Seligman, AZ

What to Do With the Havasu???

2006-06-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

What You Get
The Havasu is a large building, two stories high and close to 60,000 square feet, with 60-some rooms in four wings. The building faces the east-west tracks (now just one each way) of its current owner, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, heir to the historic Santa Fe. (pretty soon I hope to get a photo of it up for you!)

The main (south) facade stands about 25' from the tracks, just far enough that safety regulations do not require the company to remain involved in its ownership and therefore BNSF will not participate in the building's renovation: it's sell or demolish. In other words, a privately owned Havasu would rest far enough from the tracks for visitors not to be endangered by the trains running by; BNSF recently erected a chain link fence to ensure safety of visitors and simultaneously protect the property from vandals. (This fence could be replaced with wrought iron, as at the newly restored Kelso Depot in California. Actually, I had a dream last week that this had happened!) Trains, including one Amtrak (passenger) run each way/day, pass just about every 20 minutes, day and night, and Amtrak would slow or stop at the Havasu if given a reason to do so. Between the building and the fence runs a brick-paved loading area, now partly covered in macadam but ripe for repair, or, for sale brick-by-brick to donors who would like to see their names engraved thereon. All windows are boarded or bricked up, all doors are locked.

Because it lies so near the tracks, and because trains pass so frequently, railroad buffs say they would especially enjoy overnight stays in the hotel rooms along the south face of the Havasu: they would not only hear trains passing but could look down on them from the half-timbered guestroom windows above track level or, in daylight, watch trains from the shaded portico that runs along the first floor. Broad eaves shelter bedroom windows from much of the afternoon sun but leave them dramatically free and open to sunsets. The view southward extends over fields where cattle graze, and the facade can be seen from I-40, which passes far enough away to mute road traffic.

Once upon a time the Havasu had grand gardens at its southwest corner, which may be one reason why the ground floor of all but the trackside facade bears no trim, while the second floor trim simply repeats the half-timbering on the main, south facade. BNSF cleared weeds and removed tree stumps when it installed the perimeter fence, to protect the building (and the town) from fire, -- the area is now entirely open. (How about a perennial garden of native species, or of iris, hollyhock, wild purple artichoke, and fragrant creosote, with water trickling somewhere for birds and rabbits; and paths and benches and a few shade trees for visitors?)

This week I heard another possible reason for the Havasu's lack of variation in architectural detail. Apparently La Posada and Needles were the "two jewels" on the trans-Arizona section of the Santa Fe track, with Seligman a commodious but secondary stopping point: less money went into it to begin with. The greatest visual effect rests in the main facade, with its dark timber trim, overhanging eaves, columned portico, and originally its ticket office, lunchroom, dining room (no longer standing) and reading room (now reincarnated on the Seligman Schools campus as a biology building).

Two of the Havasu's wings behind the facade contain guest rooms; the third held the kitchen and utilities (water, heat, electricity). The kitchen is a single room two stories high, with clerestory windows that once provided the only available light and vented the heat of cooking. The big stainless stoves, white-tiled walls and porcelain sinks remain, bathed in light and air from the windows. The railroad's well and tank still provide water for the town, along with our small (antiquated but functioning) sewer system. Several of the tall, lower level windows on this wing are broken or bricked up.

Finally, inside, the building's once magnificent dark woodwork -- the long, curving lunch counter, handsome newsstand and big mirror, gracious dining room, and carved bannisters -- these are gone, auctioned or otherwise removed. Ditto for furniture, tubs, sinks, etc., although some could still be retrieved locally. The red tile roof leaks in a few places but not extensively; floors seem solid, if worn. Doors and transoms remain, windows function. Nothing seems to hang from its hinges, so the level of disrepair doesn't seem staggering -- less to do than you might expect. All in all, potential investors have a very large building in surprisingly good shape. Now what to do with it?

What to Do With the Havasu?
If the Havasu's physical self remains pretty sturdy, consider also the following:

1. Today's unincorporated town of Seligman is very small. Could it support a large hotel? Strong leadership by example could change the situation, but its current five motels fill up only from early May until the end of summer, more in competition than cooperation or cohesion. At this point, the size of the Havasu is probably an impediment, given the realities (location, population, other resources) of the town.

2. Although passenger train traffic no longer exists, it could. The Havasu restored creatively could lift Seligman to the status of a destination, rather than a quick tour. A return to Fred Harvey's consistently excellent service, serious fine dining and gracious accommodations, along with the inclusion of a variety of entertainments (billiards, a spa, a bar with fine wines and ambiance, perhaps a player piano and periodic live music -- of which there's plenty locally to draw from), and a gift shop like that at La Posada in Winslow, one that goes beyond tee shirts and trinkets to original arts and crafts (locally available and eager for encouragement) -- Fred Harvey almost invented the commercially successful tourist-oriented "Indian store." Trail rides could be organized and run by increasingly out-of-work local cowboys and ranch managers, not to mention group trips to the Grand Canyon, both South Rim and North. Archaeological tours -- petroglyphs, pottery, arrowheads, Š lots of possibilities, and all awaiting savvy promotion.

