Hopi House

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Hopi House
Hopi House 2021.jpg
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Location Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Coordinates 36°3′28″N112°8′12″W / 36.05778°N 112.13667°W / 36.05778; -112.13667
Arealess than one acre
Built1904
Architect Mary Colter
Part of Mary Jane Colter buildings (ID87001436)
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMay 28, 1987 [1]
Designated NHLDCPMay 28, 1987 [2]

Hopi House is located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, within Grand Canyon National Park in the U.S. state of Arizona. Built in 1904 as concessioner facilities at the South Rim were being developed, it is the first of eight projects at the Grand Canyon that were designed by architect Mary Colter, along with Bright Angel Lodge, Hermit's Rest, Lookout Studio, Phantom Ranch, Desert View Watchtower, Colter Hall and Victor Hall, (the latter two being employee dormitories). Hopi House was built by the Fred Harvey Company as a market for Native American crafts, made by artisans on the site. The Hopi, as the historic inhabitants of the area, were chosen as the featured artisans, and the building was designed to closely resemble a traditional Hopi pueblo. Hopi House opened on January 1, 1905, two weeks before the El Tovar Hotel, located just to the west, was opened.

Contents

Design

Mary Colter had worked on a number of projects for the Fred Harvey Company, principally as an architect and interior designer. She was particularly successful in a similar project, the Indian Building at the Fred Harvey Company's Alvarado Hotel (now demolished) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. [3] Colter planned Hopi House as a sort of living museum, in which Hopi Indians could live while making and selling traditional crafts. The structure was based on Colter's interpretation of the Hopi dwelling at Oraibi, Arizona. [4] In 1904, ethnologist and missionary Heinrich R. Voth, who had lived among the Hopi from 1893 to 1902, was hired to collaborate with Colter. He may have also overseen the construction of the site, as Colter lived in St. Paul at the time. [5] The ethnohistorically-correct structure was at the time of its construction the first introduction for many park visitors to the architecture and life of the native peoples of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. [4] A variety of interior spaces provide museum, sales and demonstration space. [6]

Description

Front view of the Hopi House Hopi House Grand Canyon Village 09 2017 5290.jpg
Front view of the Hopi House

Hopi House is a stepped structure executed in sandstone of varying size, texture and coursing. The roof surfaces function as terraces in the same manner as traditional Hopi dwellings. Windows are small and sparse, with doorways on the same small scale. Interior walls are plastered with adobe, while ceilings are composed of saplings, twigs and grass covered with mud. Fireplaces are located in the corners of rooms. The old staircase to the second floor is decorated with murals by an unknown Hopi artist. The second floor houses a shrine, called a kiva, with Hopi religious artifacts. Floors on the second floor were made to look like adobe but were actually cement, which later in the 1930s the floor was laid with hard wood flooring. The third floor was used as an apartment for the building's former managers. It has since been updated and is now used as storage but a number of original features have been preserved. Most of the original furnishings in the main level, picked out by Colter, have been preserved. [4]

Historic designation

Hopi House is a component of the multi-site Mary Jane Colter Buildings National Historic Landmark, It was incorporated into the National Historic Landmark group on May 28, 1987. [2] [1] Hopi House and the Lookout Studio are also major contributing structures in the Grand Canyon Village National Historic Landmark District. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Canyon Village, Arizona</span> Town in Arizona, United States

Grand Canyon Village is a census-designated place (CDP) located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County, Arizona, United States. Its population was 2,004 at the 2010 Census. Located in Grand Canyon National Park, it is wholly focused on accommodating tourists visiting the canyon. Its origins trace back to the railroad completed from Williams, to the canyon's South Rim by the Santa Fe Railroad in 1901. Many of the structures in use today date from that period. The village contains numerous landmark buildings, and its historic core is a National Historic Landmark District, designated for its outstanding implementation of town design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Colter</span> American architect (1869–1958)

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter was an American architect and designer. She was one of the very few female American architects in her day. She was the designer of many landmark buildings and spaces for the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railroad, notably in Grand Canyon National Park. Her work had enormous influence as she helped to create a style, blending Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission Revival architecture with Native American motifs and Rustic elements, that became popular throughout the Southwest. Colter was a perfectionist, who spent a lifetime advocating and defending her aesthetic vision in a largely male-dominated field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Harvey Company</span> Owner of the Harvey House chain of rail hospitality establishments

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermits Rest</span> NRHP site in Coconino County, Arizona

Hermits Rest is a structure built in 1914 at the western end of Hermit Road at the south rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States. The Hermit Trail, a hiking trail that extends to the Colorado River, begins about ¼ mile beyond the shuttle bus stop at Hermits Rest. Hermits Rest also represents the western terminus of the Rim Trail. The location was named for Louis Boucher. Around 1891, Boucher – a Canadian-born prospector – staked claims below present-day Hermits Rest. With help, Boucher carved the aforementioned trail into the canyon, and for years lived alone at nearby Dripping Springs. The main structure currently standing at Hermits Rest was designed by architect Mary Colter. Hermits Rest is the westernmost point on the canyon's south rim that is accessible by paved road. It was built as a rest area for tourists on coaches operated by the Fred Harvey Company on the way to the now-vanished Hermit Camp. The building was designed to appear to be a natural stone formation, closely tied to the land. Colter selected furnishings that are included in the National Historic Landmark designation.

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Lookout Studio, known also as The Lookout, is a stone building located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, within Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. It is part of the Grand Canyon Village Historic District, and is part of the Mary Jane Colter Buildings National Historic Landmark. It currently operates as a gift shop and observation station for visitors, with telescopes on its outdoor terrace. Lookout Studio was constructed by the Santa Fe Railway in 1914 and was established as a photography studio to compete with Kolb Studio. It is one of six buildings at the Grand Canyon that were designed by architect Mary Colter, along with Bright Angel Lodge, Hermit's Rest, Hopi House, Phantom Ranch, and Desert View Watchtower. Lookout Studio employs her signature rustic style of using jagged native rocks to imitate indigenous structures of the region and to blend in with the environment.

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The Pueblo Revival style or Santa Fe style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States, which draws its inspiration from Santa Fe de Nuevo México's traditional Pueblo architecture, the Spanish missions, and Territorial Style. The style developed at the beginning of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, though it is still commonly used for new buildings. Pueblo style architecture is most prevalent in the state of New Mexico; it is often blended with Territorial Revival architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desert View Watchtower</span> United States historic place

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Jane Colter buildings</span> United States historic place

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bright Angel Lodge</span> United States historic place

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References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Mary Jane Colter Buildings". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. September 25, 2007. Archived from the original on February 25, 2013.
  3. Kaiser, Harvey H. (1997). Landmarks in the Landscape: Historic Architecture in the National Parks of the West. Chronicle Books. p. 220. ISBN   0-8118-1854-3.
  4. 1 2 3 Harrison, Laura Soulliere (1986). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: M.E.J. Colter Buildings". National Park Service. p. continuation page 3. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
  5. Reeder, Linda C. “Architect Mary E. J. Colter and the Arts and Crafts Movement.” Journal of the Southwest, vol. 61, no. 3, The Southwest Center, University of Arizona, 2019, pp. 613–39, doi:10.1353/jsw.2019.0042.
  6. Berke, Arnold: "Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest", pp. 64–68. Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.[ ISBN missing ]
  7. Chappell, Gordon (May 10, 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: Grand Canyon Village Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved November 17, 2011.