La Posada Hotel - Winslow, AZ - a hotel that captures the 1920's

La Posada Hotel was built for the Santa Fe Railway during 1929, it started with the vision of Fred Harvey who hired Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter to design the hotel. It had every detailed that she had envisioned. The goal of the hotel was to be one of the best in the Southwest with the costs of construction being more than a million dollars and the two million dollars being the believed amount for the furnishings and grounds at the time. Winslow was the location of the Santa Fe Railway headquarters making it the ideal spot for the hotel.

The hotel closed during 1957 and remained closed for forty years. In 1997 La Posada Hotel was bought by Allan Affeldt. He and his wife began to restore the building and with the assistance of local preservationists, artisans, craftsmen and tourists the efforts are continuing.

Every room in La Posada Hotel is one of a kind. Furnishings in the room are fine antiques or Mexican rustic with several of the original pieces included in them. The mirrors are either tile or hammered tin, lamps, desks or writing tables in the rooms are made from wrought-iron. Room in the hotel that face the south have a view of Santa Fe's trains while the rest of the hotels rooms have views of the Secret Garden, the cottonwood grove or Route 66. Guests at the hotel have a choice between Balcony, Deluxe, Standard or Jacuzzi with prices ranging from $99 to $169. Each room features various amenities and is named for someone famous.

La Posada Hotel was created with the vision of an extensive garden featuring the desert plants. The original plans were never carried out because of budgeting restraints caused by the Great Depression. The cottonwood trees that were on the hotel grounds have been removed because of disease and old age with several dying as a result of topping. Today the hotels owner is having firs planted in an effort to get the garden that was part of the original vision for the hotel.

La Posada Hotel has two an historical and contemporary museum. When Mary Colter designed the hotel she saw the space being occupied by an extremely wealthy family that traveled and collected numerous items. The walls, rooms and hallways of the La Posada hotel were filled with Chinese and Russian antiques, Art Deco, and rustic furnishings. The art collection is still eclectic and the hotel a family home with contemporary art and Spanish furnishings.

The contemporary art in the La Posada Hotel's museum features the art work of Tina Mion whose work is exhibited around the U.S. including at the Truman and Eisenhower libraries and the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery among several others. The hotel has exhibits including the Ladies First series, and an eighteen foot piece known as "A New Years Eve Party in Purgatory for Suicides' currently occupies the hotels ballroom.

With all that La Posada Hotel offers it is the ideal place to stay when visiting Winslow, Arizona.