%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Charles Boettcher http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/charles-boettcher <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Charles Boettcher</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-06-29T15:46:48-06:00" title="Tuesday, June 29, 2021 - 15:46" class="datetime">Tue, 06/29/2021 - 15:46</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/charles-boettcher" data-a2a-title="Charles Boettcher"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcharles-boettcher&amp;title=Charles%20Boettcher"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Charles Boettcher (1852–1948) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for founding the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/great-western-sugar-company"><strong>Great Western Sugar Company</strong></a> and the Boettcher Foundation, an organization that made the Boettcher name synonymous with generosity in Colorado. Boettcher built his wealth through a series of sound investments in hardware, mining, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sugar-beet-industry"><strong>sugar beet</strong></a> processing, meatpacking, cement production, hotels, and more. This diversity helped amass his large fortune, protected it from the perils of Colorado’s early boom-and-bust economy, and developed Boettcher’s reputation as a savvy businessman. The <strong>Boettcher Foundation</strong>, founded by Charles Boettcher and his son <strong>Claude</strong> in 1937, continues to provide millions of dollars in grants and scholarships across Colorado.</p> <h2>Early Years</h2> <p>Charles Boettcher was born in 1852 in the German town of Kölleda, where his parents Frederick and Susanna owned a hardware store. When he was seventeen, his parents sent him to Wyoming to visit his older brother Herman, who was also working in a hardware store. Once in the United States, Charles saw the opportunities for hardware sales in booming mining towns and decided to stay.</p> <h2>Hardware Empire</h2> <p>The business career of the Boettcher brothers began when they purchased two hardware stores, one in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and one in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a>, Colorado. The brothers were taught from a young age to save their money and work hard, and this led to the rapid development of a hardware empire. They purchased a third store in Evans, Colorado, in 1871. He then purchased another store in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a> in 1872. Charles would later open another store in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder"><strong>Boulder</strong></a> by himself, and it quickly became a landmark building that still stands at the corner of Broadway and Pearl.</p> <h2>Family Life</h2> <p>While living in Fort Collins, Boettcher met Fannie Augusta Cowan and quickly proposed. Eager to start a new life with his bride, Boettcher sold the goods from his Fort Collins hardware store and rented out the premises. He chose Boulder as his next destination, and Boettcher later recalled the next four years as some of the happiest of his life. The Boettchers married in 1874 and had two children, Claude in 1875 and Ruth in 1890. Charles and Fannie would travel the world together during their long marriage but eventually grew apart. Although they remained civil, the couple officially separated in 1918 and lived apart for the remainder of their long lives.</p> <h2>Leadville</h2> <p>The silver boom in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/leadville"><strong>Leadville</strong></a> soon attracted Charles, and he opened another store there in 1879. Business boomed in this mining town that soon boasted 30,000 residents. Charles and his family lived in Leadville for the next ten years. During this time, he used profits from his hardware empire to purchase mining properties in and around Leadville. He also invested in Leadville’s first electric company and bought a ranch.</p> <h2>Banking</h2> <p>According to legend, Boettcher started banking as soon as he arrived in Colorado, but he did not officially incorporate until much later. In the 1890, Boettcher joined the board of the Carbonate Bank in Leadville as director.&nbsp; His wife, Fannie wanted to move to <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, and this new business venture provided the necessary funds. Boettcher’s business acumen would be sharply tested in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/panic-1893"><strong>Panic of 1893</strong></a>, but in part thanks to his diverse portfolio, he escaped relatively unscathed. Boettcher later operated and invested in his own bank, Denver US Bank (now part of Wells Fargo). With his partner H. M. Porter, Boettcher also opened an investment firm later known as the Fifteenth Street Investment Company, which became the largest landowner in Denver. In 1910 his son Claude would take over and create the investment firm Boettcher, Porter, and Company.</p> <h2>Sugar Beets</h2> <p>In 1900 Fannie and Charles Boettcher embarked on a pivotal trip back to Germany. It was during this vacation that Charles visited several sugar beet farms and became interested in the potential of sugar beets back in Colorado. He learned all he could during the trip about growing and processing sugar beets, and he even collected seeds, which he experimented with after his return. This new interest changed the course of Colorado’s economic history, especially for the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado%E2%80%99s-great-plains"><strong>eastern plains</strong></a>, where sugar beets could be grown in large quantities.</p> <p>Boettcher founded the Great Western Sugar Company in 1900, but his wasn’t the only one. Between 1900 and 1920, beet-processing facilities opened across the plains in Greeley, <strong>Loveland</strong>, Eaton, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-morgan"><strong>Fort Morgan</strong></a>, <strong>Brush</strong>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sterling-0"><strong>Sterling</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0"><strong>Longmont</strong></a>, and <strong>Brighton</strong>. Each facility opened independently but was then purchased by Henry O. Havemeyer and in 1905 was acquired by Boettcher and his partners. Boettcher’s Great Western Sugar Company flourished and supported a multi-million-dollar industry in Colorado.</p> <h2>Ideal Cement Company</h2> <p>During the construction of the first of several sugar beet–processing facilities, Boettcher realized that he and his partners paid a premium price for concrete mix produced in Germany. To remedy this, Boettcher decided to open his own cement company to produce high-quality cement locally. In 1901 he and his partner John Thatcher incorporated as the Portland Cement Company, which provided cement for sugar beet factories. In 1924 the name would change to the Ideal Cement Company, which became the largest privately owned cement company in the world. The first two cement production facilities were in Florence and just outside Fort Collins, but the company would later expand to twenty-six states and employ more than 3,000 people.