The old Hubbell Trading Post and warehouse on old Route 66 in Winslow AZ now serves as the Winslow Visitor Center. It was named to the US national Register of Historic Places in 2002.
From the National park Service website: (
visit link)
"STETMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
The Lorenzo Hubbell Trading Post and Warehouse stands in Wirislow, Arizona, a town that borders the Navajo Reservation. The building is significant under Criterion A for its role as a commerce link between cultures, in that it provided space for contact between Navajos and Anglos for the exchange and transportation of essential goods. From its original construction in 1918 until its sale in 1952, this trading post was an integral part of one of the largest commercial trading and warehouse operations in the southwest. Goods brought by wagon to Winslow from the reservation were shipped by rail from the Hubbell Trading Post and Warehouse. Although most important as a shipping center, the post played an integral role in the daily lives of the Navajo people who turned to the Hubbells for assistance in all aspects of facing a new and modern world. There were two trading posts in the Hubbell Trading Company that had large warehouses, one in Winslow, and the other in Gallup, New Mexico. These trading facilities were fundamental in re-establishing the economics of the Navajo tribe that had been destroyed by earlier conflict and subsequent formation of reservations in the 1860s. Also significant under Criterion C, the building is a rare example of the trading post type that has retained a high degree of integrity. Built to serve a purpose, the building's spaces and features reflect its place at the center of commerce and demonstrate its significance as the only remaining Hubbell trading post, warehouse, and shipping center.
To understand the significance of the Hubbell Trading Post and Warehouse, one must first understand the role played by trading posts in the American west from the 1870s until the 1950s. By the mid-1800s, the traditional supplies of meat, hides, and furs on which Indian traders had survived were depleted. The Navajo were unique in the southwest; although they were sheepherders and craftsmen, they were the only tribe to embrace commerce and trade so vigorously. They produced tremendous volumes of goods including meat and wool that needed marketing. Many traders took advantage of this opportunity.
The Pueblo Indians such as the Zuni and Hopi interacted with Anglos on a much smaller scale. The trading posts played an integral part in the lives of the Navajo. They were institutions of power and influence at a time when a link to the population centers of the United States was needed to complete the economic cycle. Since the traders were the primary contact between the Native Americans and the modern Anglo world, their job was to develop a fair exchange system so that the Navajos could exchange their good for items they needed.
The first trading posts were established as outposts on remote reservation land where life was difficult for everyone. Roads were nearly nonexistent and hauling merchandise was usually treacherous. Freight wagons were used to transport good to towns near the railroads, such as Winslow, and many perils waited along the way. Weather, robbery, and the breakdown of equipment were all deterrents. The sheer volume and variety of goods wanted by the Navajo made it difficult as well. By making goods such as coffee, salt, sugar, canned goods, and clothing available, the traders were assured of a steady supply of barter coming in such as sheep wool and woven blankets. The Navajos came to trust the traders with even more serious issues such as settling disputes between clans and even burying dead relatives.
Traders developed a pawn system to enable Navajos to buy goods without cash or barter by simply leaving their family jewelry with the trader until they could pay their debt. Trading posts functioned at times as bank, post office, hospital, church and community center. The prosperity and activity of the post was reflected throughout the city of Winslow. In the early twentieth century, Winslow was one of the busiest, fastest-growing towns in northern Arizona on the Santa Fe route."