EDITOR'S PAGE

Architectural Treasures of the Grand Canyon

Until statehood arrived in 1912, Arizona was a sparsely populated territory perceived by the outside world as 114,000 square miles of creosote and caliche. It has come a long way since then. But as a result of its late-breaking development, much today has an aura of newness. So it is easy to understand why what remains to be seen of the romantic past, such as a scattering of old structures, is held in high regard. Yet many of these are almost unknown or unacknowledged by the general public. Such a group of historic buildings (defined in this case as those 50 years old or more) exist in northern Arizona, all but ignored because of their location: at the edge of the Grand Canyon. In this, the most extraordinary environment on earth, any building must take a backseat to the surrounding scenery. Yet just one of them-El Tovar Hotel-if located in Phoenix would be the city's showplace, a testament to gracious living in the early days. Or if in Prescott, another Canyon legacy-Buckey O'Neill's Cabin-would be a highlight of guide historian Melissa Ruffner Weiner's walking tours into Arizona's past.

Overshadowed by the grandeur of the surroundings, some unusual and impressive architecture graces the Grand Canyon. (LEFT) Lookout Studio, perched on the South Rim, once housed the photographic enterprise of Ellsworth and Emery Kolb, early residents and explorers of the Canyon.

Described as “the most expensively constructed and appointed log house in America,” El Tovar Hotel, the architectural crown jewel of the Grand Canyon, was completed by the Fred Harvey Company in 1905. Designed to be attractive but not imposing, distinguished but not distracting, El Tovar was built of native stone and Douglas fir logs shipped by rail from Oregon.

Other old Canyon edifices-Phantom Ranch, Bright Angel Lodge, Grand Canyon Lodge, for instance-would also be traffic stoppers and objects of school tours, were they located anywhere else in the state. Singly and together, such buildings are elements of an important chapter of human history in the Grand Canyon region, a drama enacted on an incomparable stage. And the stage itself, never a mere setting for the story, is a compelling participant capable of molding and coloring the human cast of characters. The GrandCanyon itself, in the classic tradition of Greek theater, is the true protagonist of the drama.

When President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon in 1903, he con cluded, “I hope you will not have a build ing of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else to mar the wonder ful grandeur, the sublimity, the great love liness and beauty of the Canyon. Leave it as it is.... Man can only mar it.” But his “no buildings” hope was not to be. Two years before his visit, the first Santa Fe Railroad train had chugged around the head of Bright Angel Trail on the South Rim, and a new period in the history of theGrand Canyon had begun. The railroad brought visitors; visitors needed food and accommodations. Grand Canyon Village sprang up near the railroad depot, and many of its buildings are now part of a historic preservation district administered by the National Park Service. Among them: El Tovar Hotel, completed in 1905 by the associates of Fred Harvey, who had opened Harvey House restaurants at intervals of almost every hundred miles along the Santa Fe's main line from Kansas westward. Old-timers have said Teddy Roosevelt used his influence to assure that Harvey would erect something attractive but not imposing, distinguished but not distracting. Harvey's architect, Charles F. Whittlesey, designed the structure to combine the qualities of “Swiss chateaux and castles of the Rhine.” But he used native boulders and huge Douglas fir logs and timbers imported by rail from Oregon to do it. The building extends 325 feet from north to south, 218 feet from east to west, and rises four stories on the south end, three stories on the north.

Harvey's architect, Charles F. Whittlesey, designed the structure to combine the qualities of “Swiss chateaux and castles of the Rhine.” But he used native boulders and huge Douglas fir logs and timbers imported by rail from Oregon to do it. The building extends 325 feet from north to south, 218 feet from east to west, and rises four stories on the south end, three stories on the north.

The handsome hotel looked old and dignified the day it was completed; it still does. Its construction cost $250,000, and Whittlesey used part of the money to stain exterior walls and shingles, blending them into the surroundings.