</p> <p>In 1908 Boettcher completed construction of the Ideal Cement Building in downtown Denver. Located at Seventeenth and Champa Streets, it was in a prime location for demonstrating the strength and safety of concrete. According to legend, Boettcher set fire to the building soon after its completion to demonstrate the superiority and safety of the all-concrete structure. It still stands today.</p> <h2>Other Investments</h2> <p>In 1901 Boettcher founded the Western Packing Company in Denver to slaughter the cows from his ranch. The company was sold to Swift and Company in 1912 at a substantial profit. He also invested in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-tramway-company"><strong>Denver Tramway Company</strong></a>, the city’s largest streetcar company. Boettcher’s diverse portfolio also included the Capitol Life Insurance Company and Bighorn Land and Cattle Company. In 1903 he created the National Fuse and Powder Company, which produced dynamite for miners.</p> <h2>Later Years</h2> <p>In 1915 Boettcher became president of the Denver &amp; Salt Lake Railroad, also known as the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-northwestern-pacific-railway-hill-route-moffat-road"><strong>Moffat Road</strong></a>. This group of investors wanted to build a railroad across the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/great-divide"><strong>Continental Divide</strong></a> through Colorado to Salt Lake City. Plagued by financial difficulties, the group appealed to the legislature for funds to build a tunnel. The legislature approved the funding, but the governor disagreed, and the ensuing fight in court went against Boettcher’s company. After a stalemate, Boettcher decided to raise the funds via bonds, but that was also unsuccessful. The tunnel was eventually completed in 1928, but by then Boettcher had already vacated his position and sold his shares.</p> <p>Boettcher also purchased the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/brown-palace-hotel"><strong>Brown Palace Hotel</strong></a> in 1922, and after separating from his wife, Fannie, he lived there full time. Boettcher used his large collection of European military memorabilia to decorate the Palace Arms Dining Room. Although he owned the hotel, he liked to buy Coca-Cola across the street at a vending machine, saying the prices at the Brown Palace were too high.</p> <h2>Residences</h2> <p>Over the years the Boettcher family lived in Boulder, Leadville, and Denver in increasingly larger and more stately houses. Their Denver residence, at 1201 Grant Street in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver%E2%80%99s-capitol-hill"><strong>Capitol Hill</strong></a>, was one of the many elegant houses on Grant Street, which became known as “Millionaires Row.” In 1917 Boettcher completed his summer retreat, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lorraine-lodgeboettcher-mansion"><strong>Lorraine Lodge</strong></a>, in the mountains near <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/golden"><strong>Golden</strong></a>, and would typically spend summers there hunting, fishing, and entertaining his business partners and guests.</p> <h2>Philanthropy</h2> <p>Both Charles and Fannie Boettcher valued education. They each donated generously to schools. Fannie supported the Kent School for Girls (now <strong>Kent Denver</strong> <strong>School</strong>), while Charles and his son Claude opened the Boettcher School for Crippled Children for children receiving care at Denver’s <strong>Children’s Hospital</strong>. In 1937 he and Claude created the Boettcher Foundation to give back to Colorado, his adopted home.</p> <h2>Legacy</h2> <p>Never one to rest on his laurels, Boettcher worked at the Ideal Cement Company until his death on July 2, 1948, at age ninety-six. One of the most significant businessmen in Colorado history, Boettcher made his approximately $16 million fortune in a variety of industries. His gratitude was expressed in the Boettcher Foundation, which has provided millions of dollars in grants to schools, hospitals, and other worthy causes throughout Colorado. Denver’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-museum-nature-science-0"><strong>Museum of Nature and Science</strong></a>, <strong>Center for the Performing Arts</strong>, and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-botanic-gardens"><strong>Botanic Gardens</strong></a> all have spaces dedicated to the Boettcher family. A series of murals in Denver’s <strong>Capitol Building</strong> was also donated to the state in Boettcher’s memory.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/campbell-alyse" hreflang="und">Campbell, Alyse</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/charles-boettcher" hreflang="en">Charles Boettcher</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/great-western-sugar" hreflang="en">great western sugar</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ideal-cement-company" hreflang="en">ideal cement company</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-business-leaders" hreflang="en">colorado business leaders</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/business-history-colorado" hreflang="en">business history colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sugar-beets" hreflang="en">sugar beets</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sugar-beet-industry" hreflang="en">sugar beet industry</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boettcher-foundation" hreflang="en">Boettcher Foundation</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/claude-boettcher" hreflang="en">Claude Boettcher</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boettcher-family-history" hreflang="en">boettcher family history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boettcher-mansion" hreflang="en">boettcher mansion</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://boettcherfoundation.org/2020-grantmaking/">2020 Year-End: Boettcher Foundation Awards $10.6 Million in Grants and Scholarships</a>,” Boettcher Foundation, December 23, 2020.</p> <p>Phillip Anschutz, <em>Out Where the West Begins</em> (Denver: Cloud Campus Press, 2015).</p> <p>Geraldine B. Bean, <em>Charles Boettcher: Study in Pioneer Western Enterprise</em> (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1976).</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/digital-colorado/colorado-histories/boom-years/charles-boettcher-denver-businessman/">Charles Boettcher: Denver Business Man</a>,” Colorado Virtual Library, accessed February 1, 2020.</p> <p><a href="https://coloradocapitolart.colorado.gov/art-work-maps/1st-floor">Colorado State Capitol Art and Memorials</a>. N.d.</p> <p>Candy Hamilton, <em>Footprints in the Sugar: A History of the Great Western Sugar Company</em> (Ontario, OR: Hamilton Bates Publishers, 2009).</p> <p>Stephen J. Leonard and Thomas J. Noel, <em>Denver: Mining Camp to Metropolis</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1990).</p> <p>Thomas J. Noel, <em>Growing Through History With Colorado: The Colorado National Banks</em> (Denver: Colorado National Banks and the Colorado Studies Center, 1987).</p> <p>Anne Cameron Robb, <a href="https://boettcherfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-Colorado-Legacy.pdf"><em>The Boettcher Time: A Colorado Legacy</em></a>, Boettcher Foundation, n.d.</p> <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, “<a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365005651/">The Boettchers</a>,” <em>Colorado Experience</em>, May 2, 2013.