3. The town has worked hard to draw Route 66 traffic. Tour bus drivers, scores of whom bring visitors here to see small town America, have urged the Havasu's restoration as a lunch-and-lecture stop. Staff and volunteers could be drawn from not only Seligman and its outlying developments but also from the growing populations of Ash Fork and Paulden.

All or Nothing?
There are a variety of ways in which a serious investor might develop the Havasu. But would one have to restore it entire? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly not all at once. Allan Affeldt has restored La Posada room by room; that's always a possibility here, too.

Or pick a part and let the rest go: the south, trackside wing is pretty big in itself, exhibits all the building's best features (lots of grand visual interest), and, as the former ticketing area, may have the most flexible interior spaces. Independent investors might develop other wings; if worse comes to worst, money may be available to help demolish what cannot reasonably be preserved. The extra space would also improve options for parking and landscaping.

Is this heresy? In other words, is it all or nothing? If the latter, would total loss really be forgivable?

I can see a humming, smaller establishment, a bed and breakfast with fine dining, a cocktail lounge with, yes, player piano and pool table, and a shop with real arts and crafts, all in the south wing, perhaps including the kitchen and utilities building. The size would complement the rest of the town, rather than overwhelming it; the Havasu would benefit from existing traffic and give that a boost in return. Beyond tourist rooms, few of these amenities exist in Seligman today. There might even be a flexible space created for local activities.

And Your IdeasŠ?
Has the Havasu piqued your imagination? Can you come up with different strategies, other approaches? How should the Havasu be utilized? How should it support itself? We're starting to get inquiries from potential investors -- how about you or someone you know? How can the Havasu be restored to a position in which it can pay for itself, so as to be around -- to live --for another 100 years?

Feel free to note your thoughts here (in the posting space for the Havasu Blog) or to email me at my new address: mary_clurman@yahoo.com. Meanwhile, I am volunteering out-of-state at another historic preservation site, hoping to learn better how to save the Havasu.

Mary Clurman
cell phone: 702-556-7417 (as of 6/25/2006)

Why Invest in Seligman?

2006-05-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

Seligman is still a small town, and anyone who invests in helping it stay that way will get its full support. Restore the Havasu as an architectural treasure and you have a magnet reinforcing Seligman's history. The Havasu was once the center of a thriving Seligman, and we'd like to see it that way again.

Re-Born Twice Already
Seligman's official population has rested at 435 families or 850 people (2004 census) for some time, but it wasn't always so. Twice in history Seligman was a big place, initially with about a dozen train tracks running through, several restaurants, two bars, and later with a department store, six auto dealers, and lots of traffic.

Railroad Days
The first time was in the heyday of the railroad, around 1900, when the Santa Fe Line moved its Arizona midpoint offices from Ash Fork to Seligman. Trains stopped here regularly, not only for mail and for cattle headed for the Chicago and Oklahoma City stockyards but to bring tourists who dined and stayed at the big, handsome, new Havasu Harvey House -- built by the railroad for Fred Harvey -- on the south side of town around 1905.

That period lasted as long as railroads were the nation's principal mode of cross country travel and included World War II, when the Havasu was a regular lunch stop for troop trains headed for the West Coast. My neighbor, Ed, now in his 80's, says that the first time he saw Seligman was when he and hundreds of other conscripts got off here, grabbed an already prepared box lunch at the Havasu or the Copper Cart, stretched their legs and boarded again for San Diego and the Pacific theater of the war.

Long-haul diesels came in the '50's to relieve the need for maintenance stops and crew changes in Seligman, where much of the crew stayed in rooms at the Havasu. Dining cars came, too, and the Harvey Company operated them, reducing need for the Havasu's restaurant facilities.

Ultimately the railroad moved its major operations from Seligman to Needles and the town shrank back down to the few hundred families that had always been there: ranchers and cowboys, some railroad crewmen, and service operations such as the Black Cat Bar, the Copper Cart diner -- survivors. The empty Havasu and the train crew housing along Chino Avenue (now Rte. 66) continue to remind visitors and train buffs of that era. Still inhabited, many of hese trim little cottages have been well maintained, with fruit trees flowering each spring and steer skulls and deer and elk antlers decking their fences.

Seligman and Route 66
But Seligman grew again as cars and Route 66 became the new way to reach the golden West. More and more drivers stopped here to rest, eat, and perhaps to spend the night -- some say 5,000 cars a day! The architecture of those days in the '50's and'60's still predominates downtown, especially in the motels with their big neon signs. It's all now part of the town's official Historic District (highway signs point the way).

