The City Hotel

By Victoria Gonzalez and Ryan Dyke
(DCHS students in the Fall 2010 Colorado History Class)

It was 1871 when the Harris brothers, John and Thomas made their dream become a reality. They helped build a town called New Memphis once located two miles northwest of present-day Castle Rock near the site of today’s outlet mall.  It became known as the Independence Colony and here the City Hotel got its start.

New Memphis had a switching station connecting it to the recently built Denver & Rio Grande Railroad.  Here the brothers built a two-story hotel and named it the Harris Hotel.  When Castle Rock won the special election in 1874 to become the county seat the brothers saw the handwriting on the wall and soon moved their hotel and other buildings to the new town.  They placed the hotel on the 400 block of Perry Street a short walking distance from Castle Rock’s recently built train depot.  At this location, it would be convenient for travelers and also somewhat removed from obtrusive noise.

At the new location the brothers changed the hotel’s name to the Castle Rock House.  Then in 1879 the Harris’ faced competition just a few blocks south on Perry Street when the Owen’s House opened. Castle Rock proved to be a good location.  Thomas Harris eventually became the town’s second mayor and led Castle Rock until his untimely death in 1884 when he was gored by a run away steer rambling down Perry Street.

On his deathbed, Thomas Harris transferred ownership of his hotel to his wife, Mary.  She ran the operation for a brief time.  By 1890 the hotel’s fourth owner, Philip Crawshaw, renamed the building the City Hotel.  For over a century, despite many owners, the name remains unchanged.

The building currently stands empty, a silent reminder of Castle Rocks’ pioneer days.  The structure pre-dates Colorado statehood, one of a dwindling few across the state.  For the sake of the towns’ collective memory this place matters. Just the fact that the City Hotel stands in downtown Castle Rock keeps our rapidly growing community connected to its forgotten past.

Sources for this article include Robert Lowenberg’s landmark book Castle Rock: A Grass Roots History and Susan Appleby’s Fading Past: The Story of Douglas County, Colorado published in 2001.