When no private parties expressed interest in building downtown lodging, a spirited public subscription drive bankrolled this Mission Revival hotel, which was city-owned until 1940. Five-story red brick walls rise to distinctive central curvilinear parapets flanked by square corner towers. After repeal of local prohibition ordinances in 1967, the city's first bar, the Catacombs, opened in the hotel basement in 1969. Under a stained glass barrel vault, a mezzanine with a cherry wood railing overlooks the lobby. An ornate, five-story cherry staircase provides fine viewing of the atrium's Craftsman interior, complete with the original desk, safe, Otis elevator, and fountain for Arapahoe Glacier water. Filling out the block, a $4.2 million north wing addition (1989) uses a contemporary but sympathetic design with similar broad eaves, red brick skin, and sandstone trim.