Summary
History of The Barth Hotel - SHO's First Assisted Living Community
The Colorado Manufacturer and Consumer magazine published in August 1932, described the Barth Hotel in downtown Denver “where the hospitality of the West and the comforts of home prevail” (1). On Friday, January 10, 2025, the last resident checked out and the Barth Hotel, now an Assisted Living community, is closing its doors. When the conditions of the aging hotel became a safety concern, the Board and leadership team made the tough decision to close its doors. But as history has shown, is it for the last time?
Built in 1882 as a warehouse for the Union Wholesale Liquor Company, it was designed by F. C. Eberley who also designed the Tivoli Brewery, now the Auraria Campus Student Union, and many other early Denver landmarks. The warehouse was built two blocks from Union Station which opened in 1881. Due to the ideal location on 17th and Blake it was more lucrative to open a hotel and in the late 1880’s it was converted to the Union Hotel. An 1892 article in Illustrated Denver noted that the Union Hotel was an “elegant brick affair…with 100 rooms all well lighted, perfectly ventilated and furnished in the most elegant and most attractive manner.” (2)
For reasons lost to history, the Union Hotel was renamed the Elk Hotel in 1905. The brass marker of the Elk Hotel is still visible on the 17th street sidewalk in front of the Barth today. It became the Hotel Barth when M. Allen Barth purchased it in 1930.
For the next fifty years, the hotel struggled to find its place and was bought and sold multiple times. Travel by train waned after 1945 with the development of the interstate highway system. Union Station, which once saw over 80 trains a day, dropped to just one or two trains a day. The area surrounding Union Station became known as “skid row” and the Barth eventually became a flop house. (3)
In the 1980’s revitalization of Lower Downtown, affectionately called LoDo, began. A newly created nonprofit, The Ecumenical Corporation, today’s Senior Housing Options, purchased and renovated the Barth Hotel for seniors that were being displaced from the downtown hotels that they lived in by the rapid growth of downtown Denver skyscrapers. It was the second property the Colorado nonprofit purchased with the Olin Hotel at 1420 Logan Street being the first.
Senior Housing Options renovated the Barth as a single-room occupancy residence for older adults and adults with disabilities. When the Barth Hotel once again reopened its doors in 1984, there were rooms for 62 residents. One important note was that many blind adults were relocated to the Barth when it opened due to the closure of their current residence. All rooms were private and furnished, some had a private bath, while others shared common facilities down the hall. The beautiful exterior and soaring two story lobby with pressed tin ceilings made it possible for the Barth to be placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1982.
In the early 80’s a paradigm shift was also occurring in caring for older adults. (4) The management at Senior Housing Options (SHO) noticed that the residents at the Barth needed a bit more assistance in the activities of daily living. In 1987, the Barth Hotel was listed as an assisted living residence which began offering three meals a day as well as medication and personal care assistance. A variety of social and wellness activities were also offered.
Hundreds of residents have called the Barth Hotel home during the last four decades with SHO. Perhaps because of its visibility in the heart of Denver, the Barth was a media darling for many years. Numerous articles and news reports have highlighted Barth residents alongside the beautiful architecture. There was Jimmy, the man with the infectious smile or Jack, the blind man that played the accordion and reached out and touched people’s hearts. Long time resident Joanne, who moved to the Barth when her former resident for the blind closed in 1985, is an accomplished pianist and flutist and often entertained the residents and people hurrying to work would stop and listen when she played the piano located in the lobby of the Barth. All the people that resided at the Barth were special and unique. Some were previously unhoused; some came because they craved the excitement of downtown living, others simply had nowhere else to go. Each was beloved by the SHO employees who provided an opportunity for the residents to live out their life with peace and dignity.
As a nonprofit, SHO was always looking for creative ways to raise funds for the benefit of our residents. The downtown location was ideal for a unique fundraising opportunity. In 1991, the Barth Hotel, along with assistance from the Denver Mile High Rotary, began presenting theater productions in the lobby. A local producer that resided in LoDo, John Ashton, developed the idea while socializing with residents of the Barth on the benches located in front of the building. He thought that the Barth Lobby and its elegant woodwork and two-story pressed tin ceiling created the perfect backdrop for the presentation of THE HOT L BALTIMORE, a story about various lost souls. All proceeds went to the renovation of the Barth and continued annually through 2018 with the production of the Sunshine Boys. This Barth Hotel fundraiser, along with the help of DCPA, created local and national interest. The brilliant Steve Martin chose the Barth Hotel for the premier of his play Picasso at the Lapin Agile in 2010. Local talent has fond memories of performances that often-included Barth residents as extras.
Downtown often brought its own excitement with events at Coors field that was built just blocks away, and sports victory or stock show parades often occurred in front of the building. The last parade celebrated at the Barth was the 2025 Stock Show parade the day before closing its doors. Horseback riders reminiscent of Denver’s past and wagons of hay filled with excited 4H youth, paraded in front of the majestic building that has seen so many changes, yet so much remains the same. Most of the residents at the Barth had already moved into their new homes, but for the employees and those residents that remained, the parade in celebration of the 119th National Western Stock Show was a fitting closure to this part of history of the Barth Hotel “where the hospitality of the West and the comforts of home prevail”
Epilogue
The Barth Hotel is once again for sale. Senior Housing Options, a Colorado Nonprofit since 1979, owns/manages four assisted living facilities and five affordable housing communities in Denver, Cortez, Longmont and Parachute Colorado. Many of the Barth residents found a home at one of the other SHO Assisted Living communities. Others are now living in one of the few communities that accept Medicaid. Affordable housing options for low-income older adults, whether for assisted living or independent living, are scarce. Senior Housing Options can continue to grow and fulfill our mission to provide residential communities and caring services to enrich the lives of older adults in Colorado with your help. Please visit our website at www.SeniorHousingOptions.org for more information.
See also: https://www.westword.com/news/denver-barth-hotel-assisted-living-closing-over-40-years-22814858
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- Colorado Manufacturer and Consumer magazine, August 1932
- https://denverhistory.blog/2018/04/16/the-union-warehouse-barth-hotel-1514-17th-street/
- https://history.denverlibrary.org/neighborhood-history-guide/lodo-denvers-lower-downtown-success-story
https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article-abstract/47/suppl_1/8/614189?redirectedFrom=fulltext
