El Tovar Hotel - Grand Canyon

The El Tovar Hotel is located on Village Loop Drive in Grand Canyon Village, Arizona, near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The hotel was completed in 1905 and served the growing number of people visiting the canyon via the recently opened Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway terminal, which sits just south of the rim.  The hotel in one swoop attracted a wealthier clientele to the canyon, and in turn, drove many local entrepreneurs out of business.  The architect Charles Whittlesey constructed the hotel to look like a chalet rather than in the local style in order to give it the distinctive elegance the travellers would expect.  Although modern in it's day the hotel has been remodeled several time through the years, including the addition of private bathrooms, which were not found in each room until 1983.  The guest list at the El Tovar included writers George Bernard Shaw and Zane Grey, presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, and Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the telegraph.  In pop culture the El Tovar is featured in the Grand Canyon sequence in the 1983 film National Lampoon's Vacation.  In the scene Clark Griswold tries to cash a check at the front desk, but the unwilling desk clerk won't help him.  After the clerk leaves providence comes into play and the register drawer pops open and Clark stuffs his check into the machine, dashing away with a handful of cash.  He can be seen bounding down the front steps of the El Tovar after his illegal transaction.  The hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.  It is also part of the Grand Canyon Village Historic District.   

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