Entity Collection

: Grand Imperial Hotel (Silverton, Colo.); It was originally known as the Grand Hotel and was part of the Thompson Block commissioned by W.S. Thompson in 1882, with construction completed in 1883. According to the website of the still extant hotel, it was the largest structure south of Denver at that time and a "pinnacle of luxury" in the Southwest. Its first floor housed the post office, bank, Bureau of Mines, general store, doctor's office, and Silverton Standard Newspaper. The second floor housed the county and town government. The hotel was purchased by Winfield Morton of Texas in 1950, but he went into foreclosure after lavishly refurbishing the hotel (Dave Fishell, Silverton's Imperial Hotel, The Daily Sentinel, March 23, 1980). Longtime Silverton resident Lew Parcell became the hotel's owner-manager in 1958, and he kept the hotel until selling out to the Broadmoor Hotel's ownership group in 1963. It was remodeled in 2015, and is now owned by American Heritage Railway Hotels, whose owners are also affiliated with the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The name of the hotel changed over the years to Imperial Hotel, and then to Grand Imperial Hotel.

: Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce; An organization that advocates for Grand Junction businesses and for the business climate in town. It has its roots in the early Twentieth century. It operates today at 360 Grand Avenue, in a building that opened in 1982. According to Penelope (Brown) Eberhart, whose father Harry Lewis Brown was involved in the Western Slope's early oil shale industry, the Chamber had an ongoing interest in the industry's success.

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