el tovar hotel

The core difference between a historic religious pilgrimage and modern vacation travel

Pilgrimage: Focused on enlightenment, worship, or contemplation Vacation: Focused on pure enjoyment, relaxation, and appreciating scenery

The historical time bracket during which "nature" came to be defined as separate from human endeavor

The modern era (roughly the mid-1700s to the present)

The psychological role nature serves for modern, industrialized, urban populations

An escape to "get away from it all" and replenish/rejuvenate the mind, body, and spirit

The earliest major 1830s American art movement focused on natural landscape scenery

The Hudson River School

The three specific master landscape painters named as leaders of the Hudson River School

Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and Jasper Francis Cropsey

The 19th-century American literary movement loosely connected to the Hudson River School

Transcendentalism (focused on intellectual communion with and appreciation of nature)

The commercial impact Hudson River School paintings had on the American middle class

Created a popular taste for landscape painting and spurred a landscape-based tourist infrastructure

The prominent mountain resort perched above the Hudson River that catered to tourists and artists

The Catskill Mountain House

The artist, title, and year of the painting that spread the global fame of Niagara Falls

Frederic Edwin Church; Niagara; 1857

The definition and visual purpose of "sublime" elements in 19th-century landscape art

Techniques that evoke awe and danger, filling viewers with wonder while making them feel small and insignificant

The three specific sensory effects used in Church's Niagara to communicate the sublime

Sensations of great height, a thundering cascade of sound, and an underlying feeling of danger

The artist who accompanied the 1871 U.S. geological survey party to the American West

Thomas Moran

The title and creation timeline of Moran's painting that introduced the West to eastern audiences

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (Original: 1872; Later version: 1893-1901)

The three specific qualities of Western terrain that Moran's paintings broadcasted to the East

The massive scale, fantastic colors, and unfamiliar geological formations

The two major transportation milestones that made domestic travel to the West relatively easy

The completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, followed by the expansion of existing railway lines in the 1870s

The prominent railway company that integrated transport, lodging, and food to secure a "captive audience"

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad

Fred Harvey's birth year, country of origin, and status when immigrating to the United States

Born 1835 in London; immigrated as a teenager, apparently on his own

Harvey's corporate role and geographic base at age thirty

Working as a freight agent for a railway company in Leavenworth, Kansas

The three specific complaints regarding railroad station food that Harvey saw as a business opportunity

Food was cold, preparation was unsanitary, and seating was poor or nonexistent

The milestone year and location of the very first "Harvey House" restaurant

1876 in the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Topeka depot (Kansas)

The corporate milestone achieved by the Harvey Company in 1882

Awarded an exclusive license to operate all rail-side hotels along the line from the Midwest to New Mexico

The number of establishments opened by Harvey before his death in 1901, and who took over

Opened more than forty hotels and restaurants; taken over by his sons until World War II

The historic business superlative held by the Fred Harvey Company in the United States

Considered the first hospitality chain in America

The five distinct historic architectural styles combined by Harvey architects to design landmark hotels

Moorish, Spanish Colonial, Baroque, Pueblo, and Navajo

The interior designer who oversaw the decoration scheme of the Harvey hotels starting in 1902

Mary E. Colter

The primary thematic paradox achieved by Colter's interior decoration schemes

Presented a vision of the American Southwest as rustic and exotic while offering convenience and predictability

The objects used by Mary E. Colter to accessorize hotel public areas

Local Native American handicrafts

The commercial name given to the Harvey Company's package tours to nearby artisan towns

"Indian detours"

The key geographic placement difference between typical Harvey hotels and El Tovar

Typical hotels were immediately adjacent to main line stations; El Tovar was built on a spur line overlooking the Grand Canyon

The completion year and location of the spectacular El Tovar Hotel

Completed in 1905 on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona

The completion year and budget of the Grand Canyon rail spur line and hotel commission

Spur line built in 1901; hotel commissioned in 1902 with a $250,000 budget

The corporate in-house architect selected to design El Tovar

Charles Whittlesey

The master Chicago architect Whittlesey worked for in the 1890s, and his famous co-worker

Worked for Louis Sullivan; co-worked alongside a young Frank Lloyd Wright

Whittlesey's primary architectural philosophy regarding materials and context

Made use of natural materials and emphasized how buildings harmonize with the surrounding landscape

The scale of guest rooms and the three activities available in El Tovar's entertainment rooms

Nearly a hundred guest rooms; entertainment featured card tables, billiards, and shuffleboard

The three grooming services offered in El Tovar's dedicated men's spa

Shaves, haircuts, and massages

The three state-of-the-art technological amenities featured inside El Tovar

Hot and cold running water, electric lighting, and a Western Union telegraph office

The building materials used for the exterior of El Tovar to create its rustic appearance

Pine wood and "native boulders"

The two traditional European architectural archetypes combined to describe El Tovar's exterior

A Swiss chalet (alpine lodge) and a "Norway villa" (evoking log cabins)

The interior design style, structural features, and specific accents inside El Tovar

Arts and Crafts style furniture, exposed ceiling beams, rugged wood paneling, Navajo "curios," and taxidermized local game specimens

The 1909 promotional brochure's exact opening quote regarding the visual necessity of the Grand Canyon

"No one can describe the Grand Canyon to you. It must be seen."

The specific dimensional distances cited in El Tovar's 1909 promotional brochure

A perpendicular mile from rim to river (seven miles by trail) and thirteen dizzy miles across

The total linear length of the entire Grand Canyon geological formation

More than 270 miles long

The survey party leader who officially named the Grand Canyon in the 1870s

John Wesley Powell

The U.S. President and the specific year the Grand Canyon was declared a National Monument

President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908

The historic legislative milestone year Congress officially created Grand Canyon National Park

1919

The milestone year the Grand Canyon was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site

1979

The year El Tovar was designated a National Historic Landmark

1987

The approximate number of people who currently visit Grand Canyon National Park each year

Around 4.5 million people

The specific regional market target of Fred Harvey's hotel string from the 1880s through the 1930s

The American Southwest

The specific geographic focus of tourists targeted by the location of El Tovar

Tourists interested in appreciating the dramatic natural wonders of North America

The promotional superlative used to market El Tovar's dining facilities

"The most artistic dining room in the Southwest"

The core conceptual reason El Tovar was built at that exact clifftop location

To capitalize on the canyon's reputation for the sublime and provide a cozy spot to survey the grandeur of nature

The unique operational status that El Tovar holds today among historic western lodges

It is one of the few original Harvey hotels still in operation

The specific US state containing both the Catskill Mountain House and Niagara Falls

New York State

The specific economic class of art patrons whom the Hudson River School successfully influenced

Middle-class patrons of art

The specific midwestern city where architect Charles Whittlesey originally hailed from

Chicago

The exact number of years it took to complete the construction of the sprawling El Tovar hotel

Three years

The historical timeline required for the Grand Canyon to become a top US tourist destination after Powell named it

Within a decade