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.

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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!

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