The Hotel de Paris sits in Georgetown, Colorado, a historic mining town in the mountains. Louis Dupuy opened it in 1875. It quickly became famous for its luxury and French food during the Colorado gold rush.
Today, the hotel is very well preserved. It holds over 5,000 items from the late 1800s. Many of these items were there when Dupuy owned the hotel.
The Story of Louis Dupuy
Louis Dupuy was born Adolphe François Gerard in France in 1844. He left seminary school for culinary school. In 1866, he moved to the US and became a writer for a New York paper. After being caught plagiarizing, he joined the US Army.
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Start Your News DetoxThe Army moved him to Cheyenne, Wyoming. He then deserted and went to Denver, Colorado. He worked as a mining reporter for Rocky Mountain News, which led him to Georgetown. Dupuy became a miner in nearby Silver Plume. He was hurt in a mining accident there.
The local community helped him change careers. They raised money for him to rent a bakery and two nearby buildings. He turned these into the Hotel de Paris.
A Modern Hotel
When the railroad arrived in 1877, Georgetown grew. Dupuy made sure his hotel had the best amenities of its time. Each room had a sink with hot and cold water. It also had gas lighting, which was replaced by electricity in 1893, and radiant heating.
The hotel did well until 1893. That's when the silver crash hit Georgetown's mining economy. The town never fully recovered. Dupuy died in 1900. He left the hotel to his housekeeper and friend, Sophie Gally, who died soon after him.
In 1903, the Burkholder family bought the building. They turned it into a boarding house. They owned it until 1954. Then, the Colonial Dames of America bought it after years of slow business. It has been a museum ever since.
The building joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. In 2007, it became a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Walking into the hotel feels like stepping back in time. Original furniture and decorations fill every space. This is because it became a museum right after closing as a hotel and boarding house.
