Canyon Club

Known as the Canyon Club since 1949, this Streamline Moderne building in downtown Williams has a long, narrow, rectangular footprint that spans the block, fronting onto both the eastbound and westbound one-way streets of Historic Route 66. A narrow hall on the west side connects the two building components. The northern portion, which faces the railroad tracks, was originally constructed in 1910. Jesus Bustillos and Pedro Garcia constructed the southern portion in 1932 as the El Charro Restaurant, renovating the extant building to the north to serve as a kitchen. The one-story, masonry building served as a gathering place for local ranchers and tourists through the Great Depression and war years.

The southern facade contains a mix of flagstone and buff-colored brick. The curved entrance is dominated by opaque glass blocks above refined stone panels and topped by a band of black Carrara glass. The parapet holds a rectangular marquee from which springs a metal A-frame holding three projecting signs, added at midcentury and including one in neon, advertising the one-room bar and pool hall. The northern elevation is composed of rough-hewn flagstone laid horizontally and an eight-foot-high parapet of salvaged bricks; painted a dark red, this span supports another sign surrounded by lightbulbs, with an arrow that points to the recessed entrance. The only aperture is a single-light, circular window measuring five feet in diameter on the ground floor, added in the early 1950s.