</p> <p>Carl Ubbelohde, Maxine Benson, Duane A. Smith, <em>A Colorado History</em>, 9th ed. (Boulder: Pruett Publishing, 2006).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Carl Abbott, Stephen Leonard, and Thomas J. Noel, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State</em>, 5th ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2013).</p> <p>Grace Zirkelbach, <em>Charles Boettcher: A Colorado Businessman</em> (Palmer Lake, CO: Filter Press, 2011).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 29 Jun 2021 21:46:48 +0000 yongli 3588 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Boston Building http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boston-building <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Boston Building</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-01-25T17:14:44-07:00" title="Monday, January 25, 2021 - 17:14" class="datetime">Mon, 01/25/2021 - 17:14</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boston-building" data-a2a-title="Boston Building"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fboston-building&amp;title=Boston%20Building"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Located at 828 Seventeenth Street in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, the Boston Building opened in 1890. Hailed by early historian Jerome Smiley as “the first of the strictly modern office buildings” in the city, the Boston Building signaled the emergence of Seventeenth Street as the <strong>“Wall Street of the Rockies”</strong> and later housed the <strong>Boettcher</strong> <strong>family businesses</strong>. As the Boston name suggests, the building also represented a major early commitment by eastern capitalists to Denver as the metropolis of the Rocky Mountain region. The historic eight-story office tower was converted to residential lofts in the late 1990s.</p> <h2>Construction and Architecture</h2> <p>The man behind the Boston Building was Denver businessman and booster <strong>Henry R. Wolcott</strong>, a mining and <strong>smelting</strong> magnate who also became a director of the <strong>Denver, Utah &amp; Pacific Railroad</strong>, president of the <strong>Colorado Telephone Company</strong>, and major player in various other ventures. The son of a prominent Massachusetts family, he enlisted Boston capitalists to finance a $425,000 office building named for their city. In 1888 the group selected a location on Seventeenth Street, where commercial buildings were rapidly displacing a once-fashionable residential neighborhood during Denver’s silver boom of 1880–93. An Episcopal seminary and girls’ school called <strong>Wolfe Hall</strong> (1867–89) was demolished to clear the site at the corner of Champa Street.</p> <p>To build the Boston, Wolcott and his eastern investors commissioned Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul, the same leading Boston firm that later designed the more refined <strong>Equitable Building</strong> in 1892. For the Boston Building, the firm designed an eight-story office tower with a ground-floor level a few steps below street grade. The tall building demonstrated that Denver was growing up as well as out, as technical advances such as water pumping, forced-air heating, and elevators paved the way for later Seventeenth Street towers such as the Equitable Building and the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/brown-palace-hotel"><strong>Brown Palace Hotel</strong></a>.</p> <p>The Boston Building’s exterior is red sandstone quarried near <strong>Manitou Springs</strong>. Heavy cubes of red sandstone at its base and Romanesque arches on all eight floors give the building a Richardsonian Romanesque look. A consistent window pattern—round-arch windows atop square windows, all halved by central colonettes—gives the building a striking symmetry reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance. Although it now sports a modern lack of ornamentation, the building was designed with three majestic entry arches supporting a third-story balcony as well as an elaborate cornice with carved heads above an ornate frieze (a horizontal band of sculpted decorations). These flourishes were later removed when they began to deteriorate in Colorado’s rapidly changing weather and started to bombard the streets below. The interior featured finished oak with marble flooring and wainscoting, terrazzo floors, and three high-speed elevators.</p> <h2>Businesses and Boettchers</h2> <p>When it opened in 1890, the Boston Building attracted prosperous and progressive tenants such as the <strong>Colorado Midland Railroad</strong>, Denver Land and Water Storage Company, and Security Abstract and Rating Company. Numerous real estate offices operated in the building, including John M. Berkey and Company, the oldest real estate firm in the state. Berkey, with his good eye for real estate, was one of the building’s first investors and tenants. Other notable tenants included insurance companies such as Aetna and Mutual Life as well as several investment companies. The building also housed the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, predecessor of the giant <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron Company</strong></a>. The basement was home to one of Denver’s favorite restaurants and saloons.</p> <p>In 1920 <strong>Claude Boettcher</strong> and associates bought the building for $490,000 and remodeled it. Claude and his father, <strong>Charles</strong>, Colorado’s leading industrialist and entrepreneur, made the Boston Building a home for their sprawling business empire, including the Boettcher Corporation, Boettcher Investments, Boettcher Realty, Big Horn Cattle, and Ideal Cement. In 1969 Boettcher and Company, then Colorado’s leading stock brokerage and the nation’s second-largest underwriter of municipal bonds outside New York City, bought the building. For decades, the Boettcher firms made the Boston Building the place to watch the ups and downs of the stock market.</p> <h2>Bank and Boston Lofts</h2> <p>By the late twentieth century, the elegant red monolith of the Boston Building stood in stark contrast to the concrete, glass, and steel newcomers on the Wall Street of the Rockies. In 1978 the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p> <p>In 1998 a realty company acquired the Boston Building and renovated it along with the adjacent Kistler Building to create 158 one- and two-bedroom apartments, the Bank and Boston Lofts. Extensive interior remodeling included fifty low-to-moderate rents, while the ground floor was converted to house small retail outlets. This was one of the most significant Denver loft conversions of the 1990s, portending a major shift that brought many downtown sites full circle back to their much earlier use as single-family residences.&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/noel-thomas-j" hreflang="und">Noel, Thomas J.</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boston-building" hreflang="en">Boston Building</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/seventeenth-street" hreflang="en">Seventeenth Street</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/wall-street-rockies" hreflang="en">Wall Street of the Rockies</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/henry-wolcott" hreflang="en">Henry Wolcott</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/claude-boettcher" hreflang="en">Claude Boettcher</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/charles-boettcher" hreflang="en">Charles Boettcher</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bank-and-boston-lofts" hreflang="en">Bank and Boston Lofts</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Richard R. Brettell, <em>Historic Denver: The Architects and the Architecture, 1858–1893</em> (Denver: Historic Denver, Inc., 1973).