La Fonda on the Plaza

La Fonda on the Plaza
La Fonda on the Plaza
	View of the La Fonda hotel from the southwest
General information
Location	Santa Fe, New Mexico
Address	100 E. San Francisco Street
Coordinates	35°41′12″N105°56′16″W / 35.686650°N 105.937804°W
Opening	December 30, 1922
Technical details
Floor count	five
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Isaac Hamilton Rapp
Developer	Santa Fe Builders Corporation
Other information
Number of rooms	180
Website
	www.lafondasantafe.com

Last updated July 03, 2023

La Fonda on the Plaza is a historical luxury hotel, located at 100 E. San Francisco Street and Old Santa Fe Trail in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico adjacent to the Plaza. The hotel has been a member of Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, since 1991.^[1]La Fonda simply means "the inn" in Spanish, but the hotel has been described as "the grand dame of Santa Fe's hotels."^[2]

History

The site of the current La Fonda has been the location of various inns since 1609. It is on the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which linked Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo and was the terminus of the 800-mile-long Old Santa Fe Trail, which linked Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe and was an essential commercial route prior to the 1880 introduction to the railroad.^[3] The Fred Harvey Company established La Fonda as one of its premier Harvey Houses.^[4]

An earlier construction of the hotel, called the United States Hotel but nicknamed La Fonda Americana by locals, burned down in 1912. In 1920, the Santa Fe Builders Corporations issue shares of stock to raise funds to build a new hotel.^[4] Architect Isaac Hamilton Rapp (1854-1933), the "Creator of the Santa Fe style" was chosen to design the new hotel in the Pueblo Revival style, which drew inspiration from the adobe architecture of indigenous Pueblo peoples of the region. The new hotel was hailed as "the purest Santa Fe type of architecture and ... one of the most truly distinctive hotels anywhere between Chicago and San Diego."^[4]

After its auspicious launch, the hotel closed temporarily in the 1920s, until it was purchased in 1925 by the Santa Fe Railway. The new owners commissioned local muralists to paint the interior walls, beginning La Fonda's longstanding support of local visual arts. Mary Colter redesigned the hotel's interior, setting a tone inspired by Spanish and Southwest Native American aesthetics that continues today. Her designs included exposed vigas, or ceiling beams, and Mexican tiles.^[5]

The Harvey Company promoted tourism in the Southwest and offered "Indian Detours," educational cultural tours to the Pueblos, beginning in 1926.^[6] The hotel continued as a Harvey House until 1969.^[7]

Shops

La Fonda on the Plaza houses many shops and galleries. In the 1930s, it was home to the Harvey Newsstand.^[8] Today, in addition to numerous boutiques, the hotel boasts La Fonda Newsstand and Senor Murphy Candymaker.^[9]

Restaurants

La Plazuela is a full-service restaurant serving inspired New Mexican cuisine, while the La Fiesta Lounge, a bar and restaurant, serves lunch and dinner. La Fiesta has live music and a dance floor.^[10] On the roof of the fifth floor is the Bell Tower Bar.^[11] On the street level is the eclectic gift shop, Detours at La Fonda and as well as many other shops, including the independently-owned French Pastry Shop and Restaurant, which serves breakfast and lunch.^[12]

Awards and recognition

The hotel's art and historical tours, led by trained docents, won the Top HAT Award for "outstanding attraction" in 2015. Two staff members also received service awards.^[13]

Movies and popular culture

Ride the Pink Horse , a 1947 film noir, was shot at the La Fonda.^[14] Season 1, episode 3, "Dueling Politicians; Nuclear Intel; Seattle Scammers" of the Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Hotel was shot at La Fonda.

Notes

↑ "Hotel History - La Fonda". Historic Hotels of America. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
↑ Harrelson 40
↑ Casey 389
1 2 3 Dye 36
↑ Dye 38
↑ Harrelson 40, 91
↑ Harrelson 41
↑ Dye 76
↑ Casey 488
↑ Niederman 220–221
↑ Casey 462
↑ Mikula and Franklin n.p.
↑ "Local business in brief, Nov. 24, 2015". Santa Fe New Mexican. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
↑ Hecht, Esther (January 2005). "The Jewish Traveler: Santa Fe". Hadassah Magazine. Retrieved 24 November 2015.

Related Research Articles

Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Chacón to act as fortified plaza and trading outpost for the neighboring Native American Taos Pueblo and Hispano communities, including Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, El Prado, and Arroyo Seco. The town was incorporated in 1934. As of the 2010 census, its population was 5,716.

Frederick Henry Harvey was an entrepreneur who developed the Harvey House lunch rooms, restaurants, souvenir shops, and hotels, which served rail passengers on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, the Kansas Pacific Railway, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, and the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis.

Harvey House was a hotel and restaurant chain operated by the Fred Harvey Company in Santa Fe Railroad stations in the Western United States.

<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.

The Fred Harvey Company was the owner of the Harvey House chain of restaurants, hotels and other hospitality industry businesses alongside railroads in the Western United States. It was founded in 1876 by Fred Harvey to cater to the growing number of train passengers.

