In the last two weeks, many residents and visitors in Glenwood Springs have noticed a change in the name of one of downtown’s most well-known destinations.  

Hotel Denver officially changed the lettering on the top of its building to read “Maxwell Anderson” on March 21.  

The change is reflective of the $5 million in renovations the hotel has been undergoing since March 2023, mainly focused on functionality and operations. 

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In response to community criticisms over some of the changes, Dual General Manager Roger Smith emphasized the hotel’s efforts to maintain and preserve many of the historical elements of the building. 

Why did Hotel Denver change its name?

The name change has been a culmination of several different conversations about the hotel’s relationship with the community, according to Smith. 

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One of the more practical reasons for the name change comes from frequent mix-ups between the name “Hotel Denver” and Hotel Colorado, both of which have been in Glenwood Springs for a very long time. 

“Even some locals get confused,” Smith said. “My own friends included will go over to the Hotel Colorado looking to say hello to me, not realizing I’m at the Hotel Denver … the confusion goes all the way to our guests.” 

Smith also said he’s had people call the hotel from Denver, not knowing that they were still three hours from their destination.

“They fly into Denver, and they say, ‘Well, I’m in the Denver airport, how do I get to your hotel?’ And then they get mad and say, ‘What do you mean Glenwood Springs is three hours away?'” he said. 

But why the name Hotel Maxwell Anderson? 

“The inspiration behind it is a fictional railroad conductor named Maxwell Anderson,” said Amanda Drontle, area director of sales under Evolution Hospitality. “It is inspired by the storied history of our area.” 

Drontle explained that they’re not the first to create a fictional character for their hotel, and said the approach would help honor the railroad’s historical role in Glenwood Springs without basing it off a real person who may have had a “nuanced” past. 

“We’re not the first to think of it, but it’s the best way we found to embody the story of our West,” Drontle said. “(The story) is a railroad worker who came and stayed here and what that looked like in the early 1900s.” 

Both Smith and Drontle have their own stories of arriving in Glenwood Springs through its railroad several years ago, which is why the fictional train conductor’s story still contains a ring of truth to them. 

“We each have these stories of coming on the railroad as our best passage here and I think for us as people … that’s the best embodiment I can think of,” Drontle said. 

In terms of the name Maxwell Anderson, Smith said, “We wanted something familiar to Tony, familiar to us, and we really wanted something that kind of stands out.” 

Tony Sherman, owner of Terrapin Investments and co-owner of the hotel, has two children named Max and Anderson respectively, though Smith did not specify whether there was a correlation between their names and Hotel Maxwell Anderson. 

The history of Hotel Denver’s name 

The hotel is made up of seven different buildings merged together to create the Hotel Maxwell Anderson, which throughout the years have borne the names Star Hotel, Rex Hotel, the Denver House, the Denver Rooms, among others.

“The Hotel Denver is actually the fifth name in this building’s history. And while it has been around for about 100 years, it’s not the original name because there’s really no original name,” Smith said. 

The rooms that would eventually become the first part of Hotel Denver were a combination of two properties on Seventh Street: the Denver House founded in 1905, and the Star Hotel which opened in 1915.

Art and Mary Kendrick, owners of the Denver Rooms, acquired adjacent properties at the west end of the block for further expansion, and in 1913 the three-story brick remodel was completed. A man named Henry Bosco also acquired two more lots and began construction of The Star Hotel, which opened in 1915. Art Kendrick later bought the remaining lot to the west and Bosco expanded to the east, and by 1938 the two hotels became one and adopted the name “Hotel Denver.”

Plaques identifying the original parts and names of the once-divided buildings line the outside of the hotel. 

“We want to hold on to the history,” Smith said. “The Hotel Denver, while it has existed for a long time, we’re not trying to erase its history at all. All we’re doing is adding a new chapter to this building’s history.” 

What visitors can expect from the new Hotel Maxwell Anderson

“I first met Tony (Sherman) in September of 2021,” Smith said. “We were talking about the hotel and what it needed because he was going to buy it. What I wanted to see is… where we wanted to be in the next five, 10, 15 years, and what kind of product we’re going to offer to the clientele.” 

The hotel’s previous owners had filled the building’s interior with antique furniture that had been collected from different places over the years, meaning no two rooms looked the same. The original furniture stayed in the hotel for around 30 years until some began to break from years of use, according to Smith. 

“We had a lot of antiques, all the rooms had antiques everywhere; which, while (they) looked absolutely beautiful, unfortunately were falling apart,” Smith said. “(The old owners) would go around buying antiques all over the country.” 

Smith explained that the decision to replace the furniture was based on safety and liability concerns, rather than a style redirection. However, they still took the opportunity to envision how new furniture could add to the existing charm of the hotel. 

Rooms now display matching furniture, which according to Roger gives them a more consistent look. The building and its rooms, however, will still have vintage art pieces and photographs from the original design sprinkled throughout. 

Perhaps the biggest change is the addition of 17 new rooms in the hotel, which sit in what used to be underutilized meeting space. Drontle said the 90 total rooms will help more people stay in their hotel, as weekends are almost always fully booked. 

“It went from meeting space that was kind of sitting empty, to, we can house more people and show more people Glenwood,” Drontle said. 

The hotel’s lobby and entrance also received major upgrades; the atrium was given new wallpaper and expanded to fill underutilized space, and even added a cozy fireplace to the back wall, which Smith said would create a more welcoming environment for the different coffee groups and book clubs that use the space as a meeting area. 

“It had iron furniture, (not) very comfy and inviting for guests,” Drontle said. 

Right in the center of one of the lobby’s walls, for all to see, hangs the original Hotel Denver sign from the 1930s, which Smith said “is going nowhere.” The “Hotel Denver” sign that was removed from the top of the building was not the original. 

“When the seven buildings came together to be the Hotel Denver, that was the original sign. The sign that we took down a few weeks ago that caused all the uproar was … plastic from the 80s and 90s, and very broken,” Smith said. 

Three of the hotel’s four elevators were also replaced during the renovations, as well as the fire alarms and two sections of the roof that were leaking into the rooms, according to Smith. The bathrooms’ pink and green tiles were also swapped out for white tiles, giving them a more luxurious look. 

“We’ve updated all the furniture and all the rooms, all the linens, towels, everything is much higher quality,” Smith said. 

Smith said that he and the hotel staff have received angry comments from Glenwood Springs residents who are upset about the changes, many of which may not have the full picture of what Hotel Maxwell Anderson really is. 

“My staff has received a lot of abuse of people coming in and actually yelling,” Smith said. “I’m happy to meet with people and show them and walk them around. I want people to understand why this is a great thing, and I really want to do that without the hostility.” 

Smith said he anticipates the renovations will be fully completed by the beginning of June. Renovations have not impacted the hotel’s tenants, like the Glenwood Canyon Brewpub, Wild Coffee and Mona Lisa Unique Boutique, which are their own separate businesses.