Wikipedia says an inn has stood on this site since 1609. It sits at the end of the Old Santa Fe Trail, which was the main trade route from Missouri until the railroad came in 1880.
An earlier hotel, the United States Hotel, burned down in 1912. A new hotel was designed by Isaac Hamilton Rapp in the Pueblo Revival style, inspired by the adobe buildings of the Pueblo peoples. In 1925 the Santa Fe Railway bought it.
Architect Mary Colter redesigned the inside with exposed wooden beams called vigas and Mexican tiles. The Fred Harvey Company ran it as a Harvey House until 1969, and offered "Indian Detours" tours starting in 1926.