HOTEL HISTORY

Typical of most frontier towns in the late 19th century, early Flagstaff was a victim of numerous disastrous fires. Following a particularly bad series of blazes in 1897, the city passed an ordinance requiring all buildings in the business area to be built of brick, stone, or iron.

Among the new buildings appearing in 1897 was the predecessor of the Weatherford Hotel, built by John W. Weatherford (1859-1934), a native of Weatherford, Texas. The original structure housed a general store on the first floor and living spaces for the Weatherford family upstairs.

John Weatherford soon realized that tourism would offer an economic boom to the growing town, largely due to a new rail connection to the Grand Canyon, 80 miles to the north. In March of 1899, Weatherford began construction of a three-story modification of his building and there was a grand opening for the Weatherford Hotel on New Year’s Day 1900.

For many years, the Weatherford Hotel was the most prominent of the hotels in Flagstaff, entertaining guests such as artist Thomas Moran, publisher William Randolph Hearst, and western author Zane Grey. Grey’s novel “The Call of the Canyon” was written in an upstairs room, now part of the Zane Grey Ballroom.

A beautiful sunroom occupied part of the top floor and was used for dances and parties, while numerous civic groups engaged the rooms downstairs. A three-sided balcony, visible in a 1905 photograph, was damaged by fire and removed in 1929, along with the original cupola gracing the façade of the building. At various times, the hotel housed a theatre, restaurant, billiard hall, and a local radio station.

When transcontinental telephone service first reached Flagstaff about 1910, a small brick building with a three-bay façade of red Coconino sandstone was erected south of the hotel to serve the telephone company, becoming part of the “Weatherford Block”. That building served its original purpose until the 1930’s when it underwent the first of two “modernizations”. The sandstone façade was stuccoed over in a modified art-deco style and the building became the La Brea Café. In the 1950’s, current fashion resulted in aluminum siding and for many years the Wong family operated a Chinese Restaurant.

Henry Green took over the Weatherford and along with his wife Sam, they have managed, restored and created the new Weatherford with class and history. The Taylors restored the original appearance of the telephone exchange and renamed it The Exchange Pub. The casual ambience of the Exchange Pub and Charly’s dining room next door are reminiscent of Flagstaff’s heyday at the turn of the century. Original photographs and memorabilia enhance that reflection of the town’s history.