Painted Desert Inn facts for kids
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Painted Desert Inn
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Painted Desert Inn, 2006
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 Location in Arizona
Location in the United States
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| Location | Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona |
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| Built | 1937 |
| Architect | Lyle E. Bennett; Mary Jane Colter |
| Architectural style | Pueblo Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 87001421 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | May 28, 1987 |
| Designated NHL | May 28, 1987 |
The Painted Desert Inn is a special old building inside Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It sits right next to Interstate 40 and the famous old Route 66. From the inn, you can see amazing views of the Painted Desert. It is a really important historical place.
Contents
History of the Painted Desert Inn
The main building of the inn and its small guest cabins, called casitas, were designed in a style known as Pueblo Revival. This style looks like the old homes built by Native American Pueblo people. The design was created by National Park Service architect Lyle E. Bennett and his team.
Building the Inn
The construction of the inn happened between 1937 and 1940. It was built by workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was a program during the New Deal that gave jobs to young men during the Great Depression. They helped build many parks and buildings across the United States. Part of the main building was actually a remodel of an older inn from the 1920s. That old inn was called the Stone Tree House because it used local petrified wood in its design.
Changes and Reopening
After World War II, a famous architect and interior designer named Mary Jane Colter updated the inn's look. From 1947 to 1963, the Fred Harvey Company ran the inn as a Harvey House. It closed in 1963. In the mid-1970s, there was a plan to tear it down. However, people protested, and the building was saved.
It reopened in 1976 as a Bicentennial Travel Center. This was to celebrate 200 years of the United States. In 1987, the inn was named a National Historic Landmark. This honor recognized its unique architecture and how it was built using New Deal funding.
The Inn Today
The main building of the Painted Desert Inn has been carefully repaired and restored over the years. In the 1990s, it fully reopened as a museum and bookstore. More restoration work happened between 2004 and 2006. Today, it is a museum. The park's bookstores are now at the Rainbow Forest Museum and the Painted Desert Visitor Center. You cannot stay overnight at the inn anymore, but during the summer, it has a fun ice cream parlor.
Murals at the Inn
In 1947 and 1948, Mary Jane Colter asked a talented Hopi artist named Fred Kabotie to paint murals inside the inn. Colter had worked with Kabotie before at the Fred Harvey Hopi House in Grand Canyon National Park. Kabotie's murals show different parts of Hopi life. One mural even shows a journey through the Painted Desert to collect salt.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Apache County, Arizona
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Petrified Forest National Park
