Hotel Jerome
Hotel Jerome | |
---|---|
General information | |
Location | Aspen, CO, U.S. |
Address | 330 E. Main St. |
Coordinates | 39°11′27″N 106°49′9″W / 39.19083°N 106.81917°W |
Opening | 1889 |
Cost | $150,000 |
Management | Auberge Resorts |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 3 |
Design and construction | |
Developer | Jerome B. Wheeler |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 94[1] |
Number of restaurants | 3 |
Website | |
Hotel Jerome, Official Website |
The Hotel Jerome is located on East Main Street (State Highway 82) in Aspen, Colorado, United States. It is a brick structure built in the 1880s that is often described as one of the city's major landmarks, its "crown jewel". In 1986 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is operated by Auberge Resorts.
It was built by Jerome B. Wheeler, at the time co-owner of Macy's and a major investor in Aspen during its early boom years. He wanted the city to have a hotel that equaled European ones in its refinements and amenities. It was one of the first buildings west of the Mississippi to have full electric lighting[2] and it has the only above ground ballroom in Aspen.[3] It was the only hotel to remain open through the city's "quiet years" in the early 20th century, as a family business run by a former bartender and his son that often served as the town's social center.
During
Building
The Jerome occupies a 1.1-acre (4,500 m2) lot[4] on the northwest corner of the North Mill Street intersection. The neighborhood is densely developed with many other commercial properties.[5] Some of them, such as the Pitkin County Courthouse two blocks to the east, Aspen City Hall to the southeast, Collins Block and Wheeler Opera House to the south along Mill Street, have been listed on the Register themselves. At the opposite end of the block, across the street, is the Thomas Hynes House, a former miner's cottage now used as a restaurant and also on the Register. To the north the terrain, level between the hotel and the slopes of Aspen Mountain, begins to slope gently toward the Roaring Fork River, which flows through Rio Grande Park two blocks to the north.[6]
The building itself is a three-story 12-by-11-bay brick structure, with a small hyphen connecting the main block to a north wing of similar shape and size. Both are topped by a flat roof. The slight grade to the north exposes their basements slightly.[4]
Its south (front)
The middle six bays of the facade project slightly, separated by pilasters with foliated caps, forming a tall arcade. On either side of the front entrance are large windows with a small rectangular pane atop a larger one. All have sills of locally quarried rough cut peachblow sandstone, which continues around the building as a stringcourse and water table. Sandstone also forms a frieze, interrupted by the windows, below the molded tin cornice.[4] At the ends of the facade are wood and glass storefronts, housing two of the hotel's three restaurants, the J-Bar on the west and Library on the east.[3]
Windows on the second story's central projection are one-over-one double-hung
At the third story the four-pane center windows, also recessed, have a similar round-arched treatment as the flanking second-story windows. On the sides are four one-over-one sash windows with sandstone sills and small decorations between them. At the lintel is a dentilled, fluted wooden frieze that continues around the entire building save the front portico. Above it is ridged metal convex cornice that marks the roofline. It is topped by a parapet with four rows of recessed square panels. A flagpole is located in the center of the roof at the front.[7]
The east face has a similar, more restrained treatment, with the sandstone trim, stringcourses, cornices, and fenestration. On the west side, there is little
Inside many original finishes remain. The lobby has been restored to its original appearance. From the lobby hallways lead to the Garden Terrace restaurant in a western annex, with an adjacent outdoor terrace south of the swimming pool. The first floor is also home to several meeting spaces, including the 3,450-square-foot (321 m2) Grand Ballroom in the northeast corner of the rear block, the only above ground ballroom in Aspen, with 16-foot (4.9 m) ceilings.[3]
On the upper floors there are 94 guest rooms. They range from 500 to 750 square feet (46 to 70 m2) in size, from single rooms to
History
The Jerome's history parallels Aspen's. It was opened with grand ambitions in the city's early boom years and survived as Aspen's only hotel during the city's long "quiet years" in the early 20th century, under the ownership of the Elisha family. With the development of skiing after World War II, it began to see a new potential realized only with major renovations at the end of the 20th century that made it the upscale hotel it is today.