But on the day in 1978 that I-40 bypassed downtown Seligman, you could lie down on 66 and take a nap -- not a car to disturb you.

… and Historic Route 66
The town shriveled again, until Angel Delgadillo, the local barber, realized that the nostalgia of Route-66-as-history could bring tourists back.

Little has changed architecturally along Seligman's 66 -- we're pretty much non-gentrified and like it that way -- so that in 2005 the downtown area easily entered the National Trust Register of Historic Districts. We have the motels, the erstwhile car dealerships waiting to be refurbished, the grand but empty Havasu, plus a garage turned Nifty 50's museum, a warehouse, a department store reborn in the five-and-dime tradition, and Angel's barbershop, now a well-promoted tourist mecca. Some lucky visitors can still get a haircut from 79-year-old Angel. And when he's not shaking hands or "selling" Rout 66, you may see him riding his bike from work to home or to the Post Office. His father's old pool hall stands shut and silent on Railroad Avenue.

The now world-famous Snow Cap ice cream store, created by Angel's brother Juan and now run by his sons, is in the next block eastward. There, if you ask for ice cream, you'll probably get a shot of whipped cream on a cup of shaved ice -- kidding aside, eventually you'll get what you thought you'd asked for. The old Seligman Sundries ice cream parlor, now owned by a coffee bean expert, has been bought for revival as -- guess what? -- an ice cream parlor/coffee house. The doctor's house from the Havasu was sold off and moved to the corner of Indian School and Cedar to become the home of the current Postmaster and her family, while the Havasu's reading room was moved to the school to become the Biology Building, its pink brick exterior handsomely restored by Phoenix architects.

A Small Town with Big Potential
In this renascence, conceived and led by the Delgadillos, tourist buses stop daily, in winter and summer, to see what life was like in America's '60's. Bill Riley's Rusty Bolt and Thunderbird Trading stand out, too, with their crowd of mannequins and two beautiful Edsels. There's the handsomely reconstructed brick garage/car museum, Return to the '60's, with its fire engine red Edsel. And the Aztec Motel, across from the Snow Cap, sports a streetside9 years now brought hundreds of vehicles to town on the first weekend in May. 1988

In fact, in contrast to Winslow, with its bigger population, its actual I-40 interchange with current train stop and its location on Rte. 66, you can't get lost in Seligman. There are no new buildings to drive past in order to find our old ones. History shows up on every street and in every corner, from the Havasu on Railroad Avenue to the mule stall on Schoeny Street to the Cottage Hotel, the town's birthing clinic for much of the 20th century. It's the very model of a small-town-through-history.

Yes, we have two exits from I-40, yes, we're right there on 66, and yes, the trains will stop here again if we give them good reason.

But our strength is our integrity, our single focus on -- the way we live.

As America's small towns get eaten up one by one in population overgrowth and chain stores, Seligman struggles to stay small, even as our land prices triple in value. The actual population is about 1500 and growing due to development of ranches to the east and west of town. But the town's lifeblood is still tourism, and the shopkeepers know that a Pepsi bottling plant, a jail or a Wal-Mart where the Havasu stands now -- or anywhere nearby -- would end it all.

A "Save Small Town America Act"?
Maybe someday the federal government will understand the loss created by the continuing extinction of small town America. Then perhaps it will provide funds for preservation not only of individual buildings but of a unique way of life, the life you see in Seligman. Tourists come because it's still a little village bursting with potential: the old buildings rusticating along 66 and our side streets represent not only the romance of the open road but trains and ranchlands as well -- a veritable and living example of Americana.

For now, though, the struggle rests in the hands of individuals: shopkeepers, cowboys, country churches,… and the enlightened self-interest of outsiders like Allan Affeldt. Allan has been restoring La Posada, Winslow's Harvey House, with love and room by room. It offers continental cuisine courtesy of 100-year-old Fred Harvey menus and recipes, a shop on the lines of Harvey's Indian Trading Rooms, and an exotic collection of portraits of America's First Ladies.

We're looking for investors with that kind of imagination.

