After the U.S. Civil War ended, my great grandfather, as part of his Union Army officer’s commission, was given a plot of land outside Dodge City, Kansas. But getting there from Ohio with his family was a grueling, months-long trip via canal boat and horse-drawn wagon. The opening of the trans-continental railroad changed all that. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway connected the eastern states with Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado in the 1870s.
In 1900, getting from Flagstaff, AZ to the Grand Canyon required a bumpy, dusty, eight-hour stagecoach ride that cost $15. After the A,T & SF Railway completed its track in 1901, the train trip cost $3.95.
But what happened after people got off the train? It took an enterprising businessman, Fred Harvey, to set up the infrastructure of hotels, restaurants and gift shops that made rail travel more comfortable, hospitable and enjoyable. And the person Harvey picked to design those buildings was Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter. For 38 years, Colter was the chief architect and decorator for the Fred Harvey Company.
Colter did more than envision the buildings. She designed their interiors, from the Hopi-inspired murals in the Grand Canyon Watchtower, to the bowls and plates in Winslow’s La Posada Hotel, to the jackrabbit ashtrays in Santa Fe’s La Fonda.
Harvey House hotels became famous for their high standards, and the “Harvey Girls,” a staff of exceptionally well-trained waitresses, were immortalized in the 1946 MGM musical starring Judy Garland.
Colter was a chain-smoking, Stetson-wearing, tough-minded woman who held her own as one of the very few female architects of her day. She had a grand flair for the theatrical, making her creations look more time-worn than they really were. When a visitor to Hermit’s Rest on the Grand Canyon rim asked why she didn’t “clean up the place,” she laughed, “You can’t imagine what it cost to make it look this old.”
Of the 21 buildings Mary Colter designed, only nine are left today. Six are at the Grand Canyon, and one is a train station. The two remaining privately-owned hotels are La Posada and La Fonda.
100 years of Hospitality in Santa Fe
2022 marks the 100th anniversary of Santa Fe’s historic hotel, La Fonda on the Plaza. And that former Harvey House will be one of the visits you can enjoy on a heritage walking tour of Santa Fe this fall. Our October 20 – 24, 2022 New Mexico tour includes some of the most celebrated sites of the American Southwest. Here are more of the places we will explore…
- Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon
- Acoma Pueblo, an ancient pueblo on a high mesa
- The Native American petroglyphs at Una Vida
- A full day in Taos
- The Pueblo Puye Cliff Dwellings, home of the Santa Clara Pueblo People
Our “Journey to the Center of an Ancient World” small group tour will be hosted by Irina Grundler, who is a healing energy practioner and teacher.
We now have only three places open for this tour, and it is a guaranteed departure.
Click Here For Complete New Mexico Tour Details.
Photo credit:
Mary Colter (right) discussing Bright Angel Lodge plans with Grand Canyon Nat. Park Sup’t Minor R. Tillotson and Mrs. Harold Ickes (wife of the Secretary of the Interior) Circa 1935. Fred Harvey Collection, Grand Canyon National Park via Creative Commons