Hotel St.Cloud
Canon City
631 Main Street, Historic Downtown Canon City
"Spooks"
Old article from Colorado State - CSU Pueblo Magazine
2003
By Anna Herman
If you visit southern Colorado to walk the wooden planks of the Royal Gorge Bridge or ride the scenic Royal Gorge Route Train, the St.
Cloud Hotel is the recommended hotel for you.
Located in Cañon City, the St. Cloud Hotel served as the headquarters for several movie-makers during the 1940ís and 1950ís. Scott Brady,
the star of the film Cañon City, lived at the hotel while filming the movie about the prison break of 1947. The hotel has also hosted other
famous guests including Burt Lancaster, Slim Pickins, and Charles Bronson.
The St. Cloud Hotel has experienced a complicated past. The hotel was originally built in Silver Cliff in Custer County and later moved brick
by brick to its present location. In the 1930s the hotel housed The Rambler Print Shop, which printed a small Ku Klux Klan newspaper.
Employees and guests will tell you that some of the rooms are haunted. The television in room 209 has a reputation of turning itself on and
off, and the spirit of a little girl is believed to wander the halls of the hotel in search of her mother, who stayed there after the little girl’s death.
Other strange phenomena have occurred at the hotel, such as when the former owners were renovating and painters found a large bubble
filled with water connected on the wall between two rooms.
The first thing front desk clerk Lawrence Blesi noticed when he began working at the hotel was the face of a young boy painted on the wall
outside the entry way to the St. Cloud Bar. "I was sitting at my desk my first night here, and I glanced over and saw him staring back at me. I
don’t know if the lady who painted the hallway intentionally blended him in with her work, but he is definitely there."
The lobby to the St. Cloud is a cozy gathering place for guests. A fireplace keeps guests sitting on the antique chairs and couches warm in
the chilly winter months. There is also a grand piano situated in the lobby for guests to play and enjoy.
The hotel serves as a combination hotel and apartment house. The rooms on the fourth floor have been converted into apartments, while
the bottom three floors remain hotel rooms. There are 35 units, which provide a variety of single room and suite accommodations. Individual
and unique artwork decorates the hotel room walls. Each room comes with a private bath and wooden vanity. The honeymoon suite is
connected to the hotel’s veranda, which overlooks Cañon City’s main street. The oldest operating elevator in Colorado takes guests from
floor to floor.
The hotel features a dining room, coffee house, and lounge all available for guests to use. The dining room can be transformed into a
banquet hall for weddings and community gatherings. The owners plan to re-open The St. Cloud Bar and Grill in the summer of 2003. The
St. Cloud also welcomes guests traveling with pets.
Source: http://chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/magazine/2003/spooks1.html
by Anna Herman
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