</p> <p>Barbara Norgren, “Boston Building,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, January 12, 1977.</p> <p><em>Western Architect and Building News</em> (Denver: J.&nbsp;B. Dorman, 1889–92).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Stephen J. Leonard and Thomas J. Noel, <em>Denver: Mining Camp to Metropolis</em> (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1990).</p> <p>Thomas J. Noel and Nicholas J. Wharton, <em>Denver Landmarks and Historic Districts</em>, 2nd ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2016).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:14:44 +0000 yongli 3498 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Governor’s Residence at Boettcher Mansion http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/governors-residence-boettcher-mansion <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Governor’s Residence at Boettcher Mansion</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1789--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1789.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/governors-residence-boettcher-mansion"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Governors%20Residence%20Media%204_0.jpg?itok=jtT82RpU" width="640" height="585" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/governors-residence-boettcher-mansion" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Governor&#039;s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>After Claude and Edna Boettcher died in the late 1950s, their mansion was offered to the State of Colorado as a governor's residence. After some hesitation because of the high cost of maintenance, Governor Stephen McNichols accepted the house at the end of 1959 and moved into it in 1961. The mansion continues to serve as the state's official executive residence.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-08-29T14:44:11-06:00" title="Monday, August 29, 2016 - 14:44" class="datetime">Mon, 08/29/2016 - 14:44</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/governors-residence-boettcher-mansion" data-a2a-title="Governor’s Residence at Boettcher Mansion"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fgovernors-residence-boettcher-mansion&amp;title=Governor%E2%80%99s%20Residence%20at%20Boettcher%20Mansion"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Located at 400 Eighth Avenue in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, the Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion was originally built in 1908 for the Cheesman family. In 1924 Gladys Cheesman Evans sold the Colonial Revival residence to <strong>Claude K. Boettcher</strong>, who lived there with his wife for more than three decades. After their deaths the <strong>Boettcher Foundation</strong> offered the house to the State of Colorado for use as the governor’s residence, a purpose it has served since 1960.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Cheesman Mansion</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1903 Denver business leader <strong>Walter Cheesman</strong> started to plan a grand mansion on his land at the southeast corner of East Eighth Avenue and Logan Street. He hired the architects <strong>Aaron Gove and Thomas Walsh</strong> to design the mansion, but his ill health delayed the project. He died in 1907, before construction could begin.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After Cheesman’s death, his wife, Alice, and his daughter, Gladys, kept the project alive. To design the house, they hired architects <strong>Willis Marean and Albert Norton</strong>, whom they had engaged to build the Cheesman Memorial Pavilion in the newly renamed <a href="/article/cheesman-park"><strong>Cheesman Park</strong></a> starting in 1908. The mansion’s elaborate acre of gardens was designed by <strong>George Kessler</strong>, who laid out the landscaping around the Cheesman Pavilion.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Completed in 1908, the Cheesman mansion was a grand Colonial Revival residence, with twenty-seven rooms spread over two and a half stories. The Eighth Avenue entrance was framed with a formal portico and large Ionic columns, and the residence as a whole was memorable for its imposing symmetrical façade of red brick and white trim. Inside, mahogany woodwork and oak floors lent solidity and style to the large rooms and long hallways.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Soon after the residence was completed, it hosted the 1908 wedding of Gladys Cheesman and <strong>John Evans II</strong>, the grandson of territorial governor <a href="/article/john-evans"><strong>John Evans</strong></a>. The couple shared the house for three years with Alice Cheesman before they had their first child and built their own residence. They continued to be frequent visitors. After 1911, the mansion’s primary resident was Alice Cheesman, who lived there until her death in January 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Boettcher Mansion</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After Alice’s death, the Evans family sold the mansion to Claude K. Boettcher, who bought the house and much of its contents for $75,000 in February 1923. In their thirty-five years of living there, Boettcher and his wife, Edna, added many of the antique furnishings that gave the house’s interior its character. Their many notable acquisitions included a Louis XIV French cylinder desk made by one of the king’s own furniture makers; a Waterford crystal chandelier that hung in the White House in 1876, when Colorado attained <strong>statehood</strong>; and a variety of rare tapestries, Italian marble statues, and eighteenth-century Venetian chairs and French chandeliers. Over the years, the couple also expanded the house several times—most notably, by enlarging the south-facing Palm Room, which was finished with gleaming white marble.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Boettchers made the house a center of high society and hosted many famous visitors. They held a party for Dwight Eisenhower the summer before he was elected president, and Charles Lindbergh was a frequent visitor because of his friendship with the Boettchers’ son, Charles II. Lindbergh stayed there so often that one of the second-floor guest suites was known as “Charlie’s Room.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Governor’s Residence</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>When Claude and Edna Boettcher died in 1957 and 1958, respectively, the house was left to the Boettcher Foundation, with the stipulation that it should be offered to the State of Colorado as a governor’s residence. Initially, the state was hesitant to take over the property because of the expense of maintaining such a large, old house. At one point, the contents were cataloged for auction when it looked as if the house would be demolished and the land sold. At the end of 1959, however, Governor <strong>Stephen McNichols</strong> accepted the Boettcher Foundation’s donation of the house, with the foundation agreeing to provide a $45,000 grant to cover maintenance costs over the next three years. The mansion was officially transferred to the state in spring 1960, and the McNichols family moved into the house in 1961.