Victor Hotel

Last updated
Victor Hotel
VictorHotel.jpg
Victor Hotel
General information
LocationVictor, Colorado
Address4th St. & Victor Ave.
Victor, CO 80860
Opening1900, 1992
Closed1960s, (open)
OwnerVictor Hotel Limited Liability Company
Technical details
Floor count4
Other information
Number of rooms20
Website
http://www.victorhotelcolorado.com
Victor Hotel
USA Colorado location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location4th Street and Victor Avenue, Victor, Colorado
Coordinates 38°42′38″N105°8′26″W / 38.71056°N 105.14056°W / 38.71056; -105.14056
Arealess than one acre
Built1899
Architectural styleItalianate
NRHP reference No. 80000929 [1]
Added to NRHPApril 10, 1980

The Victor Hotel is a historic hotel in the mining town of Victor, Colorado in the United States. The hotel is a four-story Victorian brick building built in 1899-1900 by the town's founders, the Woods brothers. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Contents

History

Gold Coin Mine

Frank and Harry Woods [nb 1] owned land at 4th Street and Victor Avenue where they intended to construct a building. In March 1894, they broke ground and were excavating when then found a body of rich ore. Their building construction efforts halted and they opened the Gold Coin Mine. [2] [3] In August 1899 the entire business district was destroyed in a fire. The original wooden Hotel Victor, which was located across the street from the present hotel, was leveled, [4] [5] and the shaft house at the current Victor Hotel location was also leveled in the fire. [6]

The tunnels of the Gold Coin Mine ran under the Victor business district [4] and a total of $6 million in gold was extracted from the mine. [3] Reputedly "one of its depositors mined directly beneath the bank at five hundred feet from the surface." [4] [7] [8]

Victor Bank building

The Woods brothers had the four-story Victor Bank building constructed in 1899; It was completed on December 24, 1899. The Bank Block building was representative of turn-of-the-century commercial buildings. The Italianate structure with bays, large storefront windows and cornice work is the largest building in Victor. When it opened it held the Woods brothers' bank, First National Bank of Victor, lodging rooms, and consulting and retail businesses. The Woods had a reversal of fortunes. Bank examiners found that the bank was insolvent and closed it on November 4, 1903. The Woods brothers then sold the building. A subsequent bank in the building was the Citizen's Bank of Victor. [4] [5] [6] It was once considered the most modern edifice in the Cripple Creek District. [7]

Businesses in the building included Western Union Telegraph Company, H.H. Rosser and the Colorado Telephone Company. Businessmen who operated within the building included Dr. H.G. Thomas, father of Lowell Thomas, J.W. Huff, Dean Merrill Bodwell, and J.E. Ferguson. [8]

A.E. Carlton bought the Bank Building and owned and operated the City Bank. A hospital was operated on the fourth floor by 1906 and, during a difficult winter, also functioned as a morgue. The offices on the second and third store remained. [4] [5] [8] Two of the businesses in the building in 1908 were a jewelry and grocery store. [8]

The City Bank closed during the depression. Bill Lehr's photography studio and the Brass Rail Café and Bar were located on the first floor in the 1930s. [8] Reindel's soda fountain, Henry Munsted's gift shop and a restaurant did business in the building in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. In the 1960s businesses in the building closed, the building was vacant and became dilapidated over the next two decades. [8]

In October 1991, the property was purchased by the Victor Hotel Limited Liability Company. Marjoe D. Bandimere of Arvada, Colorado supervised the renovation with the intention of preserving the historic integrity of the building and providing modern conveniences. Some of the historic elements included the bird cage elevator, bank vault, original woodwork, and the steam radiators, which were outfitted with individual thermostat controls. In August 1992, the renovation was completed. [5] [8]

Victor Hotel provides lodging to visitors, with modern amenities such as private baths, wireless internet, telephones and cable television. The bird cage elevator, the oldest operating elevator in Colorado, is still operational. A restaurant is located in the lobby of the hotel. [4] [5] [9]

