Holbrook and Winslow AZ....Standing On The Corner!

While we were staying at Homolovi Ruins State Park, we may day visits to Holbrook and Winslow. Do you remember the movie "Cars"?  Well here is the Wigwam Motel. The Wigwam Motel is one of the famous stops along Route 66, a piece of American History. Don't know exactly what happened with the first photo as the teepees are not tall and skinny like this.

The wigwams are 14 feet in diameter and 32 feet tall. They each contain one or two double beds and a full bathroom. You can rent one for the night for $62.  The Wigwam Motel was built over 50 years ago and is still popular.

Our next stop in Holbrook was the museum in the Navaho County Courthouse. We didn't make it to the Petrified Forest but this is a good example of petrified wood.

There were many Indian artifacts. Remember the pottery shards from the Homolovi Ruins in the last post? We saw similar designs here at the museum.

An early RV kitchen, lol. Much easier to prepare meals now a days.

Mailboxes from an old post office.

Lots of nostalgic memorabilia from Route 66.

A great example of an early stove.

And living quarters.

The museum was free and they had a handout for a Self-Guided Tour and Historic Look at Holbrook. The only problem was that many of the buildings and locations described are no longer there but it was still interesting.

One of the historic places still in operation today is Joe & Aggies Café where we had lunch. We had great Grilled Cheese sandwiches.

Right across from the restaurant were some more great examples of petrified wood.

A nice mural on a nearby building. It was painted by Liz Nichols in 2002.

We found the Blevins House on the tour.  This was the site of the famous bloody shootout between Apache County Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens and the Blevins gang in 1887. Owens rode up to the Pioneer Livery Stable and headed to the house with a warrant for the arrest of Andy Cooper for horse stealing. There was a shootout between Owens and several members of the Blevins family. Three members of the family were dead when the smoke cleared.

Our next stop was Winslow, AZ. Surely you remember The Eagles first hit single "Take It Easy". The line goes....Well I'm standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine site to see. It's a girl my lord in a flat bed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me." We couldn't resist a photo on the corner. See the girl in the flat bed Ford in the window?

We stopped in the Soda Fountain across the street to get a drink.

And take a few more photos of the tourists taking their photos on the corner. There is even a flat bed truck parked in front. It's actually a small park with a wall as the building.

This is the opposite corner. We really enjoyed Winslow and their small downtown area.

Our next stop was La Posada Hotel.

La Posada was the finest and most expensive hotel built for the Santa Fe Railroad Co. It was constructed in 1929 and was designed by Mary Jane Colter, one of America's most renouwned female architects.

Mary Jane Colter was the chief architect for the Fred Harvey Company. As the Winslow Harvey House, the hotel closed in 1958 due to the decline of American railroad travel. Although it was closed for decades, the grounds were watered and preserved by a few visionary citizens (the Gardening Angels) who dreamed that La Posada would live again. It was purchased and has been beautifully restored.

It is a real hotel again but visitors are welcome to tour the hotel with the exception of the guest room area. There is a gift shop and docents wear the original Harvey House costumes.

 

 

 

We really enjoyed our visit to Winslow. In addition to our tour of the downtown area and La Posada, we also visited a small museum where we saw lot of interesting exhibits and met a full size long haired dachshund who toured the museum with us. The couple managing this free museum were very friendly and informative about the Winslow area.