fate as a tourist destination was sealed.

Colter’s style mixed Spanish Mission with Spanish Pueblo and Native American—Hopi Kivas, prehistoric ruins, sky villages, early pioneer buildings, surrounding geology, even woven baskets were subsumed into Colter’s designs. She had an eye for taking the surrounding geography into consideration and blending her construction with it. During the years she worked for Harvey she was decorator and  interior designer as well as architect. Her 1904 second project for Harvey was Hopi House, at Grand

Hopi House

Canyon’s South Rim. Another artisan sales building, it stands in contrast to El Tovar next door, which was done by another architect in the western chalet style. Hopi House is stone and was based on pueblos. It has the look of having been there before the idea of a national park ever took hold.

At Grand Canyon, Colter also created Hermit’s Rest and Lookout Studio and, after World War I, Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. Colter’s imagination often took form from stories surrounding the buildings.  For instance, Hermit’s Rest was named for Louis Boucher who used to guide tourists into the canyon in the 1890s and for whom Hermit Canyon was named.  Phantom Ranch was not only named for Phantom Creek but, in her mind, for the many ‘ghosts’ that roamed the area.

Lookout Studio

Other famous commissions of Colter’s included Desert View Watch Tower (1932) on the south rim of Grand Canyon, made to look as if it had been there for ages but with a steel inner frame constructed by railway bridge builders; Bright Angel Lodge (1935) in stone and timber, looking like an early pioneer homestead; El Navajo Hotel in Gallup, NM (1918 & 1923, demolished 1957) had a nod toward modern architecture; and dining rooms for Union Stations, the most famous being L.A. with its vaulted ceilings and Navajo design tiled floor (1939). But perhaps the most famous of  Colter’s works were the interior design of La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, and the complete design of

La Posada

La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona (1929).  Her vision for that was of  the hacienda of a wealthy Spanish Colonial landowner, and she designed everything from the china to the gardens.  While much of Colter’s interior design is gone—furniture, uniforms, lighting and so on—it has been restored and is now on the National Register of Historic Places along with ten other of her buildings, five of which are designated National Historic Landmarks. Her last work before her retirement to Santa Fe in 1948 was the 1947 renovation of Painted Desert Inn in the Petrified Forest National Park, AZ.

A chain-smoking, tough-minded woman, Mary Colter knew how to behave in a man’s world, insisting on the details  she wanted, overseeing minutiae that were of importance to her.  She lived to the age of eighty-eight, seeing some of her works demolished, others remodeled beyond recognition, yet today her legacy lives in buildings that capture the essence of the Southwest, functional yet timeless.  Her work will live on in the Mary Jane Colter National Historic Landmark District of Grand Canyon National Park.

Photos:

Mary Jane Colter reading blueprints, 1931, National Park Service

Hopi House, Wikipedia

Lookout Studio, NPS, Public Domain

La Posada, public domain

Mary Jane Colter

By Kristy McCaffrey

Mary Jane Colter

A visit to the Grand Canyon is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which are the various buildings designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter. In 1902, she became an architect, designer, and decorator for the Fred Harvey Company. At the time, American architecture followed the fashions of Europe, but Mary preferred to let her conceptions grow from the land, paying homage to the Native Americans who inhabited the area. Her designs include Hermit’s Rest, Lookout Studio, Bright Angel Lodge, Hopi House and the Watchtower—all located on the South Rim of Grand Canyon—along with Phantom Ranch, situated at the bottom of the canyon.

Mary Jane Colter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and while her family lived briefly in Texas and Colorado, the Colter’s finally settled in St. Paul, Minnesota when Mary was eleven, and she always considered this her home. She desired to pursue art as a career but couldn’t due to family opposition. It wasn’t until the death of her father that she moved toward following her dream.

Hopi House

Mary attended the California School of Design in San Francisco, studying art and design. Few universities taught architecture, so she apprenticed with a practicing architect. This was unusual for a woman, but Mary was determined. In 1890, as a new graduate, her biggest concern was finding a job to support her mother and sister. She returned to St. Paul as a teacher. In 1892, at the age of 23, she began a 15-year teaching career at the Mechanic Arts High School, an all-boys institution. Mary taught freehand and mechanical drawing, and after eight years her salary rose to 90 dollars a month. Ambitious, she also lectured at the University Extension on world history and architecture, and participated in the Century Club lectures in Minnesota and Iowa. In addition, she reviewed books as the literary editor of the St. Paul Globe. On her own, she studied archaeology. To her delight, she would eventually receive a job offer from the Fred Harvey Company.

