Originally built in the 1920s of stone with mud mortar, the Inn was purchased by the National Park Service in 1936 using funds from the Public Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration. Lyle Bennett, a National Park Service architect, designed a greatly expanded version of the Inn. This building was, and still is today, widely recognized as a masterpiece in the Pueblo Revival style. The Pueblo Revival style draws upon influences from early Native American pueblos as well as Spanish colonial buildings using flat roofs, rounded edges, wooden lintels and protruding vigas, and a stepped-back roofline. The irregularly shaped building was constructed between 1937 and 1940 by Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees from the Rainbow Forest camp. The adobe walls of the building are more than two feet thick. The interior rooms are filled with Navajo-inspired designs scored in the concrete floor, punched-tin light fixtures, hand-painted skylights, rounded door and window openings, and CCC-crafted furniture.
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