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Since McNichols, the mansion has served as the state’s executive residence, with the first family living on the second and third floors. In 1969 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in the 1980s, it received an extensive restoration. In 2003 Governor <strong>Bill Owens</strong> issued an executive order officially renaming the building the “Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion” to recognize the Boettcher family and the Boettcher Foundation for donating the building and assisting with its maintenance.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Governor’s Residence hosts an open house every April as part of Doors Open Denver and offers free public tours during the summer and in December to showcase holiday decorations.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/walter-cheesman" hreflang="en">Walter Cheesman</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/gladys-cheesman-evans" hreflang="en">Gladys Cheesman Evans</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-evans-ii" hreflang="en">John Evans II</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/claude-boettcher" hreflang="en">Claude Boettcher</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/aaron-gove" hreflang="en">Aaron Gove</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/thomas-walsh" hreflang="en">Thomas Walsh</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/willis-marean" hreflang="en">Willis Marean</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/albert-norton" hreflang="en">Albert Norton</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boettcher-foundation" hreflang="en">Boettcher Foundation</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/alice-cheesman" hreflang="en">Alice Cheesman</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/governor" hreflang="en">Governor</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“Boettcher Mansion Becomes New Executive Residence,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> 37, no. 3 (1960).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/governor-residence/history-10">“History,”</a> Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion, Colorado Official State Web Portal.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel and Barbara S. Norgren, <em>Denver: The City Beautiful and Its Architects, 1893–1941</em> (Denver: Historic Denver, 1987).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jean Walton Smith and Elaine Colvin Walsh, <em>Queen of the Hill: The Private Life of the Colorado Governor’s Mansion</em> (Denver: Volunteers of the Colorado Historical Society, 1979).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Mrs. James W. Allen, “Boettcher Cheesman Mansion (Governor’s Mansion),” Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory (May 1967).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Robert Fink, “Governor’s (Executive) Mansion,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form (October 23, 1969).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, <a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365005651/">"The Boettchers,"</a> <em>Colorado Experience</em>, May 2, 2013.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 29 Aug 2016 20:44:11 +0000 yongli 1788 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Brown Palace Hotel http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/brown-palace-hotel <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Brown Palace Hotel</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--2018--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2018.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/brown-palace-hotel-today"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Brown-Palace-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=K3x4Qh-I" width="1000" height="667" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/brown-palace-hotel-today" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Brown Palace Hotel Today</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Designed by Frank Edbrooke, the triangular Brown Palace opened in 1892 as the most luxurious hotel between Chicago and the West Coast.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--2019--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2019.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/henry-browns-palace"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Brown_Palace_Hotel_Denver_0.jpg?itok=WRakWn9B" width="480" height="334" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/henry-browns-palace" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Henry Brown&#039;s Palace</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>When it opened, the nine-story Brown Palace Hotel was the tallest building in Denver. Thanks to the triangular design, each of the 400 guest rooms had a window.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--2020--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2020.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/brown-palace-atrium"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Brown-Palace-Media-3_0.jpg?itok=1437NAMn" width="1000" height="1504" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/brown-palace-atrium" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Brown Palace Atrium</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Brown Palace's three sides wrap around an eight-story atrium topped by a stained-glass ceiling and a skylight.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> <button class="carousel-control-prev" 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field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-08-26T15:51:16-06:00" title="Friday, August 26, 2016 - 15:51" class="datetime">Fri, 08/26/2016 - 15:51</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/brown-palace-hotel" data-a2a-title="Brown Palace Hotel"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fbrown-palace-hotel&amp;title=Brown%20Palace%20Hotel"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Financed by and named after the early <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> developer <strong>Henry C. Brown</strong>, the Brown Palace Hotel opened on Broadway in 1892 in an elegant triangular building that was the tallest in the city at the time. For much of the twentieth century the hotel was owned by the <strong>Boettcher family</strong>, which expanded it with a modern hotel tower across the street. A charter member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Hotels of America, the hotel hosted world leaders during the <strong>G8 summit in 1997</strong> and continues to be a Denver landmark.