The ArT And hisTory Behind A denver LAndmArk1600 17Th sTreeT • denver, Co 80202 • 303.628.5400 • TheoxfordhoTeL.Com

he classical simplicity of the Oxford’s exterior belied an extravagant interior, as opening day guests discovered on October 3, 1891. The Oxford, according to the Rocky Mountain News, sported the latest in

gadgets and technology as well as Gilded Age opulence. The hotel had its own power plant and “the most perfect system of steam heating, electric and gas lighting,” and “on each floor bathrooms and separate water c losets .”

Ant ique oak furn i ture , marb le and carpet floors, frescoed walls, silver chandeliers and stained glass glistened inside. Every room had an abundance of light and air because Edbrooke wrapped the hotel around a light well.

The hotel boasted a “vertical railway” or elevator, which carried guests to the upper floors for a bird’s-eye view of the blooming metropolis.

From the windows of the Oxford’s upper floors, one could safely watch the bustle on Seventeenth Street, including a colorful array of tourists, street vendors, businessmen and urban characters, dodging horses and hacks, streetcars and delivery wagons.

With its own dining rooms, barber shop, a library, a pharmacy, a Western Union office, stables and a splendid saloon serving Zang’s “Fritz Imperial,” the Oxford was a city within a city.

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After the arrival of the railroads in 1870, the small mining supply town of Denver mushrooms into the regional metropolis of the High Plains and the Rocky Mountains.

1870

1890

1902

1906Denver becomes the third largest city in the West (after San Francisco and Omaha) and the 25th largest in the United States, with a population of 106,713. Denver became the hub of a steel spiderweb—a network of 101 dif-ferent Colorado railroads that tapped a rich mountain and plain hinterland.

Colorado’s leading architect, Frank E. Edbrooke, completes The Oxford Hotel. This five-story brick structure precedes Edbrooke’s completion of The Brown Palace by one year. Edbrooke had been retained by the hotel’s builders, the brewer Adolph Zang and his partners, Philip Feldhauser and William Mygatt, whose Zang Brewing Company was the biggest pre-prohibition producer in the Rockies, realized the need for a first-class hotel near Union Station.

Built during the crest of Colorado’s silver bonanza, the Oxford survives the Silver Panic of 1893 although one of its owners, Mygatt, did not. He sold his third interest to Job A. Cooper, who had just stepped down

as governor of Colorado in 1891. The governor, like Zang and Feldhauser, retained a lifelong interest in the hotel. Their persistence pays off, for while banks, railroads and mines collapsed. The Oxford continues to prosper.

Charles B. Hamilton and James L. Brooks, who became the managers in 1906, spend $20,000 to remodel the Oxford, adding the mezzanine with its monogrammed “OH” iron banister, marble wainscoting, a café and an exterior entrance to the basement barber shop.

Manager Calvin Morse reports that the hotel hosted 35,000 guests a year and “had to turn many people away.” Thriving busi-ness leads the owners to construct a $75,000, two-story addition behind the hotel on Wazee Street. This 1902 red brick addition matches the original with its terra cotta and pink sandstone trim.

1893

1891

Hamilton and Brooks add a five-story annex, designed by Denver Architect Montana Fal-lis, on Seventeenth Street in 1912 and monogram the glistening white porcelain façade with their initials, “HB”. Fallis had been a draftsman on the original, which would explain why the second-story bridge to the 1912 annex so skillfully matches the 1891 hotel.

The annex brings The Oxford Hotel complex to within a half block of Union Station, an advantage not lost on baggage toting travelers or on The Oxford Hotel’s marketing team. “Just through the Welcome Arch. The Real Hub of Denver,” crow the Oxford’s 1912 ads, “Fire Proof. European Plan. Absolutely Modern. Rooms $1.00, $1.50 and $2.00 a day.”

During the 1930’s, Denver architect Charles Jaka remodels the Oxford once again, transforming it to an art deco showcase. In the new “Cruise Room” cocktail lounge, featuring hand carved panels by artist Alley Henson, Denverites enjoy the Repeal of the Prohibition Amendment and have been celebrating ever since.

During the war years, troop trains arriving at Union Station help to fill the Oxford to its attic and broom closets. And mothers of Denver servicemen serve coffee, doughnuts and hot turkey sandwiches to the troops 24 hours a day.

1912

1930s

After World War II ends, Denver begins its second boom, emerging as a national center for tourism, federal offices and energy firms. The sun belt boom town begins rebuilding its downtown, demolishing many landmarks and practically all of its nineteenth-century hotels. The Oxford survived as a bastion of respectability in declining lower downtown.

Charles Callaway purchases the Oxford and closes it for restoration. Dana Crawford, who had spear-headed the restoration of Larimer Square, joins Callaway in 1980.

