Ranger Residences - Petrified Forest National Park AZ

City:: Petrified Forest National Monument, AZ
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Shops and Auxiliary Buildings
New Deal Agencies:: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Conservation and Public Lands, Public Works Funding, Work Relief Programs, National Park Service (NPS), Public Works Administration (PWA)
Started:: 1937
Completed:: 1940
Quality of Information:: Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

A major upgrade of facilities at the Petrified Forest National Monument (now National Park) was undertaken by the New Deal in the 1930s. The work was carried out in 1936–40 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), under the direction of the National Park Service (NPS), with a grant from the Public Works Administration (PWA).

The most notable achievement was construction of the Painted Desert Inn in the northern portion of the park (above Route 66, now Interstate 40). Across Petrified Forest Road from the inn are two residences built for the park staff at the same time. Both were done in the Pueblo Revival style popular in the 1920-30s – flat roofs, thick stuccoed walls, small windows, protruding timber roof supports and painted in a desert ochre.

Source notes

C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office, 1939.

https://www.nps.gov/pefo/historyculture/pdi.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrified_Forest_National_Park

Arizona Chapter of the National New Deal Preservation Association (NNDPA), "The New Deal in Arizona: Connections to Our Historic Landscape," University of Arizona Library online collections, 2012.
https://content.library.arizona.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/NewDeal/id/196/rec/25

National Park Service flyer on Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark, available on site. 2013.

Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on April 30, 2022.
Additional contributions by Joan Greer.