</p> <h2>Henry Brown’s Palace</h2> <p>Henry Brown came to Denver in 1860 and quickly became one of the growing city’s most important businessmen and developers. In 1864 he filed claim on the land that became <a href="/article/denver%E2%80%99s-capitol-hill"><strong>Capitol Hill</strong></a> (he donated the land for the <a href="/article/denver%E2%80%99s-capitol-hill"><strong>state capitol</strong></a>), and he also owned the triangular plot between Seventeenth Street, Tremont Place, and Broadway that would become the Brown Palace. It is unknown whether the idea for an elegant hotel on that spot originated with Brown or William H. Bush. In any case, Bush and his English friend James Duff made a provisional contract with Brown for the land and excavated a foundation in 1888. They ran out of money before construction started, however, and had to convince Brown to step in and build the hotel.</p> <p>In 1889 or 1890, Brown hired the architect <strong>Frank Edbrooke</strong> to draw up plans for the hotel. Edbrooke had just designed the <strong>Oxford Hotel</strong> (1890) at the other end of Seventeenth Street, which is now the only surviving hotel in Denver older than the Brown Palace. For the Brown Palace he planned a triangular building to fit the plot of land, and he wrapped the building’s three sides around a large atrium. At nine stories, it would be the tallest building in Denver, with a red sandstone exterior in the popular Richardsonian Romanesque style. The blueprints for the building reportedly took up two tons of paper.</p> <p>The H. C. Brown Palace opened on August 12, 1892. It cost $2 million to build and furnish. The result was a luxurious hotel—considered the finest between Chicago and the West Coast—in which each of the 400 guest rooms had a window (thanks to the triangular design) and a fireplace. The lobby had 12,000 square feet of Mexican onyx paneling. The eight-story atrium at its center was topped by a stained-glass ceiling and a skylight, and the eighth floor held a two-story dining room and a two-story ballroom with sweeping views of the Rocky Mountains. When it opened, the building boasted elevators, steam heat, a private electric plant, and a private artesian well dug 750 feet into the ground. It was also one of the first fireproof buildings in the United States.</p> <p>The Brown Palace opened at an unfavorable moment, however. The Panic of 1893 arrived the next year, forcing Brown to take out loans on the hotel to cover his debts. He feared that N. Maxcy Tabor, <a href="/article/horace-tabor"><strong>Horace Tabor</strong></a>’s son and one of the hotel’s managers, would try to take control of the heavily mortgaged hotel, so in 1900 he persuaded <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cripple-creek"><strong>Cripple Creek</strong></a> millionaire <strong>Winfield Scott Stratton</strong> to acquire the hotel’s mortgage for $800,000. After Stratton died in 1902, the title to the hotel ultimately passed to the <strong>Myron Stratton Home</strong>, a charitable home for orphans and the elderly in Colorado Springs to which Stratton had dedicated the bulk of his estate.</p> <h2>The Brown Palace Tower</h2> <p>In 1922 the Myron Stratton Home sold the Brown Palace to the Fifteenth Street Investment Company, which was run by Horace Bennett and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/charles-boettcher"><strong>Charles Boettcher</strong></a>. Boettcher, who had made a fortune in hardware, <a href="/article/sugar-beet-industry"><strong>sugar beets</strong></a>, cement, and a variety of other businesses, had separated from his wife in 1915 and started living in the Brown Palace in 1920. He would continue to occupy a top-floor apartment at the hotel until his death in 1948.</p> <p>In 1931 Boettcher and his son, Claude, bought out Bennett’s share of the Brown Palace and assumed full ownership. <strong>Claude Boettcher</strong> became the driving force behind the hotel, successfully navigating it through the Great Depression and World War II. An avid collector of model ships, he hired the architects <strong>Fisher and Fisher</strong> and the design firm Havens-Batchelder to convert a former tearoom into the Ship Tavern, a wood-paneled pub that put Boettcher’s clippers on display. Opened in 1934, just after Prohibition was lifted, it is now the hotel’s oldest restaurant.</p> <p>After World War II, Boettcher began to work with New York developer <strong>William Zeckendorf</strong> on a Hilton hotel planned for Zeckendorf’s <strong>Courthouse Square</strong> development a few blocks from the Brown Palace. Boettcher backed out of the project, apparently because of a disagreement about construction materials, and made plans for his own hotel tower across Tremont Place from the Brown Palace.</p> <p>The twenty-two-story tower, known as Brown Palace West, was designed by the New York architectural firm of William B. Tabler. Boettcher died in 1957, not long after approving plans for the tower. Construction went forward, and the new building opened on April 25, 1959, during the <strong>Rush to the Rockies centennial celebration</strong>. Brown Palace West added 300 guest rooms and a ballroom to the hotel, and it was connected to the historic triangular building by a bridge above Tremont Place and an underground service tunnel. Communication via telephones and pneumatic tubes made it possible for guests to check in and out at the lobby of either building. Later in the twentieth century, the tower maintained its connection to the Brown Palace but was rebranded as the Denver Inn and, later, the Comfort Inn Downtown.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>After Claude Boettcher’s son, Charles Boettcher II, died in 1963, the Brown Palace passed to the family’s <strong>Boettcher Foundation</strong>. In 1970 the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1980 the Boettcher Foundation sold the hotel to the Associated Inns &amp; Restaurants Company of America, which then sold it in 1983 to Integrated Resources (later called Brown Palace Joint Ventures). In 1987 the Dallas-based company Rank Hotels North America (now known as Quorum Hotels &amp; Resorts) took over management of the hotel.</p> <p>Despite the changes in ownership and management, the Brown Palace maintained its reputation as perhaps Denver’s top hotel, largely thanks to substantial continuing investments in its maintenance and renovation. During the G8 summit in Denver in 1997, President Bill Clinton, foreign leaders, and senior staff all stayed at the Brown Palace.</p> <p>In 2012 the Brown Palace joined Marriott International’s Autograph Collection of high-end independent hotels, which provides a marketing boost but does not affect ownership. In 2014 Brown Palace Joint Ventures sold the hotel and tower to Crow Holdings Capital Partners, a branch of the real estate company Trammell Crow. The same year, the tower was rebranded from a Comfort Inn to a Holiday Inn Express. Quorum Hotels &amp; Resorts continued to manage the properties. In 2015 the Brown Palace completed its most recent renovation project, a $10.5 million effort that included new meeting space, guest room redecorations, and a three-year restoration of the hotel’s sandstone façade.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/henry-brown" hreflang="en">Henry Brown</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/charles-boettcher" hreflang="en">Charles Boettcher</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/claude-boettcher" hreflang="en">Claude Boettcher</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/g8-summit" hreflang="en">G8 Summit</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/frank-edbrooke" hreflang="en">Frank Edbrooke</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/historic-hotels" hreflang="en">historic hotels</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Robert Fink, “Brown Palace Hotel,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form (1970).