The Hotel St. Cloud in Cañon City, Colorado, is a historic frontier-era hotel originally built in 1879 in Silver Cliff, Colorado. When mining declined in Silver Cliff, the building was carefully dismantled and moved brick by brick to its present location at 631 Main Street in 1888.
Once known as a premier lodging place for miners, travelers, and dignitaries, the hotel has been beautifully restored and reopened in 2025.
This article was written by Mike Robinson-Johnson and shared on his Facebook Page, November 2025
“Canon City’s Historic St. Cloud
The St. Cloud was called one of Colorado’s Finest Hotels, housed the City of Canon’s First Elevator, 1st Class dining service, 60 rooms with half of them having private baths and was…. Fireproof?
After its birth in Silvercliffe in 1882, and short lifespan there (silver prices dropping, mines failing, and railroads not coming into town meant Silvercliffe essentially became a ghost town) it was de-constructed brick by brick and moved to Canon City by J.P. DeWoody via wagonload.
Mr. J.P. was one of the original builders of the (then) 3-story St. Cloud, but had come into possession of the hotel after he filed a lien against the owners after not being paid for plastering it.
DeWoody began deconstructing, moving and rebuilding the St. Cloud in February 1886 and the hotel had its Canon City Grand Opening on July 4th, 1886. The St. Cloud boasted four floors, instead of the original three, and included a bar room, billiard room, and barbershop.
Advertisements for the St. Cloud began popping up in newspapers in 1888, promoting “electric lights, telephone connection, hot and cold baths on each floor and electric bells. Daily rates ranging from $2 to $3 per day.”
Just like its time in Silvercliffe, financial issues forced hands to move, and after DeWoody had defaulted on a loan, the hotel was sold in a sheriff’s auction to H.L. White. White dumped thousands of dollars into remodeling it with full sewer system, and electric lights throughout.
The Colorado Daily Chieftain gave an update on the hotel via an article in the May 26, 1896, edition:
“This is a four-story building with a mansard roof, built of brick with stone trimmings, and is by all odds one of the handsomest hotel buildings in the state. It is 68×120 feet in size and is now enclosed and being finished as rapidly as the carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, and painters can do It. It has an elevator and electric bell and enunciator. The rotunda will contain electric lights. There are bathrooms on every floor, and in fact, it contains all the modern improvements and is being finished in the finest style of modern first-class hotels.”
During the first twenty-five years of its existence, it was known as the St. Cloud, despite having multiple owners in that period, but when it was sold in 1909, it became the Hotel Denton when C.C. Denton leased the building. Denton modernized the building by adding a steam heat system, running water to every room, and extending the phone lines to the entire building. C.C. began advertising it as ‘Fireproof’ in his advertisements. As a result, during the silent picture days, the hotel was the Colorado headquarters for the Selig Polyscope Company from Chicago and provided the sleeping quarters for cowboy stars like Tom Mix, Bill Duncan, and Joe Ryan.
Fireproof it was not. On June 22, 1914, the 4th floor broke out in flames, causing thousands in damages. High winds and a faulty fire nozzle forced the cast and crew of the Colorado Motion Picture Company to jump in and help put it out.
The year 1915 brought new management after the building owner, Andrew Shore, replaced Denton with J.E. Miller as manager overseeing the post-fire renovations, and as a result it had a new name, The Miller Hotel.
After Millers departure this was followed by another name change in 1918, to a name that would stick for 69 years, survive multiple changes in ownership, and became an Icon to many locals, The ‘Hotel Cañon’.
The Roaring 1920’s started well with many new improvements on the elevators, interior paint, even the hotel bus got a new paint job.
But that would last only a couple years before a 5-year darkness fell over the historic building.
In 1924, the Cañon City Klan No. 21 was established under the leadership of Rev. Fred G. Arnold, that fall of 1924, the Klan took control of both political parties, as well as city and county buildings, organizations and the school board. Rev. Arnold, who served as the state leader of the Colorado Klansmen, moved the Klan’s headquarters to Hotel Cañon in 1925. In the fall of 1928, Diedrich N. Cooper did what was thought impossible and overthrew the Klan in the elections that year, resulting in the headquarters moving out of Cañon City to Denver in 1929.
The Great Depression of the 1930’s hit, and the Hotel Canon weathered the storm, with the only closure being their 1st Class dining room.
After surving a rough first 50 years things begain looking up for the hotel. It served as the Continental Trailways office starting in the 1930’s seeing 6 buses a day by the 1960’s. The movie industry was booming in the 1940’s and Westerns were being filmed at an faster pace than the Pony Express riders they portrayed. This brough in many different actors like “The Duke” John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, Slim Pickens, Charles Bronson, Scott Brady, and many others. It was also the ticket office for Monarch Airlines starting in the 1940’s when they operated out of Fremont County Airport.
From the 1930’s until the late 1980’s the Hotel Canon never really flourished, but it never floundered either. It would see multiple ownership changes over those years. A listing in 1977 selling for $78,000, showed 36 rooms and 13 apartments in the building.
In 1987 Rocky Top Productions and Reeder Corp. purchased the building and gave it the original name, The St. Cloud Hotel was back.
The St. Cloud was back mostly in name only and after two years of opening and closing briefly, by September 1989, for the first time in over 100 years the Hotel sat fully closed.
It sat dormant for 3 years until 1992 when it was reopened under new ownership and management yet again. This tend continued until 1998 when the Bakery & Coffee House was opened and became popular until its closure. The little brunch place along with the St. Cloud Bar and Grill and avaliable rooms were featured in the Denver Post in 1998 in their “Inn for the Night’ column spotlighting historic lodgings. Unfortantly this wasnt enough to keep it floating as by 2001 it was forced to close and sale again.
Despite the fame there was very little fortune and the St. Cloud hotel again changes hands multiple times. It fell into the ‘abandoned’ category in the early 2000’s and came close to being demolished numerous times.
The Future of Yesterday Foundation worked between 2013-2018 using grants to do preliminary work on the foundation, fix the aging and hole filled roof, and some interior projects. They put it up for public auction in 2018, and Unbridled Contractors purchased the old, beaten building for $80k.
In a Canon City Daily Record article after the sale, Jonathan Wield said, “We can redeem places, so we saw this is a natural fit: you’ve got a restaurant and bar, so you can reach out to locals, and you’ve got hotel rooms, so you can reach out to people coming through town and give them a great experience.”
For 7 years Unbridled worked to restore and renovate a 130+ year old building and in the summer of 2025 hosted the Grand Reopening of the building.
It’s now home to the Hotel St. Cloud, a stunning and historic hotel with multiple room options; The 1887 Historic Eatery, located in the old 1st class dining room and featuring a patio seating section on 7th street: and Fremont Public House, located inside the restored ORIGINAL lobby bar of the historic St. Cloud.
Come see for yourself the magic and mystique of the St. Cloud Hotel and appreciate the history the building holds. If only the bricks could speak, I would love to hear the stories they’d tell.”-Mike Robinson-Johnson