HISTORIC LA POSADA HOTEL PUTS WINSLOW BACK ON TRACK.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

WINSLOW, Ariz. - The golden age of rail travel in the Southwest lives again at a dusty town in eastern Arizona.

La Posada Hotel, which opened in 1930 as a rest stop for rail travelers intrigued by natural treasures and native culture, is about halfway through an exhaustive restoration, and welcomes guests to hallways where John Wayne, Mary Pickford, Shirley Temple and Lionel Barrymore once roamed.

``The next undertaking is the landscaping on the street side - what we call the back door,'' said manager Sheila Ashenfelder with a chuckle. ``The front door really is on the other side. Everybody came in on the trains in those days.''

The hotel was designed by Mary Colter, the chief architect of the Fred Harvey Co., which had the contract for hospitality along the Santa Fe Railroad.

Colter, better-known for her innovative designs along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, had a fanciful vision for this place. She imagined a Spanish don living here in the 1800s, and building a stately hacienda in stages as his family grew. Accordingly, La Posada has what appears to be a main, original section with newer wings attached to its east and west sides.

The sense of an old hacienda is back, with arched hallways, massive ceiling beams, a spiral staircase with wrought-iron railing and a sunken garden. The decor enhances this character, too, with rustic furniture, big potted plants and locally produced art.

It's a wonder the thing is standing at all, though. Star-crossed La Posada opened in 1930, just seven months after the stock market crashed. About the time it got back on its feet, car travel was replacing the rails as tourists' favored mode of transportation.

The hotel closed in 1957, and was soon taken over as Santa Fe offices. That's when the real desecrations occurred. Stone floors were ripped up. Linoleum was laid down. Arches were filled in. Spacious public rooms were divided into cubicles with drywall partitions and drop ceilings.

``They made quite a mess of it,'' said Ashenfelder.

The building was in danger of being demolished in the early 1990s, but preservationist Allan Affeldt stepped in to rescue it. A painstaking restoration has been waged ever since, with the hotel opening anew for business in 1997.

Currently, there are 34 guest rooms, a copper-topped martini bar and about as fine a restaurant as you'll find this far east of the Grand Canyon's El Tovar. As you partake of chef John Sharpe's inventive offerings here - some of them variations on Fred Harvey menu selections - freight trains continually rumble past the window, unintentionally adding atmosphere. (Some 90 trains a day pass by here.)

The rooms can be had at bargain rates, too. I was comfortable in a high-ceilinged standard for only $89 a night. There are also Jacuzzi rooms for $109 and suites that the hotel lists as ``suspiciously cheap'' for $149.

Why so inexpensive? Because you're in Winslow. An old Route 66 town that was bypassed by Interstate 40, it was in its death throes until recently. ``We're rebuilding Winslow,'' said Glenn Blake, who personally restored the Winslow Theatre and is the construction foreman for the hotel. ``Winslow was a plywood town before La Posada opened.''

A number of the older buildings downtown have been ticketed for renovation and artists have begun to drift in, lured by low rents. The Winslow Film Festival marked its third anniversary a couple of weeks ago. On a morning walk, you might notice there are multiple options for a cup of espresso.

You'll also probably stumble upon Jackson Browne. Or at least a statue that is a dead ringer for him. ``Take It Easy,'' co-written by Browne and Glenn Frey of the Eagles in the early 1970s, immortalized the town with the lyric, ``... standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona ... .'' Duly, a drifter with a guitar loiters in bronze at the corner of North Kinsley Avenue and Second Street on old 66.

These days, however, if any girls in flat-bed Fords are slowing down, it's more likely to take a look at what's going on at La Posada.

--La Posada Hotel is at 303 E. Second St., Winslow. Rooms from $89. [phone]; www.laposada.org.

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(color) The lobby and hallways of Winslow's La Posada Hotel, which was designed to evoke a Spanish don's home, have been restored to their 1930's glory.