</p> <p>Corinne Hunt, <em>The Brown Palace: Denver’s Grand Dame</em> (Denver: Brown Palace Hotel, 2003).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Corinne Hunt, <em>The Brown Palace Story</em> (Boulder, CO: Rocky Mountain Writers Guild, 1982).</p> <p>Caitlin A. Milligan, “Gold, Iron, and Stone: The Urban and Architectural History of Denver, Colorado” (master’s thesis, Washington University in St. Louis, 2015).</p> <p>Thomas J. Noel, <em>Denver Landmarks &amp; Historic Districts: A Pictorial Guide</em> (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1996).</p> <p>Rocky Mountain PBS,&nbsp;<a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365005651/">"The&nbsp;Boettchers,"</a>&nbsp;<em>Colorado Experience</em>, May 2, 2013.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><h2>Henry Brown’s Palace</h2> <p>Henry Brown came to <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> in 1860 and quickly became one of the city’s most important businessmen and developers. In 1864 he filed claim on the land that became Capitol Hill. Henry Brown donated the land for the <a href="/article/denver%E2%80%99s-capitol-hill"><strong>state capitol</strong></a> building. There was also an unusual triangular shaped plot of land that Henry Brown owned. He decided to build an elegant hotel on this odd-shaped plot of land. In 1889 or 1890 Brown hired an architect to design the Brown Palace Hotel. The hotel had nine stories and was the tallest building in Denver at that time. Red sandstone was used on the outside of the building.</p> <p>When the Brown Palace Hotel opened in 1892 it was thought to be the finest hotel between Chicago and the West Coast. Each of the 400 guest rooms had a window and a fireplace. There was an eight-story atrium (a large, sunny room) which had a stained-glass ceiling at the center of the building. Other luxuries in the hotel included a two-story dining room and a two-story ballroom with beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains. It also had elevators, steam heat, and a private 750-foot-deep well that supplied the hotel’s water.</p> <p>The year after the hotel opened, the Panic of 1893 forced Henry Brown to borrow money to pay for his debts. In 1931 the hotel was sold to the Boettcher family of Denver. As the Brown Palace came under different ownership and management, changes were made to the original hotel. In 1934 the tearoom was changed into a restaurant.</p> <h2>The Brown Palace Tower</h2> <p>A twenty-two-story hotel tower building, known as Brown Palace West, opened in 1959. It added 300 more guest rooms and a ballroom. The Brown Palace Hotel continued to keep its reputation of elegance. In 1997 the hotel hosted world leaders for the G8 summit meeting in Denver. Recent upgrades in 2015 included repairing the outside of the hotel, redecorating guest rooms, and new meeting space.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>The triangular shape of the historic Brown Palace Hotel makes it a landmark that is recognized quickly and easily in photographs of downtown Denver.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Early <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> developer <strong>Henry C. Brown</strong> opened the Brown Palace Hotel on Broadway Street in 1892. An elegant, triangular building, it was the tallest in the city at the time. For much of the twentieth century the hotel was owned by the <strong>Boettcher family</strong>, which expanded it with a modern hotel tower across the street. A charter member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Hotels of America, the hotel hosted world leaders during the <strong>G8 summit in 1997</strong> and continues to be a Denver landmark.</p> <h2>Henry Brown’s Palace</h2> <p>Henry Brown came to Denver in 1860 and quickly became one of the city’s most important businessmen and developers. In 1864 he filed claim on the land that became Capitol Hill. He donated the land for the <a href="/article/denver%E2%80%99s-capitol-hill"><strong>state capitol</strong></a>, and also owned the triangular plot between Seventeenth Street, Tremont Place, and Broadway that would become the Brown Palace.</p> <p>In 1889 or 1890 Brown hired the architect <strong>Frank Edbrooke</strong> to draw up plans for the hotel. Edbrooke had just designed the <strong>Oxford Hotel</strong> (1890) at the other end of Seventeenth Street, which is now the only surviving hotel in Denver older than the Brown Palace. For the Brown Palace he planned a triangular building to fit the plot of land, and he wrapped the building’s three sides around a large atrium. At nine stories, it would be the tallest building in Denver, with a red sandstone exterior.</p> <p>The H. C. Brown Palace opened on August 12, 1892. It cost $2 million to build and furnish. The result was a luxurious hotel—thought to be the finest between Chicago and the West Coast—in which each of the 400 guest rooms had a window (thanks to the triangular design) and a fireplace. The lobby had 12,000 square feet of Mexican onyx paneling. The eight-story atrium at its center was topped by a stained-glass ceiling and a skylight, and the eighth floor held a two-story dining room and a two-story ballroom with sweeping views of the Rocky Mountains. When it opened, the building boasted elevators, steam heat, a private electric plant, and a private artesian well dug 750 feet into the ground. It was also one of the first fireproof buildings in the United States.</p> <p>The Brown Palace opened at an unfavorable moment, however. The Panic of 1893 arrived the next year, forcing Brown to take out loans on the hotel to cover his debts. He feared that N. Maxcy Tabor, <strong>Horace Tabor</strong>’s son and one of the hotel’s managers, would try to take control of the heavily mortgaged hotel. In 1900 he persuaded Cripple Creek millionaire <strong>Winfield Scott Stratton</strong> to acquire the hotel’s mortgage for $800,000. After Stratton died in 1902, the title to the hotel ultimately passed to the <strong>Myron Stratton Home</strong>, a charitable home for orphans and the elderly in <strong>Colorado Springs</strong>.</p> <h2>The Brown Palace Tower</h2> <p>In 1922 the Myron Stratton Home sold the Brown Palace to the Fifteenth Street Investment Company, which was run by Horace Bennett and <strong>Charles Boettcher</strong>. Boettcher started living in the Brown Palace in 1920. He would continue to occupy a top-floor apartment at the hotel until his death in 1948.</p> <p>In 1931 Boettcher and his son, Claude, bought out Bennett’s share of the Brown Palace and assumed full ownership. <strong>Claude Boettcher</strong> became the driving force behind the hotel, successfully navigating it through the Great Depression and World War II. An avid collector of model ships, Boettcher converted a former tearoom into the Ship Tavern, a wood-paneled pub, and put his clippers on display. Opened in 1934, just after Prohibition was lifted, it is now the hotel’s oldest restaurant.