* * *

Fred Harvey's Great Grandson, Byron - An Obituary

2006-03-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Byron S. Harvey, III, age 73, of Boston, MA, formerly of Chicago, died December
20, of a heart attack. Husband of Joy (Colby); father of Charles Harvey,
MD of Bourbonnais, IL and Grosse Pointe, MI, Richard Harvey of London,
England, Katherine Harvey of Somerville, MA, Henry Harvey of Brooklyn, NY,
and Stephen Harvey of Chicago, IL and New York, NY; Brother of Helen
Harvey Mills and Julian W. Harvey, both of Chicago, IL. He is also
survived by seven grandchildren. Graduate of The Latin School of Chicago,
Andover, and the University of Chicago ('54). A noted collector and
scholar of Native American art and culture, Byron was responsible for
donations to museums, libraries, and cultural centers throughout the U.S.,
including the gift to the Field Museum while in his youth of an important
group of Hopi kachina dolls. His major legacy was the gift of over 2,000
objects to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ, where he also arranged for the
donation of the major collection of Native art formed by the Fred Harvey
Company, founded by his great-grandfather. In recent years he was an
active volunteer and donor to Boston-area museums. A Memorial Service and
interment took place on Saturday, January 21, at Rosehill
Cemetery and Chapel, 5800 North Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL. Donations in his memory may be made to the Mount Pleasant Home, 301 South Huntington Avenue, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130,
617-522-7600, www.mountpleasanthome.org.

- from Jim McPherson of the Arizona Preservation
Published in the Chicago Tribune on 1/1/2006.

2006-03-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

LATEST NEWS ON THE HARVEY HOUSE "HAVASU"
Asbestos in the Havasu

Several of you have asked for more news, current progress. Here's what's been happening, as quoted from early 2006 correspondence (slightly edited for clarity).

***
(TO BNSF)

I understand that someone from the RR is checking out the asbestos situation at the Havasu -- apparently still some in the roof and also underneath the building. Do you know anything about this? What impact would this have (on us)?

Happy New Year. It's nice to be working with you.

Mary Clurman

...
(TO BNSF)

Thanks for your time on the phone this morning.

I guess my thought is that BNSF has experience in asbestos abatement since, as your note below indicates, its cost is a factor in the RR's proceeding with the Havasu at all. We, on the other hand, have no experience whatever with it, or at least not as a group. We need to know what we are buying.

But to me, rather than being a deterrent to purchase, an understanding of the asbestos issue is just another factor that must help shape our plans, as it has BNSF's. I intend to follow through to the end, believing strongly that a revitalized Havasu will be a critical magnet for the town -- it's a bit of beauty and bygone extravagance that gives a lift to all who see it. It should not be destroyed.

So. After we spoke I remembered that I have a good friend who works in environmental quality control, -- without having to go too far, we may get some help on understanding the implications for this project.

I started working on this some years ago and actually assembled the current group, and so far it seems my best bet is to follow my instincts -- when a roadblock threatens, the best course is to understand it.

I'll let you know how it goes and what I find.

Mary Clurman

***

(TO OUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY CONTROL CONTACT)

Hi Richard,

The current hurdle at the Harvey House is that
the RR removed some but not all asbestos in the
'90's. The roof, which they'd have had to
dismantle to clean out (under tile, in tarpaper,
etc), and the crawlspace under the building
(pipe wrappings) were left unabated.

We've been working on buying the property but
thought that all asbestos was already out. Now it
seems that, were we to own it outright and then%C2

2006-03-01T18:40:00.000-08:00

The Seligman Harvey House, "Havasu"

When the Santa Fe Railroad built the Seligman Harvey House, ca. 1890, the company christened it Havasu. The Indian name furthered Fred Harvey's developing tradition, part of his grand vision of fine dining for the newly opened Western United States.

Harvey was not only a great marketer but also a gracious host and restaurateur. The Havasu, like La Posada in Winslow, El Tovar at the Grand Canyon, as well as the Fray Marcos in Williams and the Escalante in Ash Fork, both now razed, offered a comfortable destination for those eager to explore the rugged West. Even as a stopover it gave real relief from sleeping on trains and consuming the stale coffee and rancid bacon typically offered railside.

In addition to the railroad's ticket office, a roundhouse and 11 tracks running through, the Havasu sported a reading room, a large, curving lunch counter, a bar, a restaurant, and 50+ well-appointed rooms for staff and travelers, plus a doctor's office and the only telephone for miles around. For truly fine dining, Harvey brought in fresh, natural produce from the nearby Del Rio ranch, preparing it in the grand European manner. The now famous Harvey Girls served from the extensive menu on delicate china, with sterling silverware, Irish linen, and flowers from the Havasu's garden.

The Havasu is still a grand building, but it's crumbling, the timber and half-timber details of its Prairie-style facade yielding to sun and wind; windows are boarded, and the red tile roof leaks here and there. The huge building is slated for demolition -- not today, but in some unspecified tomorrow. That gives us a chance to save it.

The best idea seems to be to get a commercial appraisal for the land alone and then make an offer to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, which inherited it from the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. That will allow us to work for grants to restore the property.

If you would like to help preserve and restore this handsome bit of history, with its ties to the the heyday of the railroad and to what is now the last of America's once-Wild West, please send donations to the Seligman Historical Society, a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 organization. Mark your donation, "Havasu." The mailing address is:

Seligman Historical Society
P. O. Box 51
Seligman, AZ 86337
12/15 draft