Shared Photo: Lillian Hargraves at the Creede Hotel

Question

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I wanted to share this family photo of Lillian Hargraves with the community. Location: Creede, CO. Date: about 1960. This is my grandmother as I remember her, at the cash register of her hotel. She was widowed in 1934. With the help of her sister and sons, she bought the Creede Hotel in 1947 and ran it for 20 years.

Click here for the image details page or here for the full-sized version (1158 x 870).

Comments

Your grandmother sounds like quit a lady and business woman. Thanks for sharing!

Answer 1

I love how your grandmother has a bit of a mischievous twinkle in her eyes as she looks at the photographer while holding a card at the hotel counter. What a great piece of family history for your grandmother and her sister and sons to be part of Creede history! 

Have you seen the photo of the Creede Hotel circa 1970s on the Creede Hotel website? There are two photos of the hotel side-by-side on this page, showing how it changed between 1892 and the 1970s. From the front, it looked pretty much the same, with the ZangsHotelAnnex changing into the bar by the 1970s, but the surrounding land looking pretty much the same. 

I had no idea that this town of Creede was famous for being one of the first cities to get electricity, so there was a song written about "It's day all day in the daytime, and there is no night in Creede"! 

I loved reading about some of the famous boarders at the hotel, including Calamity Jane! 

Thanks so much for sharing this great photograph! 

Comments

Thanks, Cynthia! I hadn't seen the website before, but I'd seen the photos. The one on the right is really much older than the 1970s; it's probably from the 1950s (judging by the cars). Sadly the hotel has fallen on hard times now; it's for sale, and didn't open last summer. But I hope that someone will want buy it and fix it up into a going concern again.

Answer 2

Bought the hotel and ran it!  What an entrepreneur! Hooray for her!