Designed and funded by Freelan Oscar Stanley, the Stanley Hotel opened in 1909 in Estes Park. The first-class resort helped make Estes Park into a tourist destination, especially after the establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915. In the late twentieth century, the hotel gained notoriety as the inspiration for Stephen King’s horror novel The Shining (1977). Now part of the Grand Heritage Hotel Group, the hotel survived the September 2013 floods largely unscathed.
Born in Kingfield, Maine, the inventor and entrepreneur Freelan Oscar Stanley first saw the Estes Valley in 1903, when he was fifty-four. He had recently been diagnosed with tuberculosis, which doctors said would claim him within months. A wealthy man best known for the dry-plate photographic process and steam-powered automobile he developed with his twin brother, Stanley immediately set out for the dry air of Colorado and soon drove one of his Stanley Steamer cars from Lyons to Estes Park. This was the first automobile to be driven into the Estes Valley. After a remarkably quick recovery, Stanley decided in 1904 to build a Georgian Revival house in the emerging town of Estes Park, where he would spend summers for the rest of his life (he lived until 1940).
By 1907 Stanley had started planning to build a grand hotel in Estes Park based on classic East Coast resorts such as the Breakers in Florida, the Mountain View House in New Hampshire, and the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan. Estes Park was not on a railroad line, however, so good roads would be important. Stanley led efforts to improve North St. Vrain and South St. Vrain Roads, making it possible for tourists to drive through Estes Park on a loop that started and ended in Lyons.
In October 1907 hotel construction began on a rocky hillside facing south toward Longs Peak. Stanley probably designed much of the hotel himself, though he did employ an architect. Like his Estes Park house, which he had planned, it was to be an elegant Georgian Revival structure. The four-story building’s symmetrical style and strong horizontal lines stood in stark contrast to both the rugged natural backdrop and the prevailing tendency toward rustic designs in mountain hotels at the time. Stanley conceived of the hotel as a summer resort, so the main building was planned without heat and was originally open only from June to September. The rest of the hotel complex—a Casino building for entertainment and dancing (not gambling), a Carriage House for the hotel’s Stanley Steamers, and several service buildings—was situated across the roughly 150-acre property. The buildings were all painted a mustard yellow color reminiscent of East Coast resorts. By the time it was finished, the entire project cost Stanley at least $200,000, possibly as much as $500,000.
While the hotel was under construction, Stanley invested heavily in the town’s infrastructure. In the course of just a few years, he played an instrumental role in establishing the town’s first bank, its water company, and its hydroelectric plant. Later he helped start the town’s sewer system and its public golf course. All of these endeavors would contribute indirectly to the success of Stanley’s hotel, and some, such as the Fall River hydroelectric plant, were originally built for the hotel before being expanded to serve the town as well.
The hotel—called the Stanley only after locals petitioned the reluctant owner to name it after himself—opened on June 22, 1909. It featured eighty-eight guest rooms and an all-electric kitchen designed by Stanley and powered by his Fall River hydroelectric plant. The first guests were members of the Colorado Pharmacal Association, who convened at the hotel for their twentieth annual meeting.
After the success of the hotel’s first season, construction began on the Manor House next to the main building. Essentially a scaled-down version of the main building, the Manor House was probably conceived as part of the original plan. It was ready by the next summer. Its thirty-three rooms were fully heated, unlike the main building, allowing the hotel to operate year-round.
The Stanley’s first golden age lasted through the 1910s, when Rocky Mountain National Park was established and Estes Park tourism boomed. During these years, fleets of Stanley Steamer automobiles whisked guests up to the hotel from railroad depots in Loveland, Longmont, and Lyons. The Stanley was a model mountain resort of a kind that had previously existed primarily in the Colorado Springs area, complete with a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts, lawn and indoor bowling, croquet, and billiards. It had its own private water plant, laundry, and garage. On weekends guests could enjoy a leisurely afternoon on the veranda, attend the Saturday evening dance at the Casino, and catch the Sunday afternoon concert in the Music Room.
