El Tovar Hotel

El Tovar Hotel stands on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, in Grand Canyon Village, Arizona, a few metres from the edge. It opened in January 1905 as the flagship of the Fred Harvey Company for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, which had brought its branch line to the rim four years earlier. Built of Oregon pine logs and native limestone, it was conceived as a luxury hotel in the wilderness, and it is still the most sought-after lodging inside the park, a National Historic Landmark run now by Xanterra.

History

The Santa Fe Railway completed its line from Williams to the South Rim in 1901 and needed a hotel to match the destination. It commissioned the Chicago architect Charles Whittlesey and spent about 250,000 dollars on a building named after Pedro de Tovar, an officer of the Coronado expedition of 1540. El Tovar opened on 14 January 1905 under the management of the Fred Harvey Company, whose Harvey Girls served the dining room. The Hopi House, built the same year by Mary Colter across the drive, sold Native American crafts to hotel guests.

Theodore Roosevelt, who had declared the canyon a national monument in 1908, stayed at El Tovar, as did Albert Einstein in 1931, and later presidents including Bill Clinton. The hotel became part of Grand Canyon National Park when the park was created in 1919, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It was restored for its centenary in 2005 and continues to operate every day of the year.

Architecture and design

Whittlesey drew on the Swiss chalet and the Norwegian hunting villa, with a dark log exterior, a turret, and broad porches under a long shingled roof. The interior is built around a two-storey lobby, the Rendezvous Room, with log walls, mounted animal heads and a stone fireplace. The dining room keeps its original timber ceiling and murals of Hopi, Apache, Mojave and Navajo motifs. The building is deliberately rustic outside and comfortable inside, a style that influenced the lodges of other western national parks.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 78 rooms, including 12 suites, which is small for its size because the original plans gave generous space to public rooms. Rooms are on the upper floors off long wooden corridors. A few suites, such as those on the rim side, have porches or balconies facing the canyon; most rooms look towards the village or the pines. There are no canyon-view guarantees, and rooms are booked many months ahead.

Dining

The El Tovar Dining Room serves breakfast, lunch and dinner under its original beams, with south-western dishes and a window side facing the rim. Dinner reservations are taken well in advance. A lounge with a canyon-side veranda serves drinks and light meals, and room service is available.

Weddings and events

El Tovar is a small historic hotel inside a national park, not a conference resort. Weddings on the rim and in the park require a special use permit from the National Park Service, and the hotel's own rooms can host small dinners and gatherings for parties staying in the house.

Location

The hotel is at 1 El Tovar Road in Grand Canyon Village, on the South Rim, next to the Hopi House and the Grand Canyon Railway depot. The Grand Canyon Railway runs daily from Williams, about two hours and a quarter away. By road, Flagstaff lies about 130 kilometres to the south-east and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport about 370 kilometres to the south. Grand Canyon National Park Airport at Tusayan, 11 kilometres from the village, takes light aircraft and tour flights.