Hermit's Rest

The Fred Harvey Company operated gift shops, newsstands, restaurants, and hotels of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway beginning in 1876. Mary’s first assignment was to decorate the Indian Building which was adjacent to a new hotel built in Albuquerque. Once that job was complete, however, the company had no more work for her and she returned to St. Paul to teach.

Lookout Studio

In 1904, when the Santa Fe Railway determined to extend a line to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, the Fred Harvey Company decided to build a hotel at the edge. Plans were commissioned for El Tovar, and Mary was hired to design an Indian building across from the hotel, which resembled a Swiss chalet. Her building, Hopi House, was based on Hopi dwellings located in Oraibi, Arizona. Once again, with this project complete, Mary returned to St. Paul and to teaching, needing the steady income it provided. Soon thereafter she took a job in Seattle to develop a decoration department for the Frederick and Nelson Department Store, and her mother and sister accompanied her. Tragically, her mother died within a year after becoming ill from pernicious anemia.

The Watchtower

In 1910, at the age of 41, Mary was finally offered a permanent job with the Fred Harvey Company. She would design and decorate the new Fred Harvey hotels, restaurants, and union station facilities, a coveted position, especially for a woman. She wasn’t without her detractors, as a railroad man once complained of her “poorly illuminated buildings.” Mary often used soft lighting to create a restful atmosphere.

Bright Angel Lodge

Those who knew Mary Colter describe her in many ways. To her critics, she was a small woman with piercing violet eyes and hair that was never combed. She chain-smoked, was outspoken, and even cruel at times. To her friends, she was tall and stately, a wonderful woman, fun to talk with, and a happy person interested in life around her. Once her designs of Phantom Ranch were constructed—individual cabins, a large dining hall, and a recreational hall at the bottom of Grand Canyon—she took the mule trip down to view her new buildings. At 53, she remained in good health.

Phantom Ranch

For 30 years, she worked as an architect (few women did) and completed 21 projects for the Fred Harvey Company. She considered the La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona her masterwork. It still stands today.

La Posada Hotel

In 1948, Colter retired to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and passed away in 1958 at the age of 88.

* * * *

Connect with Kristy

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Newsletter

La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona

By Kristy McCaffrey

Long before Flagstaff and Sedona became popular vacation towns in Arizona, everyone visited Winslow and the La Posada Hotel for special occasions. Built in 1929 by the Santa Fe Railway, it was the work of esteemed architect Mary Jane Colter, known for the design of many structures at the Grand Canyon. La Posada, however, was her masterpiece and favorite project.

La Posada is one of the last of a series of hotel-depot complexes built across the Southwestern United States in a collaboration between Fred Harvey and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Designed for a railroad traveling public, the original front door faced the tracks to the south. It was thought that most guests would arrive by train and stay for several days, so day tours to the Petrified Forest and Indian sites were made available. For a fee you could get a driver, a guide, a picnic, and a custom Packard or Cadillac touring car.

La Posada Hotel ~ Winslow, Arizona

Colter chose two patron saints for La Posada—San Pasqual, Patron Saint of Feasts, and San Ysidro, Patron of Farmers.

Mary Jane Colter

La Posada was officially a Harvey House. Usually, Harvey Girls had a distinct uniform—black dresses with white aprons. But Mary Jane Colter felt the uniform was too severe for La Posada so she substituted colorful aprons with green, blue, or red backgrounds, quilted cacti, donkeys, and snoozing, big-hatted ranch hands. La Posada was the only Harvey Hotel allowed a non-standard uniform.

The kitchens of La Posada were the finest in the Four Corners region. It wasn’t unusual in the 1930’s and 1940’s for hotel to serve 1000 meals a day. In addition to the main kitchen, there was a full bakery and butcher shop, store rooms and freezers, china and linen rooms, and a lead-lined walk-in humidor for cigars. They even refrigerated the kitchen trash to keep it from smelling.

Most halls ran north-south to capture prevailing winds, and guest doors were louvered to create convection currents. A wind tower exists to capture warm air as it blows in from the southwest across watered lawns, where it’s cooled, humidified, and pushed through public spaces in the hotel. Colter filled La Posada with such passive solar details to keep the hotel comfortable during Arizona’s hot summers.

Famous people who’ve visited include Howard Hughes (Winslow was a TWA stop and he owned the airline), and Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow, who resided during part of their honeymoon. They also stayed while Lindbergh designed Winslow’s airfield (the world’s only surviving Lindbergh-designed airport). Other famous guests: Albert Einstein, Will Rogers and Diane Keaton.

Added to the list of visitors - me!

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Personal Blog