Painted Desert Inn, Arizona - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Painted Desert Inn has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975 (Building - #75000217). Built of petrified wood and other native stone, the Painted Desert Inn, or the Stone Tree House, was built by Herbert David Lore on a high point overlooking the Painted Desert in 1924. It is a mixture of Spanish and Indian pueblo styles and also features beautiful murals inside the building painted in 1947 by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie.

Lore operated the inn as a tourist attraction, a lunch room, a bar, and a shop for Native American crafts for nearly twelve years. Although it was an oasis, it was isolated. It had its own lighting plant for electricity. Water was hauled from the Puerco River, ten miles away.

The Painted Desert, as seen from the Inn

In 1935, the Petrified Forest National Monument purchased the Stone Tree House and four sections of land from Lore. The Civilian Conservation Core, as part of its public works program, remodeled and stabilized the house. The Inn reopened in 1940. It supplied Route 66 travelers with meals, souvenirs, and lodging. However, because of World War II, it closed in 1942, but reopened in 1947.

In the same year, it was transferred to the Fred Harvey Company. This firm had a working relationship with the Santa Fe Railroad. The company's architect, Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, had renovations and repairs, including a new color scheme, done. Eventually structural damage began to occur. After its closure in 1963, a debate on its future took place. A concerned public prevented its demolition in 1975. In 1976, it was reopened as the Petrified Forest National Park Bicentennial Travel Center. In 1987, it was declared a National Historic Landmark. After 18 months of reconstruction, it was reopened as a museum and souvenir store in May 2006.

This text is partially a copy of the description at innvista.com.