Mary Elizabeth Colter Architect, Engineer 1869-1958

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Missouri Valley Special Collections: Biography Mary Elizabeth Colter Architect, Engineer 1869-1958 by Susan Jezak Ford Travelers in the early twentieth century were swept away by the romance of train travel to Arizona and New Mexico. Railroads encouraged the trend by building train depots, gift shops, and other tourist attractions in the style of Native American and California mission architecture. Mary Colter worked as one of the most prolific designers and architects of this era out of an office in Union Station. Mary Colter was born in 1869 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her family moved frequently, but settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, when she was 11. Colter flourished in school art classes. After her father’s death, she persuaded her family to send her to the California School of Design. Upon graduation in 1892, she returned to St. Paul to support her mother and sister by teaching drawing classes at the Mechanic Arts High School there. The Fred Harvey Company had operated restaurants, hotels, and gift shops for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway since 1876, providing clean, inexpensive spots for travelers to stop and eat or rest. The company hired Colter to decorate the Indian Building in Albuquerque in1902, to design the Hopi House at the Grand Canyon in 1905, and offered her permanent employment in 1910. When the Fred Harvey Company moved its offices to Union Station in Kansas City, Colter also came, designing the restaurant and gift shop at the station. She later oversaw the remodeling of the facilities to include a cocktail lounge and the Westport Room Restaurant. She lived in Kansas City for over 25 years. At a time when the most popular architecture in America’s cities came from the classical designs of Renaissance Italy, Colter’s buildings grew out of the southwest, using indigenous materials, styles, and methods. She designed and decorated many structures for the Fred Harvey Company throughout the southwest. These include many that still stand at the Grand Canyon, such as Hermit’s Rest, Phantom Ranch, and the Watchtower. The Kansas City Public Library | 14 W. 10th St. | Kansas City, MO 64105 | 816.701.3427 | kchistory.org Missouri Valley Special Collections: Biography Colter retired in 1948, having served the Fred Harvey Company for 46 years. She died in 1958 after donating a vast collection of southwestern art to Mesa Verde National Park. Sources Flynn, Jane Fifield. Kansas City Women of Independent Minds. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Co., 1992. Grattan, Virginia. Mary Colter: Builder Upon the Red Earth. Grand Canyon, AR: Grand Canyon Natural History Association, 1992. “A Kansas City Woman Decorated the Hopi House.” Kansas City Star, 28 March 1915. © 1999 Photo: Courtesy of Richard M. Perry, www.allhikers.com. The Kansas City Public Library | 14 W. 10th St. | Kansas City, MO 64105 | 816.701.3427 | kchistory.org.

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