The last major addition to the studio occurred in 1925. The showroom was expanded into a full-size auditorium and space was added for the lab and darkroom. Throughout the following years minor changes to the building occurred, but the structure has remained essentially the same for nearly eighty years. It is five stories high and contains twenty-three rooms. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

NAU 568-2791		AFTER 1915

In later years Emery Kolb grew to be as tenacious as his building. The Fred Harvey Company attempted to run him out of business by constructing nearby Lookout Studio. Lookout Studio, along with a newly constructed mule corral, effectively blocked access to Kolb Studio. Many people visited Lookout Studio, mistaking it for Kolb Studio.

Emery’s dealings with the National Park Service became strained as political pressure mounted to rid the canyon of Emery Kolb and his “eyesore” of a building. But like his studio, Emery Kolb weathered the storms and continued taking pictures and showing his movie until his death in a Flagstaff hospital in 1976 at the age of 95. He was laid to rest next to his wife Blanche and his brother Ellsworth in Pioneer Cemetery in the park, adjacent to the Shrine of the Ages. Blanche passed away in 1960; their daughter Edith in 1978.