Grand Canyon Hotel

Housing the oldest hotel in Williams, this Victorian commercial building in the downtown core survived several fires thanks to its masonry construction. From its opening in January 1892 as the Boyce Hotel, the two-story edifice has divided its space between hospitality on the upper floor and retail on the ground floor, with tenants ranging over the decades from a drugstore, grocery store, and curio shop to a dance hall and meeting hall for the Knights of Pythias Lodge. Noted guests included Captain (later General) John Pershing, members of the Vanderbilt family, the King of Siam, and environmentalist John Muir.

Developed by local merchant Cormick E. Boyce and designed by Samuel E. Patton, the large, rectangular, brick building (later partially stuccoed) has a covered, chamfered corner entrance and storefront windows separated by pilasters. Brick pilasters break the upper floor into five equal bays, each of which is punctuated by a segmental-arched window. Above, a heavy brick cornice masks the flat roof. Segmental-arched windows march down the side (west) elevation, which is horizontally demarcated by a belt course. A vertical sign projecting from the facade, likely added in the 1930s, announces its function as a hotel.

The hotel closed around 1970 and the building sat empty for more than three decades. Amy and Oscar Frederickson purchased the property in 2004. They renovated the building and reopened it as the Grand Canyon Hotel in 2005. There are 25 guest rooms on the upper floor; the ground floor is divided between a restaurant in the rear, the hotel entry on Route 66, and retail on the corner.