What a mystery this has been. My original notes show one project in Glenwood Springs: Glenwood Springs Hotel – Alterations. But the backstory is much bigger and more interesting.

Glenwood Spring’s imposing Hotel Colorado was conceived in the 1890s by developer Walter Devereux to cater to the wealthy tourist and Hollywood star. Boring, Tilton and Mellon (NYC) designed the facility in the style of the Villa de Medici in Italy (Glenwood history). In its early days, the hotel served as the ‘Western White House’ for President Theodore Roosevelt and also hosted President William Howard Taft, gangster Diamond Jack Alterie, and famed Titanic survivor the Unsinkable Molly Brown.

World War II brought sweeping social changes to Glenwood Springs as tourism declined. The Hotel Colorado and the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool (at that time both under the same ownership) saw large losses.

However, with the war came the need for military rehabilitation hospitals and Glenwood Springs was perfect.

Thus, in 1943, the hotel property was leased to the United States Navy with the thought that injured sailors could use the pool as part of their recovery (Frontier historic society). Ashton, Evans & Hodgson designed the conversion. The hotel main building required considerable renovations: two large wards with single hospital beds, an operating room, nursing stations, crew and officer mess halls, a recreation hall, theater, and a brig. The adjoining bath house was converted to living quarters for 100 hospital corpsmen and the pool was converted to a hydrotherapy unit. New outbuildings were designed and built: a garage, an annex, and a large boiler facility. All are still standing!

To ensure sanitation, everything—from furnishings and carpet to drapery and dishware—was removed. Bannisters, paneling, and even flooring were stripped bare of elaborate finishes. Fireplaces were plastered over, mantelpieces ripped out, and marble, deemed too porous to be sanitary, was removed from every bathroom (Shaw). To meet Navy requirements, a sprinkler system was installed in each room.

The hospital treated 6525 patients in a lifespan of less than three years. It was decommissioned on December 31, 1945, and returned to use as a hotel.

Hotel Colorado was accepted onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The nomination form mentions its short stint as a hospital: “In 1943, the U.S. Navy took over the building as a hospital. In addition to rewiring the building and installing modern plumbing and heating, the Navy also made most of the changes on the exterior of the structure” (National Park Service).

In the early 2020s, a large renovation began to bring Hotel Colorado to its former glory.