Painted Desert Inn: Historic Furnishings Report

DeNormadie, Laura

The current Historic Furnishings Report (HFR) supports goals stated in Petrified Forest National Park's (PEFO's) current Long Range Interpretive Plan (LRIP). In addition to contributing to an overall upgrade in interpretation, the HFR will contribute to making the Painted Desert Inn a site for the interpretation of "recent" regional history, leaving the visitor centers and other sites within the park such as Puerco Pueblo to address prehistory topics. l Towards this end, the report recommends interpreting the lunchroom, dining room, and one guest room as historic furnished interiors and incorporating historic furnished vignettes in the trading post room and the kitchen. The HFR also provides an overview history of the inn's interiors from 1924 to the present with an emphasis on its appearance during the early years of management by the Fred Harvey Company (1947 to 1950). The park has chosen this date range as significant for several reasons. Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter (who redecorated the inn for the Fred Harvey Company in 1949) was a regionally and nationally important architect. The Fred Harvey Company was a formidable "civilizing force" that, along with the railroads, brought tourism and Anglo-American culture to the southwest from the late-nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century. By presenting a Fred Harvey concession interior, the park can explore the cultural implications of tourism on indigenous cultures, the local economy, and landscape. Further, while the Fred Harvey Company maintained a concession contract for the inn from 1947 until 1963, the early years of the contract were the most successful. The implementation goals are strongly supported by multiple levels of historic documentation including photographic, documentary, and object-based evidence. A set of period photographs in PEFO's museum collection depict the lunchroom counter, the dining room, and the trading post room. Detailed plans drawn by Lyle Bennett document the configuration, design, and details of all furnishings in each of the concession spaces. There are sufficient extant furnishings in PEFO's museum collection to furnish parts of rooms historically. The extant furnishings designed by Bennett and built by CCC enrollees in the late-1940s include stamped tinware chandeliers, lunchroom booths and tables, dining room tables and chairs, trading post room display units and shelving, and limited kitchen furnishings. These objects were used for the duration the present Painted Desert Inn was open to the public (1937-1963). Tableware and ice cream fountain accessories in the collection date to when Fred Harvey ran concessions at the inn (1947- 63). The furnishings collection as a whole possesses a high degree of integrity, particularly in relation to location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. While lunchroom and dining room furnishings require stabilization and conservation (the chairs and tables are rickety, and some have been marred by paint) these pieces can be used as installation objects. Other pieces, such as the lunchroom tables with swivel bases are fragmented but can serve as prototypes for reproductions. According to staff at PEFO, the lunchroom benches are stable. The benches were originally part of the booth units in the lunchroom and, once sanded and painted, can be used as installation objects and prototypes as needed.

Painted Desert Inn: Historic Furnishings Report

Series