Hotel de Paris Museum

Hotel de Paris Museum, a National Trust Historic Site

The Hotel de Paris Museum in Georgetown, Colorado, is the newest National Trust Historic Site. Photo by Thad Roan. Learn More

Dining Room in the Hotel de Paris Museum

The Hotel de Paris Museum preserves the dining room, sales rooms, kitchen, office, and bedrooms to the 1890s. Photo by Synergy Photographics. Learn More

Christmas at the Hotel de Paris Museum

Christmas is celebrated at the Hotel de Paris Museum and Georgetown, Colorado with street markets featuring food, crafts, and gifts. Photo by Syngergy Photographics. Learn More

Prior to the Leadville strike of 1878, the Georgetown region was the most important source of silver in Colorado and briefly attracted so many residents that it was one of the most populous cities in the state. The initial boom period dates from the discovery of gold in 1859 but quickly shifted to silver. Because the wealth of the mining district was centered in Georgetown, the architecture reflects the attempt by families to reproduce the lifestyle of their more established home states and includes a rich variety of substantial late Victorian-era buildings. The repeal of the Sherman Act in 1893 led to a collapse of silver prices and brought a cataclysmic end to the boom.

The Hotel de Paris was in the midst of this mining frontier while operating as a hotel, boarding house, residence, restaurant, and showroom for traveling salesmen from the 1870s to the 1930s. Louis Dupuy, a French immigrant, established the Hotel in 1875 and enlarged it to its present appearance by 1893. In 1903, Sarah Burkholder acquired the Hotel and it was operated by her and her daughter Hazel McAdams as a boarding house until 1939. It was acquired by the Colonial Dames of Colorado in 1954 as a historic preservation project and restored to its 1890s appearance as a historic site museum.

The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Colorado owns and operates the Hotel de Paris Museum.