Painted Desert Inn, National Historic Landmark in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, US.
The Painted Desert Inn is a Pueblo Revival complex of a main building and guest casitas, designed by National Park Service architect Lyle E. Bennett and built by Civilian Conservation Corps crews between 1937 and 1940. Part of the main building was remodeled from the 1920s Stone Tree House, which used local petrified wood in its walls. The flat-roofed, earth-toned structure stands on a mesa overlooking the Painted Desert.
The first inn on the site, a 1920s structure nicknamed the Stone Tree House for its petrified wood, was partly remodeled into the present main building. Civilian Conservation Corps builders and artisans constructed the Pueblo Revival complex between 1937 and 1940 to designs by National Park Service architect Lyle E. Bennett. After Mary Jane Colter's post-war revisions, the Fred Harvey Company ran it as a Harvey House from 1947 to 1963. Saved from mid-1970s demolition by public protest, it was listed on the National Register and named a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
Hopi artist Fred Kabotie painted the inn's murals in 1947–48, engaged by Mary Jane Colter, who had worked with him at Hopi House at Grand Canyon. The murals depict aspects of Hopi life, including a journey through the Painted Desert to collect salt.
The inn stands off Interstate 40 near the old Route 66 alignment, overlooking the Painted Desert; park at the Painted Desert entrance area and walk to the building. The main floor holds the museum and a seasonal ice cream counter, and the park's bookstores are now at the Rainbow Forest Museum and Painted Desert Visitor Center. No overnight rooms have been offered since 1947.
The building was partly constructed using petrified wood pieces from the surrounding area, following Pueblo Revival design principles. This use of local petrified materials connects the architecture directly to the geological character of the landscape.
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