{"id":1311819,"date":"2019-06-25T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/visit-to-historic-hotel-colorado-brings-back-memories-for-past-visitor\/"},"modified":"2019-06-26T07:10:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T13:10:18","slug":"visit-to-historic-hotel-colorado-brings-back-memories-for-past-visitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/visit-to-historic-hotel-colorado-brings-back-memories-for-past-visitor\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to historic Hotel Colorado brings back memories for past visitor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Fran Blumenthal walks her husband, Jack, through the lobby of the Hotel Colorado Monday in Glenwood Springs. Monday\u2019s visit to the hotel was Fran\u2019s first in 70 years. Her family spent three summers vacationing in Glenwood and staying at the historic hotel.<\/strong>
Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A teenage crush \u2014 everyone remembers their first. For Fran (Margolis) Blumenthal, her first crush happened on summer vacation right here in Glenwood Springs at the Hotel Colorado.<\/p>\n

Back in the late 1940s, Fran, her two siblings and parents spent three summers vacationing at the historic Western Slope hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the war, a group of men, including my father, got together and purchased the hotel,\u201d Blumenthal said.<\/p>\n

Her father, H.J. Margolis, was in real estate in Chicago when he joined the group of investors in buying the hotel after the Navy decommissioned the structure that had been used as a convalescent hospital during World War II.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was a small partner. He used to say his share was the chimney,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Seven decades have passed and memories have faded a bit, as she combs through old family vacation photos.<\/p>\n

Reluctant to say what she remembers the most about the hotel, Blumenthal\u2019s daughter, Jill King, beats her to the punch.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does remembers a huge part of the hotel, which was the old elevator,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

The cat was out of the bag. King said her mom had a met a boy by the name of Gene Williams on her last visit to the hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had my first crush. He was the elevator operator, and I was only 13 years old,\u201d Blumenthal proclaimed with her husband of 64 years only footsteps away.<\/p>\n

SEEING HER ONE MORE TIME<\/p>\n

A lot has changed since the 83-year-old last visited Glenwood Springs and set eyes on the Grand Dame of the Rockies perched above the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

Fran is a Chicago native. She and Jack worked and raised their family in the midwestern city before retiring to San Diego, California.<\/p>\n

The couple recently moved to Henderson, Nevada, to be closer to King and her husband, Steve, and daughter, Carly.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal had always wanted to return to Glenwood Springs and the Hotel Colorado, making it part of her bucket list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to come back, and kept wanting to bring my husband out here \u2014 just never happened \u2014 finally, I said I\u2019m getting so old now if I don\u2019t do it I never will,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

King said her mom had been talking about wanting to make the journey, so on a whim, she and her husband planned a little road trip.<\/p>\n

After a nearly nine-hour and more than 600-mile drive, they arrived Sunday evening in Glenwood.<\/p>\n

Not wanting to go another minute without seeing the old hotel, Blumenthal and her family spent the evening driving around downtown Glenwood and the hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing looks the same. The bridge is gone that we used to walk across,\u201d Blumenthal said.<\/p>\n

The bridge she referred to isn\u2019t the bridge across the Colorado River, but the pedestrian bridge that spanned the old Highway 6 that passed right in front of the hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember one or two streets downtown. Now there are a lot of streets. It\u2019s night and day for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until around lunch Monday that Blumenthal took her first steps this century around the Hotel Colorado.<\/p>\n

With a gasp and a smile, her eyes lit up, as she took in the cream-colored Roman brick and Peach Blow Sandstone facade of the 126-year-old building.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing seeing my mom here again. She\u2019s so happy walking around reminiscing,\u201d King said. \u201cTo think that this is where she used to vacation as a little girl with her family 70 years ago is hard to believe. I\u2019m so glad that she had this chance to relive her good old days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something I should\u2019ve probably done years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once in the lobby, Blumenthal went straight for the hotel elevator. With her outstretched hand she ran her finger across the door. The elevator has changed but the memories remain for Blumenthal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a joyful thing. It brings back good memories,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal and her family plan to spend the week in Glenwood Springs, sightseeing and visiting spots she recalls from her youth.<\/p>\n

Before they depart, King is making sure her mom has the full Hotel Colorado experience. She booked a room for Fran and Jack for Thursday night.<\/p>\n

kmills@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fran Blumenthal walks her husband, Jack, through the lobby of the Hotel Colorado Monday in Glenwood Springs. Monday\u2019s visit to the hotel was Fran\u2019s first in 70 years. Her family spent three summers vacationing in Glenwood and staying at the historic hotel.Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent A teenage crush \u2014 everyone remembers their first. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-29 03:16:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1311828,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311819\/revisions\/1311828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}