Despite its high prices—five to eight dollars a night at a time when other Estes Park hotels charged only a dollar or two—the Stanley generally spent more than it made. The profits of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company covered the hotel’s deficits until Stanley sold the company in the late 1910s. After that, the hotel received few renovations until 1926, when Stanley sold it to a group of Milwaukee investors who refurbished the interior with new paint, carpet, and drapes. The group soon faced mounting debts, however, and in 1929 Stanley managed to reclaim title to the hotel in a foreclosure sale.
Stanley almost immediately resold the hotel to Roe Emery, who owned the Estes Park Chalets as well as the Rocky Mountain Motor Company. Emery’s transportation company turned a tidy profit, allowing him to upgrade the Stanley. In 1935 he redecorated the bedrooms, added new light fixtures, replaced the hydraulic elevator with an electric one, and repainted the exterior from the original mustard yellow to the now classic white. Emery also indulged the hotel’s founder, who continued to have lunch there, attend concerts, and sit in his favorite rocker on the veranda until his death in 1940.
In 1946 Emery sold the Stanley to Abbell Management Company (later Abbell Hotel Company). In the early 1950s the new owners made several changes in an attempt to adapt the grand resort to the more informal style of postwar tourism. A swimming pool was installed on the front lawn, and the Carriage House was converted from a garage to a motel. The Carriage House motel did not last long, however, and for much of the late twentieth century the building was boarded up and used for storage.
In 1966 Abbell sold the Stanley. For the next two decades the hotel passed through several sets of owners. The hotel had never made much, if any, profit, and owners without an independent fortune or another cash-generating business soon found that operating the Stanley made little financial sense. The property changed hands every few years and gradually deteriorated as maintenance and upgrades were deferred. Despite that, the Stanley was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
In 1974 Stephen King and his wife stayed at the somewhat shabby Stanley when the unheated main building was about to close for the season. While there, King got the idea for a story about a man who goes crazy at a remote hotel that is closed for the winter. The result was The Shining (1977), in which the “Overlook Hotel” stands in for the Stanley. The famous 1980 Stanley Kubrick film based on the novel was not filmed at the Stanley, but a 1990s television miniseries made with King’s input included scenes filmed on site.
In the late 1970s one owner attempted to turn a profit through a time-share program, but that failed and the hotel went through bankruptcy proceedings in the early 1980s. The next owner renovated the hotel—in 1984 the main building finally got heat—but still struggled. The Stanley landed back in bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Its fortunes finally began to change in 1995, when the Grand Heritage Hotel Group bought it through bankruptcy court for $3.1 million. The company immediately undertook extensive renovations with the goal of restoring the hotel to its status as a first-class resort.
Under the Grand Heritage Hotel Group, the Stanley has embraced its association with The Shining and its reputation as a haunted hotel, both of which have helped revive the hotel’s business. The room where King stayed, 217, is now the most-requested room at the hotel. The 1980 film version of The Shining plays on a continuous loop on one channel of the hotel’s televisions. In 2013 the hotel began to host an annual horror film festival, and in 2015 it built a huge hedge maze on the front lawn based on a similar maze in the film. The hotel also offers a variety of tours and packages focusing on ghosts, haunted spaces, and paranormal phenomena.
The floods of September 2013 washed out several roads to Estes Park and hurt tourism to the area. The Stanley suffered little damage, however, and after the floods it actually accelerated its renovation and expansion plans to take advantage of postflood state financing and to boost the local economy. John Cullen, owner of the Grand Heritage Hotel Group, announced plans to build a new wellness center near the hotel to capitalize on the trend of healthy vacationing.
In addition, in early 2015 Cullen secured a $46 million loan to help pay for what is planned to be the largest renovation and expansion in the Stanley’s history. Buildings across the property will receive new roofs, air conditioning, carpet, and paint. In 2016–17 the hotel will also add a new fifty-room luxury residence hotel connected to the future wellness center as well as a film center, an amphitheater, and a large pavilion to host health seminars, corporate retreats, and weddings.