in every room a story of the art in every room a ... - La Fonda Hotel

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Mary Jane Colter (1869-1958), who had been designing hotels and interiors for the Fred Harvey Company
since 1902, worked with John Gaw Meem and is responsible for many of the decorative elements, including
the mural by Dorothy Stauffer at the San Francisco Street entrance, so loved by visitors today.
Dorothy Stauffer
“Untitled”, 1948/1949
Fresco
introduction
The story of the artists and the story of the art that graces the halls of La Fonda on the Plaza—the oldest
hotel in the country’s oldest capital city—begins at the time of its acquisition by the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railway and its first years as a Harvey House in the 1920s. Opened in 1922, the hotel
was erected on a site that has housed a fonda—or inn—reputedly since 1610. The AT&SF Railway
acquired the hotel in 1925, and the following year leased it to the Fred Harvey Company, which
operated La Fonda for over 40 years.
La Fonda’s art collection began during the hotel’s earliest days of construction. The property has
grown considerably since Sam and Ethel Ballen bought the hotel in 1968. The couple continued the