El Tovar was a marvel of 100 sleeping rooms (42 had baths), wide porches, and roof gardens; a huge dining room styled after a Norwegian great hall, which overlooked the Canyon (and was staffed by the famed Harvey Girl waitresses); a small 15th-century dining room; several art galleries where works of such landscape painters as Thomas Moran, W. R. Leigh, and I. E. Couse were sold; a music room with a decor of gold and old ivory; a ladies' lounge, a club room, an amusement room; a solarium and a grotto; the Rotunda and the Rendezvous Room. And El Tovar offered such rare turn-of-the-century amenities as hot and cold water, steam heat, electric lights, and, in the office, telephones. Furnishings of public rooms relied heavily on oak and leather; there were massive animal heads and a plenitude of fireplaces.

El Tovar, named after a Spanish explorer, became the proudest jewel of the Fred Harvey chain, but Harvey himself never saw the fulfillment of his vision of rustic elegance on the South Rim; he died before it was completed. Built to rival the great resorts of Europe, El Tovar has been described as “the most expensively constructed and appointed log house in America.” Today, after several renovations and compliance with stricter fire codes, the 83-

Architectural Treasures

Rising from a cliff of Kaibab limestone amidst the secluded serenity of the North Rim, Grand Canyon Lodge is surrounded by 140 guest cabins. Built in 1928, then gutted by fire, the lodge was rebuilt in 1936. At an elevation of 8,000 feet, the Kaibab Plateau and North Rim experience extreme winter weather. The lodge and surrounding area are closed in mid-October and reopen in mid-May.

Text continued from page 41she died in 1958 at the age of 88, her legacy was the philosophy that buildings must be in harmony with the history and environment in which they are placed.

While Colter is responsible for the designs of Hopi House, Lookout Studio, Hermit's Rest, Phantom Ranch, and the spectacular Desert View Watchtower, it was Bright Angel Lodge, completed in 1935 as a replacement for the original Bright Angel, that became her ultimate Grand Canyon achievement. (See Arizona Highways, May, 1984.) Because the lodge was to be more moderately priced than El Tovar, she called for its main building to be constructed of stone and logs in pioneer style. A fireplace in the lobby bore a huge wooden thunder-bird, an Indian symbol for powers of the air; Colter viewed it as the "bright angel" of the sky.

The main lodge was surrounded by individual cabins of adobe, log, or stone. Appointments included such memorabilia as Pancho Villa's sombrero, pioneer stools and chairs brought overland in covered wagons, a crude rocking horse once owned by the first pioneer child born in Arizona, a seven-foot-tall Jenny Lind wooden cigar-store figure, kerosene lamps with opaque glass shades, bathtubs on legs, and Indian arts and artifacts.

Colter also preserved and utilized two modest buildings of historic import, Red Horse Station and Buckey O'Neill's Cabin, both of hand-squared log construction.

The O'Neill cabin, oldest surviving structure on the South Rim and possibly the first ever built there, was Buckey's base duringhis prospecting days in the 1890s. Later he sold his claim and cabin to a subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railroad. Buckey, whose nickname came from the gambling term "bucking the tiger" (betting recklessly in faro), had been a reporter, editor, author, probate judge, superintendent of schools, militia officer, businessman, miner, sheriff of Yavapai County, and mayor of Prescott before he went to Cuba with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. He lost his life to sniper fire the day before the famous charge up San Juan Hill. At the Grand Canyon, he is memorialized by O'Neill Butte, which towers above the Kaibab Trail.

his prospecting days in the 1890s. Later he sold his claim and cabin to a subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railroad. Buckey, whose nickname came from the gambling term "bucking the tiger" (betting recklessly in faro), had been a reporter, editor, author, probate judge, superintendent of schools, militia officer, businessman, miner, sheriff of Yavapai County, and mayor of Prescott before he went to Cuba with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. He lost his life to sniper fire the day before the famous charge up San Juan Hill. At the Grand Canyon, he is memorialized by O'Neill Butte, which towers above the Kaibab Trail.