1889–1892: Construction and early boom years
In the late 1870s,
Jerome Wheeler, at the time co-owner of
Wheeler meant for the hotel to be the equal of great European hotels such as
It was one of the first buildings west of the Mississippi to have full electric lighting. Other amenities included running water and indoor plumbing, steam heat and an elevator. At the time of its opening, on the night before Thanksgiving,[12] it had 90 rooms (or 76, according to some accounts[4]), which rented for up to $4 ($100 in modern dollars[10]) a night.[1] Early guests included Wheeler's business friends from the East, theater stars of the era and wealthy travelers.[12] As its builder had intended, it occupied the most commanding location in the city.[13]
Three years after its completion, in 1892, Wheeler sold the hotel to a
1893–1946: The quiet years
Over the next several decades, a period that came to be known later as "the quiet years", the town's population declined from thousands to hundreds. The Jerome remained open, the city's only hotel,
In 1918, the Jerome's parlors served as
Mansor Elisha died in 1935, leaving his son Laurence in charge of the hotel.[16] The following year the seeds were planted for the city's recovery when Tom Flynn, a former resident trying to sell some of his mining claims, showed pictures of them to Billy Fiske, a U.S. Olympic bobsledder who had competed at the Winter Olympics earlier that year. He saw perfect terrain for a ski resort, and went out to Aspen and bought some land. Over that winter the newly formed Highland Bavarian ski club built its first ski near Ashcroft. Its first two guides, Swiss skier André Roch and Austrian mountaineer Gunther Langes, lived in the Jerome for five weeks while the lodge was finished.[19]
A
1946–1984: Ski resort and celebrity hangout
After the war some veterans of the Tenth returned to Aspen, including Friedl Pfeifer, another Austrian who had been involved in developing the ski resort before the war. In 1946 Walter Paepcke, then president of the Container Corporation of America, visited the city with his wife Elizabeth. The couple were looking for a place in the mountains of Colorado that would be ideal for an American counterpart to the Salzburg Festival. Aspen had many rundown neglected buildings lat the time, but they saw a lot of Victorian charm that could be brought back to life. They were cheap, and Paepcke bought or leased many, including the Jerome. Pfeifer also convinced him of the area's skiing potential, and Paepcke invested the money in the Aspen Skiing Company that Pfeifer had founded.[12][20] That allowed the completion of Ski Lift No. 1, claimed to be the longest in the world. Its gala opening in January 1947 was the end of Aspen's "quiet years".[21]
As he had done with his other Aspen acquisitions, Paepcke commissioned Austrian Bauhaus architect Herbert Bayer to renovate the Jerome. Bayer's main change on the outside was to paint the exterior a light grey color, with blue accents on the window arches in a color called "Bayer blue",[22] a change that was not popular with most longtime residents, who preferred the original brick.[23] The pool and poolhouse were also added.[4] Inside, the maple bar was completely restored,[12] and moved along with the front desk to its present location. The Aspen Institute leased the hotel to provide space for participants and staff, and the renovations reduced the available rooms to 39.[4]
A new swimming pool was built,
In the 1960s, as the city steadily grew as a ski town, the Jerome declined. It was closed for several years. When John Gilmore bought it in 1968 and reduced it to 34 rooms,[4] he rented them for a mere $5 ($44.00 in modern dollars[10]) a night. Many of the younger people who were increasingly drawn to Aspen sneaked in to take showers on the third floor. He tried to interest investors in rehabilitating the building, but could not.[12] He was able to add new entrances to the storefronts, however.[4]
The influx of newcomers to Aspen at the time were largely hippies and other countercultural types of the era. They were attracted to Aspen by its natural beauty, skiing and remoteness from larger population centers. It had been popularized in the writings of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, himself a transplant to the area who had almost been elected Pitkin County sheriff on a promise to put profiteering drug dealers in the stocks on the lawn of the county courthouse.[24] During the 1970s, he was a regular at the J-Bar, coming in from his home in nearby Woody Creek to pick up his mail and then hang out at the bar, drinking, eating and watching television as it had the best reception in the area prior to cable becoming widespread. "It was his office", one bartender from the time recalled. "If people wanted to meet Hunter, they'd come to the Jerome."[12]
Early in the decade, a new Los Angeles band known at the time as Teen King and the Emergencies went up to Aspen to perfect their
1985–present: Renovation and restoration
In 1985 a group of investors headed by a local developer, Dick Butera, bought the Jerome for $6 million ($17 million in modern dollars
Around the turn of the 20th century two further renovations took place. The first, in 1998, used photographs over a century old to restore the J-Bar's original appearance. Four years later, a $6 million project[12] added a new rear wing and grand ballroom, and restored the guest rooms.[1]
