HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
1930 Harvey House railroad hotel by Mary Colter, saved from demolition and now reopened in Winslow
303 E 2nd St, Winslow, AZ 86047
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Historic hotel room rates vary by room and season; rooms are named for notable past guests. See website.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored 1930 Mission Revival hotel with gardens; multiple floors with stairs and some elevator access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1930 · Last of the Great Fred Harvey Railroad Hotels · Mary Colter Architecture · Santa Fe Railway History · Route 66 and Winslow Heritage · Major Historic-Preservation Rescue
La Posada was built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in partnership with the Fred Harvey Company and opened in May 1930 in Winslow, Arizona, then an important stop on the transcontinental Santa Fe line. The hotel was the last of the great Harvey Houses and the work Mary Colter, one of the few women architects of her era, considered her masterpiece. Colter designed La Posada as an imagined Spanish hacienda, inventing a fictional history for the estate down to its furnishings and gardens.
The decline of long-distance rail travel undercut the Harvey House model, and La Posada closed in 1957. The Santa Fe railroad stripped the building for office use, and by the 1990s it was slated for demolition. Allan Affeldt, Tina Mion, and Daniel Lutzick purchased the property in 1997 and began a long restoration, recovering Colter's design and reopening the building as a working hotel, restaurant, and art gallery.
Today La Posada operates as both a hotel and a de facto museum of the Harvey House era, its rooms named for notable past guests who passed through Winslow by rail. The building's architectural significance and Colter's authorship are well documented in architectural surveys, and the restoration is treated as a model rescue of a major railroad-era landmark.
Sources
La Posada's haunted reputation is quieter than that of many Route 66 stops, and the hotel does little to promote it. The accounts come largely from visiting paranormal groups rather than from the staff. When Debe Branning, who directs the Arizona-based MVD Ghostchasers, stayed at the hotel with other investigators, members of the group reported feeling watched, sensing a presence, and hearing footsteps outside their rooms; some said they recorded electronic voice phenomena.
Investigator accounts also describe activity associated with spaces beneath the hotel, where several of the reported EVPs were said to be captured. A guest review records the impression of objects moving in one of the named rooms. The reports stay at the level of personal experience and amateur investigation; no widely documented incident anchors the legend.
The building's long life as a railroad crossroads, the thousands of travelers who passed through it before its 1957 closing, and the decades it stood half-abandoned all feed the sense that something lingers. Guests interested in the lore are pointed toward the investigator accounts rather than to anything the hotel itself advertises, since La Posada presents primarily as a restored Harvey House and gallery.
Stay in the restored 1930 La Posada, a Fred Harvey railroad hotel designed by architect Mary Colter. Rooms are named for past guests; the Turquoise Room restaurant and the gardens are open to visitors. The hotel itself tends to downplay its paranormal reputation.
Walk the public spaces of La Posada during the day, including the restored lobby, ballroom, art galleries, and gardens, without an overnight stay. The hotel functions as a working museum of the Harvey House era as well as a hotel.
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