A #Southwest #Adventure - La Posada Hotel, Winslow Arizona

Today’s armchair travel takes you to Winslow, Arizona. The town is most famous for the song “Take It Easy,” written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey. The Eagles version is the best known.

Winslow doesn’t offer a great deal of tourist fascination, but La Posada hotel is worth a look – or a stay. Built in 1929, the hotel was originally one of the Harvey Houses built by Fred Harvey, who developed and ran all the hotels and restaurants along the route of the Santa Fe Railway.

The hotel’s architect was equally famous. Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter designed some of the buildings along the rim of the Grand Canyon. At La Posada, she influenced everything from the building and grounds to the maid uniforms and dinner china. 

Even though the hotel opened in May 1930, just after the stock market crash of 1929, it remained open for 27 years. During World War II, soldiers taking the train across country got to eat in the restaurant. But in the early 1960s, the building was transformed into offices for the Santa Fe Railway – a tragedy that involved covering up windows and paintings and installing dropped ceilings.

In the 1990s, Allan Affeldt took over the hotel and has been renovating it. Today it is a living museum, harkening back to the glamorous era of a century ago. Modern artists, including the owner’s wife Tina Mion also display work there, which can be a bit incongruous, but it’s nice that they’re supporting living artist as well. Learn more about the hotel’s history here.

While many of the original touches have been lost, a few have been restored and modern furniture and accoutrements follow the same designs. The rooms aren’t luxurious by modern standards, and few are handicapped accessible, but each room has its own unique furniture and artwork. If you visit, plan to spend a couple of hours wandering the building and grounds, where you’ll constantly stumble across hidden gems. You can also sit on the back patio and watch the trains go by.

Kris Bock writes novels of suspense and romance set in Southwestern landscapes. In The Mad Monk’s Treasure, two friends hunt for a long-lost treasure in the New Mexico desert. In The Dead Man’s Treasure, relatives follow a series of challenging clues to compete for a buried treasure. In The Skeleton Canyon Treasure, sparks fly when reader favorites Camie and the cat Tiger help a mysterious man track down his missing uncle.

Whispers in the Dark brings romantic suspense to an archaeology dig among ancient Southwest ruins. In the romantic mystery What We Found, a young woman finds a murder victim in the woods. In Counterfeits, stolen paintings bring danger to a small town in the New Mexico mountains.

Fans of Mary Stewart, Barbara Michaels, and Terry Odell will love Kris Bock’s romantic adventures. “Counterfeits is the kind of romantic suspense novel I have enjoyed since I first read Mary Stewart’s Moonspinners.” 5 Stars – Roberta at Sensuous Reviews blog

Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her Amazon page. Sign up for the Kris Bock newsletter for announcements of new books, sales, and more.