They are found
on all four floors. The Arizona sunshine generously enters each one at some
hour of the day. Steam heat (automatically regulated), electric lights and
office telephones are provided - willing servants quickly to do your
bidding.
On the first and second floors are forty-two rooms en suite. There are
twenty-one commodious bathrooms, white as snow and kept spotlessly clean.
On the office and first floors are two private parlors en suite. The
furniture is mostly of arts and crafts design.
Dining-Room. When travel stains are removed, you are directed to the
dining-room. It is quadrangular in form, ninety feet long by forty feet
wide, arched overhead, the roof supported by six huge log trusses. Walls
and trusses and roof are all finished in rough wood, and are as brown as a
coffee berry. The two fireplaces are built of gray sandstone.
A dozen electroliers of rustic pattern hang from the ceiling. Electric wall
lights and candelabra for the side tables complete the lighting.
Through any of the many triple windows may be seen the large-eyed stars;
for here the sky seems to bend closer to earth than in lower altitudes.
The tables are adorned with glass, silver and flowers. You also notice old
brass dishes, antique Dutch and English platters, and Indian ollas,
displayed on the plate rail.
Well-trained waitresses, in white uniforms, deftly serve the meal, which is
Harvey's best. While you are leisurely dining, it is pleasant to look
around and see who your neighbors are. They have come here from every
section - perhaps a New York or Chicago banker, a Harvard professor, an
Arizona ranchman, an English globe-trotter, and a German savant. Pretty
women and lovely children complete the picture.
The dinner itself is prepared under the direction of a capable Italian
chef, once employed in New York and Chicago clubs. He presides over one of
the most complete and up-to-the-minute hotel kitchens in the United States.
On the right of the main entrance is a small breakfast room, tastefully
decorated in fifteenth century style. On the left is a private dining-room,
whose wall decorations mainly consist of Indian deer hieroglyphics,
reproduced from old pictographs in Mallery Grotto.
The Music-Room and Solarium. At the end of the north wing, on the office
floor, fronting the Canyon's abyss, is a spacious room devoted to refined
amusements. The wall decorations are of gold, trimmed in old ivory,
imitating fifteenth century leather. Sunshine streams in from numerous
windows. The music-room is so admirably located and so daintily furnished,
that it is a favorite resort for lovers of music, cards, and dancing.
Where the south wing terminates, and on the office floor, is a sunny,
glass-enclosed nook, open on three sides and sheltered from cool north
winds. It is called the solarium or sun-parlor. To this retreat come the
ladies, with sewing baskets and books. It is quite the fad to take a
sunbath here.
On the top floor, and out of doors, are two roof gardens, where light
refreshments are served.
The Amusement Room and Clubroom. On the ground floor, easily reached from
the office and from the rim pathway, is the amusement room, fitted with
billiard, pool, and card tables, and shuffle-boards. Adjacent is the
clubroom.
Water Supply. For fire purposes, there is a Knowles high-duty underwriter's
fire pump, which is regularly used for the transportation of water to the
high steel water-tank, capable of holding three hundred and twenty thousand
gallons. Pure spring water is hauled in tank cars from Bellemont, ninety
miles away, about seven cars a day being required for all purposes. Every
drop of water, before entering the hotel, passes through two quartz
filters, and drinking water is distilled twice and then aerated.
Sewerage. The sewerage system of a large hotel is a matter of primary
importance. At El Tovar the matter was given more than usual care and
foresight. An antiseptic system was installed, at a cost of over twenty
thousand dollars. The sewage is conveyed by underground pipes a long
distance to solid concrete tanks, where the solids are disposed of by
natural processes. The liquids pass through eight filter beds, and then
enter the ditch colorless and odorless.
Bright Angel Camp. To accommodate those desiring less expensive quarters,
Bright Angel Camp - old Bright Angel Hotel remodelled - is operated on the
European plan. Rooms are one dollar a day each person; meals are obtained
at Harvey cafe. The lodgings and fare here are of a much simpler kind than
at El Tovar, but clean, wholesome, and thoroughly comfortable.
This Camp supplements the higher class service at the big hotel.
Transportation Facilities at El Tovar. Travelers who visit the Grand Canyon
will be pleased to find an up-to-date livery service maintained in
connection with El Tovar Hotel and Bright Angel Camp. They are thus able
easily and comfortably to take pleasant sightseeing tours away from the
hotel to obtain different views of the Canyon. Most visitors here do not
realize that the granite gorge district of Grand Canyon alone is about
seventy miles in length, ranging from ten to fifteen miles in width, and
that from every accessible point along the rim a different outlook may be
had, each unsurpassed of its kind. The transportation department is only
one of the many pleasing details provided for the comfort of those who come
to the Grand Canyon. It is thoroughly organized and equipped.
Trips to Take. At both El Tovar and Bright Angel, throughout the day and
evening, will be found an agent representing this department. By means of
telephonic communication between the hotels and the stables, these agents
can provide in a surprisingly short time saddle-horses for a ride down one
of the many bridle-paths, turnouts for a drive along the shady roads near
the rim, or sure-footed animals for a descent into the Canyon on Hermit
Trail (now nearing completion), or Bright Angel Trail.
