La Fonda On The Plaza — Santa Fe, NM, United States
About La Fonda On The Plaza
In a 1931 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, novelist of the American West, Willa Cather, described the moment Death Comes for the Archbishop 's structure came to her while staying at La Fonda in 1925, the story appearing to her almost like a projection on the white wall of her hotel room, as if lit by "a sort of magic lantern." There's also a well-known photograph, taken around the same time by her companion and editor Edith Lewis, of Cather standing on the hotel's roof/terrace with the Cathedral of St. Francis in the background. Since then, the hotel has expanded by leaps and bounds, going from 46 to over 150 rooms in the 1930s, so chasing Cather's inspirational footprint isn't possible for today's guests. Simone de Beauvoir, Cormac McCarthy, and Helen Keller have likewise strolled these hallways. Separately, war correspondent and journalist Ernie Pyle wrote a well-known pass…
Literary significance
Historic Hotels of America named La Fonda to their 2024 Top 25 "Most Literary Hotels" list, but you'll find room differentiation in the form of some heavy ledgepole ceilings and individually-painted headboards, for more of an arts feel than a literary one (and books left in each room echo the importance of the arts to La Fonda).
Authors
Location
100 E San Francisco St, Santa Fe, NM 87501, United States