William Muchow & Associates, a Denver architectural firm noted for creative preservation work, was selected to oversee the job. Bill Muchow took a special interest because his father had been the tile mason for the Annex back in 1912.

The hotel was completely modernized. Many of the outstanding fea-tures of the early years uncovered above false ceilings, behind closets and hidden away in the alcoves of the hotel’s basement. Among the

The Oxford becomes a center for jazz, folk music and melodrama in the 1960’s and 70’s. Hundreds jam the hotel at night to see The Oxford Players stumble through “Ten Nights in a Barroom” and to hear the Queen City Jazz Band.

Declining train travel leaves Union Station as quiet as a mausoleum and skid row creeps into lower downtown. Only after the success of Larimer Square in the 1960’s did many Denverites awaken to the possibilities for resurrecting the grand architecture of Colorado’s silver age.

1979

1960s

items found were the original blue print drawings of architect Edbrooke which enabled the designers to duplicate exact details. In disrepair but still discernible art deco panels, intended for the corner room in the 1930’s, were also found in the basement.

Carpets were woven to match the last layer of hallway carpet uncovered and chandeliers were stripped of their paint and were discovered to be Sterling Silver. The previous site of the sometimes restaurant, barber shop or coffee shop was transformed into the Sage. The famous Cruise Room was returned to its art deco zenith.

1983

2009

After three years of restoration at a cost of over $12 million, The Oxford reopens on June 19, 1983, as Den-ver’s Grand Boutique Hotel with professional offices in the Annex. A restored landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, a Denver Original has returned.

Under its current ownership group, Sage Hospitality Management,

The Oxford Hotel sees constant rejuvenation and modern upgrades

while continuing to preserve and restore the many historical details that make it unique. Entering the

Oxford’s extravagant lobby is a step back in time, to be sure, but with the provided comforts of the 21st

century, it remains one of Denver’s most luxurious landmarks.

As part of a seven year room- by-room renovation of the hotel, the Oxford hires an iron artist to create a replica of the original doorway arch. This throwback to the Oxford’s early beginnings is one of many historical details included in the ongoing modernization of the property.

The Oxford Art CollectionA work of art in itself, the Oxford’s classic façade is home to a storied art collection. Artists, attracted by the beauty and opportunity in the West, and often sponsored by railroad magnates, created dramatic interpretations of the landscape and its inhabitants. Many artworks, such as John Fery’s Panoramic Landscape in the Oxford Lobby, were traded in exchange for tabs racked up at local hotels and saloons. This tradition continued up through the time of Tom Waits, who performed at the Oxford in the early 1970’s.

While the fame of some artists represented here has grown over the years (along with the value of their works), other gifted artists represented here remain anonymous to this day. The Art Collection at The Oxford Hotel has been assembled with a focus on beauty, as well as notoriety. Works represented here are found throughout the hotel, in the Main Lobby, the Sage Room, the Cruise Room, McCormick’s and the Grand Ballroom.

t KinG OF THe PRAiRieJohn Dare Howland (1842-1914) Oil on Canvas

Just fourteen years old, Howland ran away from home to adventure in the West. With the American Fur Company, he traveled the Missouri and Platte Rivers, trading with Sioux Indians and delighting them by drawing pictures on their teepees. He arrived in Colorado in 1858, and after many adventures finally settled here in Denver, where he founded the Denver Art Club, (precursor to the Denver Art Museum).

p PORTRAiT PAneL - Herndon Davis (1901-1962)

Herndon Davis, born in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), arrived in Central City in 1936, where, with either heart full of unrequited love, or tongue in cheek, he painted the famous “Face on the Barroom Floor.” From 1937 to 1946, he presided at Larimer Street’s Windsor Hotel (now demolished), painting portraits of the people and the times. “Portrait Panel” now looks out upon the Oxford’s Sage Room, depicting several prominent players in Colorado’s history, including (left to right): J.F. Campion (Leadville Silver Miner and President of the Denver Chamber of Commerce in 1898), Eugene Field (editor of the Denver Tribune and author of childrens’ books, such as “Wynken, Blynken and Nod”), Henry R. Wolcott (financier bringing outside capital to Denver), William Byers (founding editor of the Rocky Mountain News), Frederick Bonfils (co-owner and publisher of the Denver Post), Casimiro Barela (prominent rancher, co-author of the Colorado Constitution, State Senator from Trinidad) and Otto Mears (builder of the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton).

t ROCKS AnD PineS George Vander Sluis (1915-1984) • Oil on Board, 1946

Vander Sluis began his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art and then studied and taught at the Broadmoor Academy in Colorado Springs during the 1940’s. One of Colorado’s best kept secrets, the Broadmoor Academy and its successor, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, has functioned for generations as an important cultural center in the Rocky Mountain West. The Academy produced some of Colorado’s finest artists, whose work can be viewed next door to the Oxford at the David Cook Fine Art Gallery.