The buyers were two Chicago-based entities, Elysian Worldwide
Jerome Property soon filed for
The new owner applied to the city for an exemption from the real estate transfer tax it charges, on the grounds that it had acquired the property through foreclosure proceedings. It was granted, because the city normally does not charge lenders in those situations since they usually resell the property. Later, however, the city learned that Jerome Properties in fact intended to retain and benefit from ownership. In 2010, it told Jerome Property that the sale might indeed be taxable.[29]
Jerome Property then took the unusual step of foreclosing on its own subsidiary. It also filed in state court for a
In January 2012 the entire hotel was rented out for a weekend for a
Reviews
Travel writers and guides have heaped praise on the Jerome. "[It is] one of the best places to stay in Aspen—for those who can afford it", says Frommer's.[33] Fodor's gives it a Fodor's Choice, calling it "[o]ne of the state's truly grand hotels."[34]
"Fancy digs aren't my priority when I travel," wrote Phil Marty of the Chicago Tribune, "but then you walk into something like Room 302 and think, 'Well, maybe I should spend more time in my room.'" He praised the staff's helpfulness in finding another place to valet-park his car with two bicycles on top, and the two half-liter water bottles and Toblerone candy bars on the desk when he came in. He had a few minor complaints: at the time (2007) the hotel did not have free Wi-Fi, the room's light switch could not function as a dimmer, and the hotel would stock the mini-bar only on a guest's request.[35]
See also
- List of hotels in the United States
- List of reportedly haunted locations in the United States
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Pitkin County, Colorado
References
- ^ a b c "Hotel Overview". Hotel Jerome. 2011. Retrieved December 22, 2011.
- ^ Green, Sara; Mosner, Carrie (September 29, 2009). "Hotel Jerome Historical Timeline" (Press release). Rock Resorts. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
- ^ a b c "Floor Plans" (PDF). Hotel Jerome. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 16, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2011.
- ^ U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
- ^ "120 N. Mill Street, Aspen, CO". Google Maps. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ Aspen Quadrangle – Colorado – Pitkin Co (Map). 1:24,000. USGS 7½-minute quadrangle maps. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
- ^ Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Archived from the originalon July 18, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
- ^ "Guest Room descriptions". Hotel Jerome. 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-87081-592-8.
- ^ a b c d e f 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "Hotel Jerome at 120yrs Young: The history and highlights of Aspen's most cherished landmark, 12 decades in the making". Aspen Magazine, Holiday 09–10. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hirschfeld, Cindy. "Crown Jewel". Aspen Peak. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
- ^ Rohrbough, 168.
- ^ Smith, Stacey; "The Wheeler-Stallard House: An Interpretive History, 1888-1969" (PDF)., Aspen Historical Society, December 1998, retrieved August 22, 2011, p. 39. Page number refers to those used by the reading software and not those in the actual document.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7432-2606-6.
- ^ a b Willoughby, Tim (July 31, 2011). "Laurence Elisha, your personal hotelier". The Aspen Times. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
- ^ "J-Bar". Hotel Jerome. 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
- ^ Lund, Morten; Hayes, Mary (1997). "Skiing Comes to Aspen: Visionaries and Teachers". Skiing Heritage Journal (2): 14.
- ^ Lund and Hayes, 15–16.
- ^ Lund and Hayes, 19.
- ^ Condon, Scott (January 11, 2007). "Aspen chairlift turns 60". Vail Daily. Vail, CO. Retrieved August 22, 2011.
- ^ a b "#11 The Hotel Jerome". Heritage Aspen. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-520-21089-9.
- ISBN 978-0-7432-5045-0. Retrieved August 27, 2011.
- ^ a b Kass, Bill (Fall 2008). "Flashback: Drugs and Culture—Aspen's Storied History". Aspen Magazine. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ISBN 978-0-7592-9846-0.
- ^ a b c d Wackerle, Curtis (June 23, 2011). "Hotel Jerome escapes paying six-figure tax bill". Aspen Daily News. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ Carroll, Rick (March 22, 2007). "Chicago hotelier to buy Jerome". Aspen Times. Retrieved August 27, 2011.
- ^ a b c Condon, Scott (April 14, 2011). "Aspen cries foul against Hotel Jerome in tax fight". The Aspen Times. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ Limone, Jerry (October 3, 2011). "Auberge to manage Aspen's Hotel Jerome". Travel Weekly. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
- Aspen Times. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ Travers, Andrew (April 20, 2012). "Hotel Jerome plans closure and remodel". Aspen Daily News. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ISBN 9780470887684.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-1909-0. Retrieved August 27, 2011.
- ^ Marty, Phil (November 4, 2007). "A step back into the 1880s at Aspen's Jerome". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 27, 2011.