A museum at the landmark La Posada hotel in Winslow, Arizona, will hold a grand opening from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 2 to mark the long-planned display of the world’s largest single-loom Navajo rug.
The Hubbell-Joe Rug, originally created for the Hubbell Trading Post in Winslow in 1932 by Navajo weaver Julia Joe and family, spent more than 40 years in storage.
La Posada co-owner Allan Affeldt acquired the 21-by-32-foot rug about 10 years ago and has been planning for its display since.
The exhibit at the Affeldt Mion Museum, located in the historic depot at La Posada, is nearly ready for public view. The rug is on loan from the Winslow Arts Trust.
According to a news release from the museum:
This 21’ 4” x 32’ 7” masterpiece took Navajo (Diné) artist Julia Joe, her daughters, and the Kin
ł ichii’nii clan five years to create, including shearing hundreds of Navajo Churro sheep, washing, carding,
dyeing and spinning the wool, and spending from “sunup to midnight” at the custom-made loom.During the Great Depression, trader Lorenzo Hubbell Jr came up with the innovative idea to create the “World’s Largest Navajo Rug” as a draw for his Winslow Trading Post. In 1932, he commissioned Julia Joe, a well-known weaver from Greasewood Arizona, to bring this vision to life. What resulted was a masterpiece, not just in size, but in technique, with an evenness of weave, uniformity of color and complexity of design. Master weaver Julia Joe considered this to be her finest work.
When the trading post closed in the 1970s, the rug went into storage until 2012, when Allan Affeldt and Tina Mion purchased the textile and returned it to Winslow. After 10 years of planning, including the $2 million rehabilitation of the 1930 depot designed by famed architect Mary E.J. Colter for the Santa Fe Railway and Fred Harvey Company, the exhibit is ready for the public.
Affeldt and Tina Mion bought La Posada, built in 1929, during the 1990s and restored it into one of the most popular and praised lodging properties in the Southwest.
It’s also one of the best-preserved examples of Harvey Houses by the Fred Harvey Co. that dotted the region during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Affeldt also has gone to restore the Castadena Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and the Legal Tender Saloon and Eating House in Lamy, New Mexico.
(Image of the Hubbell-Joe Rug courtesy of the Affeldt Mion Museum in Winslow, Arizona)