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 historic building complex. It is found in Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona. The inn is located near Interstate 40 and the old Route 66. It offers amazing views of the colorful Painted Desert.
The Inn's History
The main building of the inn and its small guest cabins, called casitas, were designed in a style called Pueblo Revival. This style looks like traditional Native American Pueblo buildings. Lyle E. Bennett, an architect from the National Park Service, helped design it.
The building was constructed between 1937 and 1940. Workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built it. The CCC was a program during the Great Depression that gave jobs to young men. Part of the inn was actually an older building from the 1920s. This older building was known as the Stone Tree House because it used local petrified wood in its design.
After World War II, the inn was updated by a famous architect named Mary Jane Colter. From 1947 to 1963, the Fred Harvey Company ran the inn. It was one of their popular "Harvey Houses."
The inn closed in 1963. In the mid-1970s, there was a plan to tear it down. But many people protested, wanting to save the historic building. Because of these protests, the inn was reopened in 1976. It became a Bicentennial Travel Center. In 1987, it was named a National Historic Landmark. This was because of its unique architecture and how it was built using money from the New Deal programs.
The Painted Desert Inn has been carefully repaired and restored over the years. In the 1990s, it reopened as a museum and bookstore. More restoration work happened from 2004 to 2006. Today, it is a museum. You can't stay overnight at the inn anymore, but during the summer, it has a fun ice cream parlor.
Beautiful Murals
In 1947 and 1948, Mary Jane Colter asked a 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 scenes from Hopi life. For example, one mural shows a journey through the Painted Desert to collect salt. These murals add a lot of cultural beauty to the inn.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Apache County, Arizona
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Petrified Forest National Park
