Originally created by entrepreneur Herbert David Lore and completed around 1924, the National Park Service purchased the inn and its surroundings in 1936. The National Park Service immediately began planning to overhaul the building using the rustic aesthetic popular in park architecture of the time. The National Park Service commissioned Lyle Bennett for the remodeling. Young men employed in the Civilian Conservation Corps, supplied the labor. The inn opened in 1940 under the management of the Fred Harvey Company, famous in the Southwest for providing hospitality services to tourists and travelers along the Santa Fe Railroad. In 1947, the Harvey Company’s noted architect and interior designer, Mary Jane Colter, was given responsibility for renovations of the facility. Along with overseeing repair work, Colter created a new interior color scheme and made other changes. The Fred Harvey Company moved out of the inn in 1962, and the building was abandoned until 1976 when it was re-op