Legends

For a period of time, the hotel operated as a boarding house for miners. A miner named Eddy, who lived in room 301, left his room and pressed the button to call the elevator. The iron gates opened, but the elevator car had not arrived. Unaware, Eddy stepped inside the elevator shaft and "fell to his death." Based upon reports of Eddy's visitations, ghost hunters request to sleep in his room. [4]

See also

Notes

  1. Harry and Frank Woods arrived in the Victor area in 1892 with their father Warren Woods. Warren, born in Ohio in 1834, "was the president of most of the Woods' enterprises." Frank managed the Woods Investment Company operations. Harry was a newspaper man before moving to Colorado; He was born in Illinois in 1859. In addition to the Gold Coin Mine and the Victor Bank Block, the Woods also owned or invested in the Pikes Peak Power Company, Golden Crescent Water and Light Company and the First National Bank of Victor. The power company sold power to Pueblo, Cripple Creek and Victor. In 1927 their "empired ended". [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cripple Creek, Colorado</span> City in Colorado, United States

Cripple Creek is a statutory city that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 1,155 at the 2020 United States Census. Cripple Creek is a former gold mining camp located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Colorado Springs near the base of Pikes Peak. The Cripple Creek Historic District, which received National Historic Landmark status in 1961, includes part or all of the city and the surrounding area. The city is now a part of the Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teller County, Colorado</span> County in Colorado, United States

Teller County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,710. The county seat is Cripple Creek, and the most populous city is Woodland Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor, Colorado</span> City in Colorado, United States

The City of Victor is a Statutory City in Teller County, Colorado, United States. Gold was discovered in Victor in the late 19th century, an omen of the future of the town. With Cripple Creek, the mining district became the second largest gold mining district in the country and realized approximately $10 billion of mined gold in 2010 dollars. It reached its peak around the turn of the century when there were about 18,000 residents in the town. Depleted ore in mines, labor strife and the exodus of miners during World War I caused a steep decline in the city's economy, from which it has never recovered. The population was 379 at the 2020 census. There is a resumed mining effort on Battle Mountain.

The Gold Belt Tour Scenic and Historic Byway is a National Scenic Byway, a Back Country Byway, and a Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Fremont and Teller counties, Colorado, USA. The byway is named for the Gold Belt mining region. The Cripple Creek Historic District is a National Historic Landmark. The byway forms a three-legged loop with the Phantom Canyon Road, the Shelf Road, and the High Park Road (paved).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway</span> United States historic place

The Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway was a 4 ft 8+12 instandard gauge railroad operating in the U.S. state of Colorado around the turn of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Moffat</span> American industrialist (1839–1911)

David Halliday Moffat was an American financier and industrialist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midland Terminal Railway</span>

The Midland Terminal Railway was a short line terminal railroad running from the Colorado Midland Railway near Divide to Cripple Creek, Colorado. The railroad made its last run in February 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spencer Penrose</span>

Spencer Penrose was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He made his fortune from mining, ore processing, and real estate speculation in Colorado and other parts of the West. He founded the Utah Copper Company in 1903, and also established mining operations in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

Eben Smith was a successful mine owner, smelting company executive, railroad executive and bank owner in Colorado in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Downtown Historic District</span> Historic district in Colorado, United States

Victor Downtown Historical District is a 22 acres (8.9 ha) historic district encompassing several blocks of Victor, Colorado which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The listing included 55 contributing buildings out of 66 buildings in total. The district is bounded roughly by Diamond Avenue, Second, Portland and Fifth Streets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Colorado City</span> Place in Colorado, United States

Old Colorado City, formerly Colorado City, was once a town, but it is now a neighborhood within the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Its commercial district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It was founded during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859 and was involved in the mining industry, both as a supply hub and as a gold ore processing center beginning in the 1890s. Residents of Colorado City worked at some of the 50 coal mines of the Colorado Springs area. It was briefly the capital of the Colorado Territory. For many years, Colorado Springs prohibited the use of alcohol within its border due to the lifestyle of Colorado City's opium dens, bordellos, and saloons. It is now a tourist area, with boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cripple Creek Historic District</span> Historic district in Colorado, United States