</p> <p>After World War II, Boettcher made plans for a hotel tower across Tremont Place from the Brown Palace. The twenty-two-story tower, known as Brown Palace West, was designed by the New York architectural firm of William B. Tabler. Boettcher died in 1957, not long after approving plans for the tower. Construction went forward, and the new building opened on April 25, 1959, during the <strong>Rush to the Rockies Centennial celebration</strong>. Brown Palace West added 300 guest rooms and a ballroom to the hotel, and it was connected to the historic triangular building by a bridge above Tremont Place and an underground service tunnel. Communication via telephones and pneumatic tubes made it possible for guests to check in and out at the lobby of either building.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>After Claude Boettcher’s son, Charles Boettcher II, died in 1963, the Brown Palace passed to the family’s <strong>Boettcher Foundation</strong>. In 1970 the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p> <p>Despite the changes in ownership and management from 1983 to 1987, the Brown Palace maintained its reputation as perhaps Denver’s top hotel. During the G8 summit in Denver in 1997, President Bill Clinton, foreign leaders, and senior staff all stayed at the Brown Palace.</p> <p>In 2015 the Brown Palace completed its most recent renovation project, a $10.5 million effort that included new meeting space, guest room redecorations, and a three-year restoration of the hotel’s sandstone façade.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Early <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> developer <strong>Henry C. Brown</strong> opened the Brown Palace Hotel on Broadway in 1892. An elegant, triangular building, it was the tallest in the city at the time. For much of the twentieth century the hotel was owned by the <strong>Boettcher family</strong>, which expanded it with a modern hotel tower across the street. A charter member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Hotels of America, the hotel hosted world leaders during the <strong>G8 summit in 1997</strong> and continues to be a Denver landmark.</p> <h2>Henry Brown’s Palace</h2> <p>Henry Brown came to Denver in 1860 and quickly became one of the city’s most important businessmen and developers. In 1864 he filed claim on the land that became Capitol Hill. He donated the land for the <a href="/article/denver%E2%80%99s-capitol-hill"><strong>state capitol</strong></a>. He also owned the triangular plot between Seventeenth Street, Tremont Place, and Broadway that would become the Brown Palace.</p> <p>In 1889 or 1890 Brown hired the architect <strong>Frank Edbrooke</strong> to draw up plans for the hotel. Edbrooke had just designed the <strong>Oxford Hotel</strong> (1890) at the other end of Seventeenth Street, which is now the only surviving hotel in Denver older than the Brown Palace. For the Brown Palace he planned a triangular building to fit the plot of land, and he wrapped the building’s three sides around a large atrium. At nine stories, it would be the tallest building in Denver, with a red sandstone exterior in the popular Richardsonian Romanesque style.</p> <p>The H. C. Brown Palace opened on August 12, 1892. It cost $2 million to build and furnish. The result was a luxurious hotel—considered the finest between Chicago and the West Coast—in which each of the 400 guest rooms had a window (thanks to the triangular design) and a fireplace. The lobby had 12,000 square feet of Mexican onyx paneling. The eight-story atrium at its center was topped by a stained-glass ceiling and a skylight, and the eighth floor held a two-story dining room and a two-story ballroom with sweeping views of the Rocky Mountains. When it opened, the building boasted elevators, steam heat, a private electric plant, and a private artesian well dug 750 feet into the ground. It was also one of the first fireproof buildings in the United States.</p> <p>The Brown Palace opened at an unfavorable moment, however. The Panic of 1893 arrived the next year, forcing Brown to take out loans on the hotel to cover his debts. He feared that N. Maxcy Tabor, <strong>Horace Tabor</strong>’s son and one of the hotel’s managers, would try to take control of the heavily mortgaged hotel, so in 1900 he persuaded Cripple Creek millionaire <strong>Winfield Scott Stratton</strong> to acquire the hotel’s mortgage for $800,000. After Stratton died in 1902, the title to the hotel ultimately passed to the <strong>Myron Stratton Home</strong>, a charitable home for orphans and the elderly in <strong>Colorado Springs</strong>.</p> <h2>The Brown Palace Tower</h2> <p>In 1922 the Myron Stratton Home sold the Brown Palace to the Fifteenth Street Investment Company, which was run by Horace Bennett and <strong>Charles Boettcher</strong>. Boettcher, who had made a fortune in hardware, <strong>sugar beets</strong>, cement, and a variety of other businesses, started living in the Brown Palace in 1920. He would continue to occupy a top-floor apartment at the hotel until his death in 1948.</p> <p>In 1931 Boettcher and his son, Claude, bought out Bennett’s share of the Brown Palace and assumed full ownership. <strong>Claude Boettcher</strong> became the driving force behind the hotel, successfully navigating it through the Great Depression and World War II. An avid collector of model ships, Boettcher converted a former tearoom into the Ship Tavern, a wood-paneled pub, and put his clippers on display. Opened in 1934, just after Prohibition was lifted, it is now the hotel’s oldest restaurant.</p> <p>After World War II, Boettcher began to work with New York developer <strong>William Zeckendorf</strong> on a Hilton hotel planned for Zeckendorf’s <strong>Courthouse Square</strong> development a few blocks from the Brown Palace. Boettcher backed out of the project, apparently because of a disagreement about construction materials, and made plans for his own hotel tower across Tremont Place from the Brown Palace.</p> <p>The twenty-two-story tower, known as Brown Palace West, was designed by the New York architectural firm of William B. Tabler. Boettcher died in 1957, not long after approving plans for the tower. Construction went forward, and the new building opened on April 25, 1959, during the <strong>Rush to the Rockies Centennial celebration</strong>. Brown Palace West added 300 guest rooms and a ballroom to the hotel, and it was connected to the historic triangular building by a bridge above Tremont Place and an underground service tunnel. Communication via telephones and pneumatic tubes made it possible for guests to check in and out at the lobby of either building.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>After Claude Boettcher’s son, Charles Boettcher II, died in 1963, the Brown Palace passed to the family’s <strong>Boettcher Foundation</strong>. In 1970 the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p> <p>Despite the changes in ownership and management, the Brown Palace maintained its reputation as one of Denver’s top hotels, largely thanks to continued investments in maintenance and renovation. During the G8 summit in Denver in 1997, President Bill Clinton, foreign leaders, and senior staff all stayed at the Brown Palace.</p> <p>In 2015 the Brown Palace completed its most recent renovation project, a $10.5 million effort that included new meeting space, guest room redecorations, and a three-year restoration of the hotel’s sandstone façade.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 26 Aug 2016 21:51:16 +0000 yongli 1783 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org