Grand Canyon Railway Depot

Williams owes its life to the railroad. When the Atlantic and Pacific, later folded into the Santa Fe, pushed its transcontinental main line across northern Arizona in the 1880s, Williams became a division town and a jumping-off point for the Grand Canyon. In 1901 the Santa Fe completed a branch line north from Williams to the South Rim, and suddenly reaching the canyon meant a comfortable train ride rather than a long, jolting stagecoach haul.

To serve the growing tide of canyon-bound travelers, the Santa Fe built a new depot in Williams in 1908. Rather than the usual wood-frame station, the railroad chose poured concrete, a modern and fireproof choice for the era, and the result is now recognized as the oldest surviving poured-concrete building in Arizona. Its long, low lines and deep eaves are classic Santa Fe, built to shelter passengers stepping down onto the platform in high-country sun and snow.

Attached to the depot was the Fray Marcos Hotel, one of the Fred Harvey Company's Harvey Houses, named for the Spanish friar Marcos de Niza. The Harvey Houses were legendary along the Santa Fe: clean, elegant trackside hotels and restaurants staffed by the famous Harvey Girls, they brought good food and good manners to a rough frontier and made rail travel across the Southwest a genuine pleasure.

For decades the depot and its Harvey House were the front door to the Grand Canyon for travelers from Chicago, Los Angeles, and everywhere between. But the automobile age slowly drained the railroads, and passenger service on the canyon branch ended in 1968, leaving the historic depot quiet and the line's future in doubt.

The story did not end there. In 1989 the Grand Canyon Railway was revived, and the old depot came back to life as the departure point for excursion trains once more climbing the sixty-plus miles to the South Rim. A newer Fray Marcos hotel now stands nearby, and the 1908 building serves travelers again, a rare case of a historic station saved and put back to its original work.

The depot sits right at the base of Grand Canyon Boulevard in downtown Williams, so it is an easy stop rather than a detour. You can walk the grounds and platform for free, take in the architecture, read the markers on the building's history, and, if the timing is right, watch a train pull out for the rim, sometimes preceded by a bit of Old West showmanship on the platform.

Pair the depot with the town it anchors. Williams calls itself the gateway to the Grand Canyon and wears its Route 66 heritage proudly, with a compact main street of vintage motels, neon signs, diners, and shops just steps from the tracks. It makes a natural base for the canyon: you can drive the hour north to the South Rim, or leave the car and let the historic railway carry you there from the very depot the Santa Fe built in 1908.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.