Cripple Creek Historic District is a historic district including Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States and is significant for its gold mining era history. It developed as a gold mining center beginning in 1890, with a number of buildings from that period surviving to this day. The mines in the area were among the most successful, producing millions of dollars of gold in the 1890s and supporting a population of 25,000 at its peak. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad</span>

The Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad (F&CC) was a 3 ft narrow-gauge railroad running northward from junctions with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad at the mill towns of Florence and later moved to Cañon City, Colorado, on the banks of the Arkansas River, up steep and narrow Phantom Canyon to the Cripple Creek Mining District, west of Pikes Peak. It was founded in 1893 and went out of business in 1915

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine</span>

The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine is a historic vertical shaft mine near Cripple Creek, Colorado. The mine shaft descends 1,000 feet (300 m) into the mountain, a depth roughly equal to the height of the Empire State Building in New York City. The mine currently gives tours, and is visited by around 40,000 people annually. The addition of the mines and subsequent tours of this mine and others in the area had considerable effect on the economies of both Victor, Colorado and Cripple Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine</span>

The Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine, formerly and historically the Cresson Mine, is an active gold mine located near the town of Victor, in the Cripple Creek mining district in the US state of Colorado. The richest gold mine in Colorado history, it is the only remaining significant producer of gold in the state, and produced 322,000 troy ounces of gold in 2019, and reported 3.45 million troy ounces of Proven and Probable Reserves as at December 31, 2019. It was owned and operated by AngloGold Ashanti through its subsidiary, the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company (CC&V), until 2015, when it sold the mine to Newmont Mining Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John J. Huddart</span> American architect

John James Huddart (1856–1930), known usually as John J. Huddart, was a British born and trained architect who practised out of Denver, Colorado in the United States. At the end of the Nineteenth century he was one of Denver's leading architects, known for his work on public buildings and as a courthouse architect. His practice lasted from 1882 to 1930 and commissions included Charles Boettcher House in Denver, Colorado's Fort Morgan State Armory, Denver's Filbeck Building, and six of Colorado's county courthouses.

Albert E. Carlton or Bert Carlton was an investor in Colorado banks, mines and railroads. Based upon the success of his mines in Cripple Creek, he was known as "King of Cripple Creek".

The Cripple Creek Gold Rush was a period of gold production in the Cripple Creek area from the late 1800s until the early 1900s. Mining exchanges were in Cripple Creek, Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Victor. Smelting was in Gillett, Florence, and (Old) Colorado City. Mining communities sprang up quickly, but most lasted only as long as gold continued to be produced. Settlements included:

In the mid-19th century, Colorado Springs was a center of mining industry activity. Coal was mined in 50 mines in the area and towns, now annexed to Colorado Springs, were established to support residents of the coal mining industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old North End Historic District (Colorado Springs, Colorado)</span> Historic district in Colorado, United States

Old North End Historic District of Colorado Springs, Colorado is located north of Colorado College between Monument Valley Park, an alley between Weber and Nevada Streets, and Uintah and Lilac Streets. It was called North End Historic District until September 2015 when the district boundaries were expanded and the neighborhood was renamed.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. 1 2 "History". Victor, Colorado. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Philip Varney (4 July 2010). Ghost Towns of the Mountain West: Your Guide to the Hidden History and Old West Haunts of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and. Voyageur Press. p. 63. ISBN   978-1-61060-090-3 . Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alexandra Walker Clark (28 July 2011). Colorado's Historic Hotels. The History Press. p. 232. ISBN   978-1-60949-301-1 . Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "History". Victor Hotel. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  6. 1 2 "Victor Hotel - NRHP Nomination Form". National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  7. 1 2 Gold Fields of Cripple Creek, Woods Investment Company promotional literature, 1901.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Victor Historic Hotel". Teller County Vacation and Visitors Bureau. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  9. "Home". Victor Hotel. Retrieved May 22, 2013.