Fiestas de Santa Fe is a festival held every autumn in Santa Fe, New Mexico, usually during the second week of September.

Taos Plaza is a center of shops and monuments within the Taos Downtown Historic District in Taos, New Mexico.

Gallup station is an Amtrak train station at 201 East Highway 66 in downtown Gallup, New Mexico. It is the second busiest station in the state, with more than 16,000 boardings and alightings in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diego de Vargas</span> Spanish governor of New Mexico

Diego de Vargas Zapata y Luján Ponce de León y Contreras (1643–1704), commonly known as Don Diego de Vargas, was a Spanish Governor of the New Spain territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, to the US states of New Mexico and Arizona, titular 1690–1695, effective 1692–1696 and 1703–1704. He is known for leading the reconquest of the territory in 1692 following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. This reconquest is commemorated annually during the Fiestas de Santa Fe in the city of Santa Fe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Gaw Meem</span> American architect

John Gaw Meem IV was an American architect based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is best known for his instrumental role in the development and popularization of the Pueblo Revival Style and as a proponent of architectural Regionalism in the face of international modernism. Meem is regarded as one of the most important and influential architects to have worked in New Mexico.

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 the Territorial Revival architecture.

The Santa Fe Plaza is a National Historic Landmark in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico in the style of traditional Spanish-American colonial cities. The plaza, or city square is a gathering place for locals and also a tourist attraction. It is home to annual events including Fiestas de Santa Fe, the Spanish Market, the Santa Fe Bandstand, and the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The name "Santa Fe" means 'Holy Faith' in Spanish, and the city's full name as founded remains La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís.

El Garces Intermodal Transportation Facility is an Amtrak intercity rail station and bus depot in downtown Needles, California. The structure was originally built in 1908 as El Garces, a Harvey House and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) station. It is named for Francisco Garcés, a Spanish missionary who surveyed the area in the 1770s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Isaac Hamilton Rapp, was an American architect who has been called the "Creator of the Santa Fe style." He was born in Orange, New Jersey.

Taos Downtown Historic District is a historic district in Taos, New Mexico. Taos "played a major role in the development of New Mexico, under Spanish, Mexican, and American governments." It is a key historical feature of the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway of northern New Mexico.

For people with the surname, see Garduño.

The Plaza Hotel is a hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico. It was opened as an upmarket hotel for the booming town in 1882. Since then it has had a complex history. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in the Las Vegas Plaza historic district.

The Alvarado Hotel was a historic railroad hotel which was one of the most famous landmarks of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was built in 1901–02 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and was operated by the Fred Harvey Company until 1970. With 120 guest rooms, it was the largest of all the Harvey hotels. Its demolition by the railroad in 1970 was described by preservationist Susan Dewitt as "the most serious loss of a landmark the city has sustained" and helped mobilize stronger support for historic preservation efforts in the city.

The Castañeda Hotel is a historic railroad hotel located in Las Vegas, New Mexico. It was built in 1898 and 1899 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and was operated by the Fred Harvey Company until 1948. After being mostly vacant for many years, the hotel was restored and reopened in 2019. The Castañeda was listed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties in 1974 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as a contributing property in the Railroad Avenue Historic District. It is located adjacent to the Las Vegas railroad station.

References

Casey, Robert L. (2007). Journey to the High Southwest, 8th: A Traveler's Guide to Santa Fe and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah . Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot. ISBN 978-0-7627-4064-2. Southwest Casey.
Dye, Victoria E. (2007). All Aboard for Santa Fe: Railway Promotion of the Southwest, 1890s to 1930s. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-3658-3.
Harrelson, Barbara (2007). Walks in Literary Santa Fe: A Guide to Landmarks, Legends, and Lore. Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-1-4236-0182-1.
Nancy Mikula; Paul Franklin (2012). Top 10 Santa Fe. DK Eyewitness Travel. ISBN 978-0-7566-8547-8.
Neiderman, Sharon (2012). Signs & Shrines: Spiritual Journeys Across New Mexico. Countryman Press. pp. 214, 218–21. ISBN 978-0-8815-0908-3.

External links

A Legend, Going Strong Archived 2015-09-06 at the Wayback Machine , article about La Fonda by New Mexico Magazine

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Hotel History - La Fonda". Historic Hotels of America. Retrieved 2022-12-14.

[2] Harrelson 40

[3] Casey 389

[d36-4] 1 2 3 Dye 36

[5] Dye 38

[6] Harrelson 40, 91

[7] Harrelson 41

[8] Dye 76

[9] Casey 488

[10] Niederman 220–221

[11] Casey 462

[12] Mikula and Franklin n.p.

[13] "Local business in brief, Nov. 24, 2015". Santa Fe New Mexican. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.

[14] Hecht, Esther (January 2005). "The Jewish Traveler: Santa Fe". Hadassah Magazine. Retrieved 24 November 2015.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]