Real estate appraisal card. 204 Lower (or North) F Street, pt. SE 1/4, SE 1/4, Sec. 32 T 50N R 9E, in Salida, Colorado.
The Palace Hotel was erected in 1906 by Ambrose Ramsey. The Salida Mail reported: 'Plans and specifications are now being drawn by Architect Anderson for a two-story brick block to be erected by Mr. A. Ramsey on lots owned by him on lower F Street adjoining the Windsor Cafe. The building will be 48 x 100, the first floor to contain a commodious office and cafe or business room as the owner may decide later, and the second floor will be divided into 25 comfortable sleeping rooms. The building will be strictly modern in every sense the word implies, being heated throughout with hot water and lighted with electricity. The front will be of cut stone and pressed brick and when completed will add very materially to the attractiveness of that section of the city.'
Under the direction of Mr. Ramsey, and by April of 1909, the Palace Hotel was complete. The Salida Mail reported: 'Mr. Ramsey's taste in furnishing these rooms is the marvel of it all. Only the most expensive material has been used in the furnishings. Everything known to modern construction and furnishing is placed in this block and there is no argument when we say the building is the finest Salida ever had. It is finished throughout with Texas pine, drawn to the highest polish, even the doors being made of this expensive material, showing the natural grain of the wood ... The building is a credit to Salida and Chaffee County and Mr. Ambrose Ramsey is to be congratulated on finishing such a building. It will stand til eternity.' The cost of the building was $20,000.
The 1914 Sanborn map showed that the first floor of the hotel was divided into a restaurant and a hotel office. The adjacent building on the corner to the south was also operated as part of the hotel. In the 1922 city directory, the Palace Hotel, operated by Mr. & Mrs. Egender, advertised 'European, commercial men's headquarters, free bus from depot.' In connection with the hotel, the Egenders operated the Palace Cafe. In 1927, the Salida Mail reported that Dr. R.B. Parris owned and operated the hotel, although most reports state that the Ramseys continued to own the building until 1970. Dr. Parris was from Nebraska and had worked as a dentist in Rocky Ford in 1908. His first hotel venture was in Gunnison, Colorado.
The Palace, called a leading Salida hostelry, was described as 'ideally located on the main street within a stone's throw of the Denver & Rio Grande Western station.' By then, the hotel had 52 'sunshiny and airy rooms equipped with hot and cold running water, baths, and all modern conveniences.'
History Colorado's Architectural Inventory Forms have more information and are available at the Salida Library.