Phantom Ranch, at the bottom of the Canyon, is reached only by legs-yours or a mule's via the Bright Angel or South Kaibab trails from the South Rim or the North Kaibab Trail from the North Rim. The buildings of stone and wood were built by the Fred Harvey Company in 1922 as an overnight lodging for hikers and mule-train riders. Mules still transport all supplies. The ranch nestles beneath a canopy of green cottonwood trees, a welcome sight for eyes reddened by the austere rock vistas. Grand Canyon Lodge, built on the Canyon's North Rim by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1928, is a handsome structure of Kaibab limestone that seems to rise out of the cliff on which it stands. Gutted by fire, it was rebuilt in 1936.

Because of the North Rim's isolation, development there lagged behind that of the South Rim, and its accommodations are still much more limited. The higher elevation and heavy snowfalls cause roads and facilities to be closed from midOctober to mid-May.

In 1987, in recognition of "their exceptional value to the Nation," several edifices in Grand Canyon National Park were designated national historic landmarks: El Tovar, Grand Canyon Depot, Grand Canyon Lodge (with its 140 surrounding cabins), Grand Canyon Power House, Grand Canyon Park Operations Building, Hopi House, Lookout Studio, Hermit's Rest, and Desert View Watchtower.

The edifices of the Grand Canyon are major artifacts of human history in log and stone. They were the products of railroads, but the last train made its run to the South Rim in 1968. One reaches the Canyon today by car, bus, or airplane. For those who get there, the quest for perspective goes on-and the amazing Canyon keeps right on upstaging the remarkable feats of construction that have risen around it.

The Overlooked Lookout

The Desert View Watchtower at the Grand Canyon, a structure that seems to breathe antiquity, must surely be "the most looked from but least looked at" architectural wonder around.

The product of Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, an architectural designer for the Fred Harvey Company, the tower required three long years to build. It was finished in 1932 at a cost of $70,000.

Seventy feet high, 30 feet across at the base, 24 feet across at the roof line, the watchtower originally was intended to provide an extraordinary rest stop for tourists, where complimentary coffee, tea, and orange punch would be served before the 26-mile return trip to Grand Canyon Village. Of course, it was also designed to provide a climaxing view.

But the view a 360-degree full-color panorama of the Canyon, Painted Desert, Coconino and Kaibab forests, and the San Francisco Peaks-proved so overwhelming few visitors really rested. The coffee got cold, the tea got cold, and the punch got warm.

The passage of more than half a century has changed very little: the sturdy old structure continues to be overshadowed by the splendor of the surrounding countryside, and only a rare few people give any thought to the tremendous amount of effort and dedication poured into its creation.

In terms of basic research alone, Colter spent weeks scouring the Four Corners country for ruins of ancient watchtowers, which she would carefully study before selecting such features for her re-creation as tapered windows, ornamental designs, and the T-shaped doors that were unique to these buildings.

As she explored site after site, she observed that a ceremonial chamber, or kiva, was usually built adjacent to the Indian tower; so she made sure she added one to her design, complete with the typical log roof.

Creating a structure that would accurately mirror those of the past meant also that every stone used in building the tower must be hand-selected, just as the ancients would have done; no stone's shape was allowed to be altered, for fear tool marks would be apparent and break the historic illusion.

Once the tower was completed, the eminent Hopi artist Fred Kabotie was invited to decorate the interior. His authentic paintings were criticized by some of his fellow Hopis for "showing too much."

The ancients who built the watchtowers of old were farmers, and some theorists say the towers were used for storage, becoming citadels when the tribes were threatened. Others suggest they were astronomical observatories, where seasons for planting and harvesting could be accurately determined. Today, there are several modern structures at Desert View, including a trading post and a grocery store. But the watchtower and the kiva remain just as they were when architect Colter stood back and "viewed with pride" in 1932.