La Fonda on the Plaza is filled with history, lore and wonderful stories. Santa Fe was established as a city or “villa” by the Spanish in 1610 and a fonda or inn was one of the first businesses created. Two centuries later, in 1821, Captain William Becknell found an adobe hotel waiting to welcome him and his retinue as they completed the first successful trading expedition from Missouri to Santa Fe – known as the Santa Fe Trail.

With the establishment of this major trade route, “La Fonda” became a draw for traders, merchants, politicians as well as gamblers and adventurers. The hotel’s reputation for pleasant lodging and fine food grew, and its saloon and casino did a brisk business.

When the United States went to war with Mexico in 1846, President James Polk sent Brigadier-General Stephen W. Kearny to conquer New Mexico. His campaign was swift and bloodless, and in 1848 New Mexico became a United States Territory. The lavish Victory Ball was held at La Fonda and attended by the cream of Santa Fe society.

Soon afterwards the inn changed hands and became the U.S. Hotel, but it continued to draw guests from far and wide and fortunes were made and lost in its colorful gambling hall. In 1857, one unlucky gambler even lost his life at the end of a rope strung up in the Hotel’s backyard by a lynch mob. General Ulysses S. Grant was given a ball at the hotel after the Civil War and Billy the kid, it’s rumored, washed dishes in the hotel kitchen and played the piano in the bar. And a Territorial Supreme Court Judge was shot to death in the hotel lobby over a “misunderstanding”.

Around this time, the hotel changed hands again and became the Exchange Hotel, operating non-stop for sixty years until 1919 when the old adobe structure was demolished.

In 1920, citizen investors bought stock to finance the present-day La Fonda on the same site at the southeast corner of the Plaza. But, after hiring the architecture firm of Rapp, Rapp and Henderson to design and build the four-story, forty-six room hotel, the venture failed and in 1925 the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad acquired the hotel and leased it the following year to the successful  hotelier and restaurateur, Fred Harvey.

The Fred Harvey Company hired architect John Gaw Meem to enlarge the hotel to 156 rooms, adding a fifth floor of deluxe suites and the six-story bell tower, modeled after the mission bell towers at Acoma Pueblo. Harvey also hired Mary Jane Colter, a remarkable designer to create all the interiors of the hotel. Seven hundred and ninety eight pieces of furniture were made to her specifications and shipped to the hotel to be hand-painted to fit the varied color schemes of each room. She also filled the hotel with gorgeous wrought iron detailing.

La Fonda remained a Harvey House for forty-one years offering wonderful accommodations and very friendly service. Fred Harvey hired pretty young women to serve in La Fonda’s restaurants and they became known as the Harvey Girls. They were charming, smart and hard working and they added to the welcoming atmosphere of the hotel. La Fonda remained a Harvey House until 1969 when it was acquired by local Santa Fe businessman, Sam Ballen and his wife Ethel. When Sam and Ethel passed away, long-time friend and hotel lawyer, Jennifer Kimball, took Sam’s place as Chairman of the Board, and Sam and Ethel’s five daughters now sit on the Board of Directors