Winslow was once an American transportation hub

Winslow, Ariz., grew up as a railroad town along the tracks of the legendary Santa Fe Railway, but in the late 1920s the community added automobiles and airplanes to the mix. 

First, U.S. Route 66 came through Winslow, launching more than a half-century of romanticized motor travel along the legendary cross-country highway. 

Next, in 1928, aviator Charles Lindberg chose Winslow as one of 12 critical refueling stops on the nation’s first transcontinental passenger line. Modern airplanes could make the trip in 48 hours. 

The Winslow airport was built in 1929 by Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT). The new carrier soon merged with Western Air and eventually became Trans World Airlines (TWA). The original hangar is still a fixture at the Winslow-Lindberg Regional Airport. 

Also in 1929, Winslow was selected as the site for a major hotel and restaurant complex, associated with the Santa Fe Railway. Opened in 1930, the La Posada Hotel was the last of the “Harvey Houses” built and operated by the Fred Harvey Company, primarily to serve passengers from the Santa Fe trains.

Of the 84 Harvey Houses that were located in the western states, the La Posada in Winslow is “the only one left standing that still serves as a hotel,” said Kathy Weiser-Alexander of the Legends of America history website. 

It’s been touch and go, however. The hotel closed down in 1957, and all of its museum-quality furnishings were auctioned off. Much of the building was gutted and transformed into offices for the Santa Fe. 

Later, the railroad abandoned the building altogether. By 1994, the La Posada was placed on Santa Fe’s list of properties for “disposal.” Simultaneously, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the hotel on its “endangered buildings” list. 

Architectural guru Allan Affeldt keeps up with such things, so he and his wife, Tina Mion, a renowned artist, came from Laguna Beach, Calif., for a “viewing.”

 

“La Posada is one of the most important buildings of 20th century American architecture,” Affeldt told Jana Bommersbach of True West Magazine. 

Affeldt and Mion also found community leaders in Winslow who were eager to help save the hotel. While the hotel was just sitting there vacant, the “gardening angels” sprouted up. They were volunteers who tended and watered the hotel’s lush gardens to keep them from dying.

 Affeldt commented that La Posada “was once beautiful and could be beautiful again.” He said the first rule of historic preservation is: “It doesn’t do enough to restore – you have to think about making it useful. There has to be a revenue stream, or else it becomes a drain.” 

It took three years of negotiating with the Santa Fe, “resolving various legal, environmental and financial obstacles,” Bommersbach said. Guests began arriving later that year in 1997 to occupy 54 “beautifully restored rooms.”

 

Curiously, each room is named after someone famous who had previously stayed at the hotel. At the top of the scale is Room 225. It is the “Howard Hughes Hideaway,” where the billionaire recluse used to stay when he came to town. 

Peggy Nelson is one of the Winslow women who volunteer at the hotel as costumed “Harvey Girls.” They are community ambassadors and tour guides at La Posada.

Billie Frank, co-owner of Santa Fe Travelers, a tourism-based website, reported that Nelson tops out her tour groups at 100 people. Is there a minimum number? 

“I refuse to give a tour to less than one person,” Nelson replied.