t SunRiSe Darlene Pearse • Oil on Canvas, c. 1980’s

Purchased by Dana Crawford from the Denver Art Student’s League in 1990, this painting is one of the few works in the Oxford Collection created by a currently living artist. Darlene Pearse, a Colorado resident for 20 years, now lives in Naples, Florida, and is a prolific painter, producing up to 200 canvases each year. Her work shows some influence of both Quang Ho and Charles Partridge Adams.

t HeALTH SPA (eLDORADO SPRinGS) Charles H. Harmon (1859-1935) • Oil on Canvas, c. 1890

Eldorado Springs, just north of Denver, presents perhaps the most dramatic gateway to the Rocky Mountains. Commissioned by the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad, “Health Spa” is part of a series depicting the Moffat Tunnel Line. Note the train steaming toward the tunnel, high on the mountain in the upper left of the painting.

p SunSeT, eSTeS PARK, COLORADO Charles Partridge Adams (1858-1942) • Oil on Canvas

Charles Partridge Adams is probably Denver’s best-known artist in residence during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. Primarily self-taught, he traveled throughout Colorado by rail through a barter agreement with the railroads, in which he traded his paintings for travel. In addition to his Denver studio on Larimer Street, Adams opened a studio in Estes Park in 1905. Rocky Mountain National Park was one of his favorite subjects.

p PAnORAMiC MOunTAin LAnDSCAPe John Fery (1865-1934) • Oil on Canvas, c. 1890 (detail)

Hungarian born John Fery studied in the great art centers in Vienna and Munich. Around 1910 he was hired as an illustrator for the Great Northern Railroad, painting over 300 panoramic landscapes, especially in Montana’s Glacier National Park. In exchange for his hotel tab, Fery traded this work to The Oxford Hotel in the 1930’s.

t nyMPHS AnD SATyR Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1825-1905) Oil on Canvas, 1873

Producing over seven hundred works with allegorical and mythological themes, Bouguereau was not only prolific, but extraordinarily passionate about classical art and study from nature. This incredible duplicate of Bouguereau’s fine work today hangs above the staircase climbing up to the Oxford’s Grand Ballroom.

q SHiPWReCKeD J.M. Fortenbury Oil on Canvas, Denver, c. 1905

First gracing the parlor of Wyoming’s Cheyenne Gentlemen’s Club, and now presiding at the entrance to the Oxford’s Grand Ballroom, “Shipwrecked” portrays a dramatic seascape, far from the Colorado highlands, but near to a gentleman’s heart.

t ART DeCO PAneLS Alley Henson, c. 1930

Best viewed with a martini in hand, these Art Deco panels, carved in bas-relief on celetex, celebrate toasts from around the globe. The German panel portraying Adolf Hitler, swastika and all, was removed during World War II. The Cruise Room won the prestigious Miami Art Deco Award in 1983.

t STAineD GLASS DuTCH LAnDSCAPeS c. 1900

Three large, rare “cathedral glass” opalescent panels of Dutch scenes. Originally, these windows defined “The Dutch Room,” a dining room “For Gentlemen Only.” Stored in 1945, they were returned to daylight in the Oxford’s 1983 restoration, repaired by the original artist’s grandson, and now grace the bar of McCormick’s Restaurant.

t MOunTAinS in THe SPRinG George Vander Sluis (1915-1984) Oil on Board, 1944

Renowned for his spectacular sense of color and gorgeous textures, Vander Sluis worked in oil, acrylic and pastel, creating portraits and landscapes. While teaching at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs in the early 1940’s, he captured the stunning Colorado mountains in each season. In 1947, Vander Sluis moved to New York to become Professor of Painting and Drawing at Syracuse University, a position he held until his death. p GARDen OF THe GODS

Anonymous American • Oil on Canvas, c. 1890’s

With Pikes Peak looming in the distance, the Garden of the Gods, like Red Rocks near Denver and the Flatirons near Boulder, is a dramatic example of the colorful landscapes along Colorado’s front range. The state, and the river both derive their names, in fact, from a Spanish word meaning “red colored.”

t PiKe'S PeAKCharles Ragland Bunnell (1897-1868) Egg Tempera on Board, 1931

As a child in Missouri, Charles Bunnell loved drawing so much, when unable to find other paper, he drew on textbook margins and walls, and was often fined for doing so. He moved with his family to Colorado Springs around 1915, served in World War I, then used his GI Training to study at the Broadmoor Art Academy. By 1949, he opened his own studio located at the foot of Pike’s Peak. His work is among the more contemporary and expressionistic in the Oxford Art Collection.

t SATuRDAy niGHT HeLL-RAiSeRSFrederick Remington, 1902