Hotel de Paris

Three plaques here tell one man three ways. The state bronze of 1954 has Louis Dupuy as a mysterious Frenchman, philosopher and social rebel, revealed at his death as the journalist Adolphe Francois Gerard; the town's plaque of 2007 makes him a model of American enterprise and lists the steam heat and black walnut. The 1954 bronze also marks why the building stands. That year the Colonial Dames of America in Colorado bought the old hotel, by then a boarding house, and cast this plaque with the Society; the Dames restored it and run it as a museum.

What the plaque says

This tablet is the property of the State of Colorado Hotel de Paris A Norman inn built in a great silver mining camp by a mysterious Frenchman called Louis Dupuy. Opened in 1875, richly furnished from New York and abroad, it became nationally noted for continental delicacies and the literary bent of its proprietor, a philosopher, social rebel and master cook. Upon his death in 1900, Dupuy was revealed as Adolphe Francois Gerard, a French gentleman and refugee, formerly a journalist in Paris, London and New York. Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado and the Colonial Dames Society in Colorado 1954 Landmark 12 Hotel de Paris Designated 1978 by Georgetown Society, Inc. Town of Georgetown Colorado Historical Society Georgetown-Silver Plume National Historic Landmark District Hotel de Paris 1875-90 Frenchman Louis Dupuy came to Georgetown in 1870 to seek his fortune in silver mining. A mine accident ended those dreams, and he soon opened the first phase of his extraordinary Hotel de Paris. The hotel, completed by 1890, featured steam heat, hot and cold running water in each room, the finest carpets, gas lights, black walnut woodwork, and many works of art. This jewel in the mountains truly represents successful American entrepreneurship in the late 19th century. After Dupuy's death in 1900, the building continued as a hotel or boarding house until purchased in 1954 by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Colorado. The Dames have done extensive restoration and operate the Hotel de Paris Museum with a substantial collection of artifacts from Louis Dupuy's era. Town of Georgetown & Historic Georgetown, Inc. 2007

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hotel de Paris — steps away
  A French cook's hotel in a silver town, kept for twenty-five years by a man whose name turned out not to be his own.
• Georgetown Loop Railroad — 0.6 mi
  Scrapped in 1939 for $450, rebuilt a century after it first opened, and running again over the bridge that crosses its own track.
• Mount Blue Sky — 8.6 mi
  Rosalie for a painter, Evans for a governor, and since 2023 a name the Cheyenne and Arapaho asked for, at the top of North America's highest paved road.
• Central City Opera House — 12 mi
  Built by a mining town for itself in 1878, outshone by Tabor within four years, and reopened in 1932 with Lillian Gish.

More markers nearby

• McClellan Opera House — steps away
• Georgetown Mining Region — steps away
• Berthoud Pass — 7.7 mi
• South Park — 21 mi