Did you know that CU students used to live at the Boulderado? Back in the '60s, the University of Colorado experienced such a rise in registration that they ran out of housing. Administrators turned to the Boulderado for the extra rooms they needed, and students became residents for the duration of their school year. The following was taken directly from a transcript of an oral history taken from Ed Howard, who owned and operated the Boulderado from 1961 to 1967
"There was one more interesting chapter in that hotel in ’60. The university was just absolutely out of bedrooms, and they leased that for thirty women – girls – students. They lived throughout the hotel in different rooms and the manager told me he had the darndest time keeping the male students outta there, ‘cause they would come up the side of the hotel, onto the restaurant roof, up into the fire escape and into the hotel, and they knew where they were headed, and he said they were always in there. I didn’t get them back the following fall. They put those girls somewhere else. I took in boys in ’63, took in about thirty young men, and it didn’t work very good. Course boys aren’t worth a darn trying to cook a meal, and living in a hotel they had to eat every meal out, which was expected. So they gradually moved out during the school term, a few lasted until the end." (To read Ed's transcript, visit the 100 Year Anniversary page on our website.)
June Howard, Ed's wife, sent this photo of the girls who lived in the hotel during school. Wonder where they are today . . .
