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10.23.2012

103 YEARS YOUNG


The Stately Stanley 

There are two "Stanley Steamers." One is the carpet cleaning company that many of us are familiar with; the other is an early automobile that not many of us have seen. Unlike the later cars that Henry Ford and Walter Chrysler built, the Stanley Motor Carriage Company made popular early steam powered automobiles.



1909: A Car & Hotel

The Stanley Hotel came about when one of the founding Stanley twins, Freelan, plagued by tuberculosis, followed doctor's orders to seek out a drier and higher climate. He and his wife Flora came to Estes Park and thrived. Took just two summer seasons to build the hotel




So THIS is Neo-Georgian!

With a touch of Rocco. For many years it was a seasonal hotel - when the first snows came, they shuttered in Inn - it had no room heat! This from a man who well understood steam. Just out of sight at left is an expansive sculpture garden full of bronze animals.



Copper Everywhere

This is the bar. Both tables and ceiling are copper clad. The piece at far right is a translucent silhouette of the nearby Rockies. The hotel sits close to the boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park.



The Music Room

Imagine John Philip Souza lighting up this room with a band-full of sound. He did so annually for almost 25 years. Theodore Roosevelt, the Emperor and Empress of Japan made trips here. More recent visitors have been novelist Stephen King and actor Jim Carrey. The Stanley Hotel has a big following among those who come to study its reputation as being haunted by multiple ghosts. Some have checked in but have never checked out.

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