by Marian Jane Sanders

“Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see….”
— from Take it Easyby the Eagles

he Eagles were singing about a girl (of course), but in fact there’s no finer sight in Winslow than La Posada, a sprawling hacienda-style inn where my partner and I stayed recently.

After several long days touring the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and other marvels of northeast Arizona, we arrived in Winslow — hot, tired, and weary of forgettable restaurants and no-frills motels. For us, La Posada was a veritable “oasis in the desert.”

Dubbed “the last great railroad hotel,” La Posada was built by the Santa Fe Railroad in l930, and is a National Historic Landmark that is part hotel, part museum. Mary Colter, perhaps the greatest architect of the Southwest, designed the buildings, decorated the interiors, and planned the gardens. Although Colter is best known for her magnificent buildings at the Grand Canyon, La Posada was her favorite.

For us, La Posada was a veritable “oasis in the desert.”

In the hotel’s early days, it was a retreat for Hollywood stars and other celebrities. Everybody stayed there, from Bob Hope to Amelia Earhart to Albert Einstein. All passenger trains from Los Angeles to Chicago stopped at La Posada; it was the finest small hotel on Route 66, and in the entire Southwest.

But as train travel declined, and Route 66 was bypassed, the hotel fell into disrepair. In 1957, La Posada was closed.

Then, in l997, Allan Affeldt and his wife, artist Tina Mion, purchased it from the Santa Fe Railroad, and began a restoration project that continues to this day. Their first commitment was to restore La Posada to its former glory, and then to fill it with antiques and original art, much of it contributed by Mion. As a result, the inn is as much museum as hotel.

The art is often intriguing, even fascinating, with nary an ordinary or dull piece in sight. At one end of the lobby, imposing portraits of Presidents Pierce and Polk look down sternly on guests. Elsewhere, the art is more whimsical. A good example is Mion’s large mural, “New Year’s Party in Purgatory for Suicides,” which depicts Virginia Woolf, Diane Arbus, and others who have committed suicide, plus a few who have not, including Liberace and his poodle. Liberace’s presence is explained in the mural’s subtitle, “Liberace Makes a Guest Appearance Down from Heaven Just for the Hell of It.”

A suspended spiral concrete and wrought-iron staircase, with glazed terra-cotta stairs, leads to the guest quarters. We stayed in the moderately-priced Mary Pickford Room, which was spacious and simply-furnished. Through a small window, we had a lovely view of a cottonwood grove.
We spent little time in our room, though. After wandering through the galleries, we relaxed on the terrace, next to a verdant garden of bush grass and other native desert plants. Clay pots brimming with pansies, a small waterfall and a tiled pond added to the picturesque scene.

Later we dined in the hotel’s beautifully restored Turquoise Restaurant, which offers dishes from the original menus as well as contemporary Southwest fare, such as elk medallions with cherry sauce.
One last stop, for a libation at the retro-themed Martini Bar, completed our stay at La Posada — where history is everywhere, but the pleasures are timeless.

La Posada: tel. 928/289-4366; www.laposada.org.

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