Using the recent release of Marshall Trimble’s “Images of America: Ash Fork” by Arcadia Publishing as a jumping-off point, the Prescott (Ariz.) Daily Courier also does a pretty good job of laying out the Route 66 town’s history.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a burg with as much bad luck as Ash Fork:
But within three decades, the series of economic blows hit town.
The railroad company moved its main route north of town in the late 1950s to avoid a steep climb to Williams. […]
Ironically, even though it was one of the few historic structures to survive numerous fires, the railroad tore down the Escalante (Harvey House, built in 1907) in 1968.
Hume begged then-Gov. Jack Williams, whose father worked at the Escalante, to save it.
“He said, ‘It’s their property and they can do whatever they want,'” Hume recalled. “I just wanted him to at least talk to them.”
Ash Fork lost nearly all that was left of its original Route 66 business district in 1977 to the “Big Fire” and then to another multi-structure blaze in 1987.
The final major blow to Ash Fork’s existing economy came in 1979 when the Interstate 40 bypass south of town was complete.
The Arizona Department of Transportation closed its major Ash Fork maintenance facility that same year.
But Ash Fork is still there, and it’s now known as the Flagstone Capital of the World.
Route 66 is still there, too.
Reading that The Railroad Demolished “The Escalante Harvey House” is very disappointing today for sure. I worked in the Ash Fork Depot many years ago after it was reduced to a one employee depot. Ash Fork was a crew change point for many decades where the Phoenix & Winslow Crews changed out crews. Today the crews run thru all the was Phoenix to Winslow. So perhaps someone will make sure the Santa Fe Depot does not also get demolished or sold to be used as some ranchers barn or something.
Lets hope that Mr Hiway 66 from Seligman will take note and put in a good word to the right officials in order to protect it from forever being on a memory or old photograph. Anyone know the names or local/state officials that should be contacted to save the depot please post here so action can be started.
To Mr. Staeden,
I’m sorry to tell you but they are planning to tear down the Harvey House in Seligman. I’ve copied the story from the Williams-Grand Canyon Newspaper below but here is the link: (copy and paste link) https://www.williamsnews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=7601&SectionID=29&SubSectionID=&S=1
But I have a question for you, do you have any photos of The Escalante Harvey House? We now have a very active museum and two of our most active members of the local historical society have made miniatures of different places but only have one picture from the back of The Escalante. I don’t know how often you plan to check this site but you can email me at dygorniak@msn.com with whatever you may have. Thanks. Yvonne from Ash Fork, AZ
4/16/2008 10:14:00 AM
Railroad tearing down Seligman Harvey House
By Bruce Colbert
Special to the Williams-Grand Canyon News
Tillie Raugh, Don Gray’s grandmother, was a Harvey Girl at the Havasu House in Seligman.
SELIGMAN – The sounds of clinking china cups and laughing ladies have been gone for years at the Havasu Harvey House in Seligman. And soon, possibly this week, the Havasu House itself will be gone.
“My grandparents met there in 1916,” Don Gray said. “My grandmother was a Harvey Girl and my grandfather owned a garage in town. They met and married in 1916 and my mom was born in 1917.”
The Havasu Harvey House – built around 1905 and closed in 1955 – sits a stone’s throw from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks and one of the few remaining original stretches of historic Route 66. The BNSF owns the Havasu and its surrounding land.
When word leaked out about five years ago that the BNSF planned to demolish the hotel, Seligman residents mobilized to stop its demolition. When that failed, they tried to raise enough money to buy and move the building.
Railroad officials offered the hotel for free to anyone who would move it from their land.
“We’ve been working for almost a decade to donate the hotel but have been unsuccessful,” said BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent. “From a safety perspective, it is in the best interest to take it down. So, it will be coming down within the next two weeks.”
Gray said he understands the safety concerns – BNSF officials let him go inside the hotel two weeks ago to photograph its interior.
“It is in bad shape. But for me, it’s a part of my family history,” he said.
In 1916, when Gray’s grandfather, Charles Greenlaw Jr., met his future bride, the former Tillie Raugh, Charles owned a garage in Seligman. Tillie was a Harvey Girl making around $17.50 per month including room and board.
The Harvey House was the brainchild of Fred Harvey. He opened his first “depot restaurant” under contract to the Santa Fe Railway in 1876 at Topeka, Kan. His empire eventually included 84 Harvey Houses near train stations and tourist stops throughout the country.
Two of the most famous Harvey Houses continue to thrive – El Tovar at the Grand Canyon and La Posada in Winslow. Visionary architect Mary Jane Coulter designed many of the Harvey Houses, but she did not design the Havasu House in Seligman.
“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 façade bears no trim, while the second floor trim simply repeats the half-timbering on the main, south façade,” wrote Seligman historian and resident Mary Clurman on
seligmanharveyhouse.blog.
Angel Delgadillo was born in Seligman in 1927. He spent most of his adult life cutting hair in his father’s now-famous Seligman barbershop.
“It was just a beautiful hotel in a beautiful era,” he said. “For us boys, it was exciting to see the passenger trains pull in and watch the people get off and stretch their legs or go inside and eat.
“We would fantasize about all the parts of the world these people were traveling from. We would go down and mingle with them and pretend we were passengers traveling around the world with them.”
Angel’s daughter, Mirna, grew up in the shadow of the Havasu House.
“When they tear it down, we are going to lose a gem of history for Seligman and for our country’s heritage,” she said. “It is a very sad, sad day to lose it.
“One of my aunts was a Harvey Girl and met her husband there. That hotel has a very special place in my heart and the heart of Seligman.”
The Havasu Harvey House is the last remaining Harvey House in Yavapai County.
(Editor’s note – Bruce Colbert is a reporter for the Daily Courier, a sister publication of the News. Contact the reporter at bcolbert@prescottaz.com.)