Jokake Inn, Phoenix, AZ

The land where the building now stands once held a small frame house owned by painter Jessie Benton Evans. Her son, Robert, and daughter-in-law, Sylvia, built an adobe house for their family on the property in 1926.  A Hopi boy saw workers mixing adobe for the structure and named it Jokake (pronounced “joe-KAH-kee”), meaning “mud house.” That year, Sylvia began hosting tea parties at the residence, and the following year, that idea grew into a larger tearoom operation. It became the Jokake Inn when it began to accommodate overnight guests in 1928, and newspaper ads from that year touted the inn’s rooms, which featured “private baths and abundant heat.”