Day 245 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Employee Pumpkins

Here is the collection of 2011 Employee Pumpkin Carving entries for the Hotel Boulderado. Happy Halloween!

Day 244 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Bat with Cash Register

Watch out! This bat has claimed our antique cash register as his!

Day 243 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Pirate Skeleton

How suitable that this pirate skeleton is located right next to the lobby entrance to Catacomb's Bar, where he can find enough rum to quench his thirst and sing, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!"

Day 242 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Fraidy Cats

I'm not entirely sure what it was that made these "fraidy cats" so scared, if it was Helga the Mummy, Wolfgang the vampire, or maybe just a Housekeeper vacuuming the lobby.

Day 241 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Wolfgang the Vampire

Meet Wolfgang, the star-crossed lover of Helga the Mummy. Wolfgang is one of our oldest and dearest features in the Boulderado's haunted lobby, but he's ready to greet each and every guest at the Front Desk just as eagerly as if it were his first day.

Day 240 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Snake Gourd

I asked one of our Front Desk agents what his favorite lobby decoration was so far. He told me the gourd that looks like a snake. I found the one he was talking about, seen here.

Day 239 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Antique Photo of Old Courthouse

The Hotel Boulderado is just across the intersection from the Boulder County Courthouse. But before the current structure, there was another courthouse on the same site. The courthouse seen in this antique photo began construction in 1899 and was finished. Then in 1932, a fire caught in one of the towers and burned the building to the ground. The daughter of our then-owner/general manager, Betsy Mark, brought her whole class home from school with her that day to watch the event from the Boulderado's porch.

Day 238 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Owl on Mantle

HOOT HOOT! This owl is doing a great job watching the "haunted" lobby from her perch on our mantle above the fireplace.

Day 237 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Front Desk

Here is how our Front Desk has been decorated this year by Living Interiors.

Day 236 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Skeleton Bride Under Mezzanine Ceiling

Just love this photo showing off both our skeleton bride and the Mezzanine ceiling!

Day 235 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Crow and Pumpkin on Mantle

This is a close-up shot of a raven perched atop a pumpkin on our spooky mantle right now!

Day 234 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Behind the Mezz Bar

Thousands have been served from the bar on our Mezzanine, which has been in place since the late 1970s. But far fewer have ever been behind that bar. Here is the Boulderado Mezzanine as seen from the bartender's point of view.

Day 233 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Skeleton Bride on Staircase Landing

This is a new fixture in our haunted lobby this year. It references the fact that our staircases' landing is the site for our wedding ceremonies, but from the look of things, it appears this bride has been waiting a very, very, very long time for her groom to show up. (Someone should really ask her if her last name is Havisham.)

Day 232 of 365 Days of Boulderado ~ Skull Behind Front Desk

Someone here once told me this skull used to belong to a Hotel Boulderado employee who was late one too many times for his early-morning shift. I'm pretty sure he was just kidding, but I haven't been tardy since then.

Day 231 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Helga the Mummy

Meet Helga the Mummy! Helga has been a Halloween fixture in our lobby for years along with her star-crossed lover, Wolfgang, whom you will meet in a future post.

Day 230 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Columbine Room

It's getting to be that time of year when the conferences outnumber the weddings again. Here is our Columbine Room all ready for your next meeting!

Day 229 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Pumpkins and Gourds in Lobby

The collection of gourds and pumpkins in our lobby right now remind me of that coconut song from Monty Python. "I've got a lovely bunch of harvest gourds (diddeleedee), there they are just sitting by the desk . . . Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head!"

Day 228 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Concierge Desk

The Halloween decorations have even crossed behind the Concierge desk. (Or maybe that witch is ready to help with calling a taxi and scheduling dinner reservations . . .)

Day 227 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Detail of Halloween Front Desk

Check out the crazy cool details in the decorations our Front Desk is sporting right now!

Day 226 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Spooky Fall B Mantle

Check out the RAT that has taken up residence on our mantle for the rest of the month!

Day 225 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Regal Skeleton at Front Desk

HALLOWEEN IS COMING! HALLOWEEN IS COMING!
Halloween is totally my favorite holiday of the year. The lobby at the Boulderado always gets decked out with skeletons, witches, pumpkins, spiderwebs, and more as we get closer and closer to October 31st. This photo here is just a teaser of more to come, but I couldn't resist sharing this regally poised skeleton overseeing the Front Desk.

Day 224 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Boulderado Memorabilia in Gift Shop

Many guests love the Boulderado so much that when they stay here, they want to take home a small memorabilia item. We offer a wide variety in our gift shop, from coffee mugs to chocolates, from postcards to the official history book of the Boulderado, Legend of a Landmark.

Day 223 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ On the Other Side of the Desk

One big lesson I've learned while working on the 365 Days of Boulderado Photos series is that sometimes, a simple change of perspective can have dramatic results. Such is the case with our lobby, seen here from the "other" side of the Front Desk.

Day 222 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Inside Otis

Check out the view of our 1906 Otis elevator from the inside!

Day 221 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Corner Bar Menu

Friday afternoon . . . happy hour . . . time to check out the Corner Bar menu!

Day 220 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Plaza Arch

There's just something about this plant-strewn arch on our Plaza that makes me suspect it leads to the Secret Garden.

Day 219 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Football Pool

There are some odd things around the Hotel Boulderado that clue me in to certain pastimes. One is the football pool, seen here, that lives in our basement.

Day 218 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Cookbooks in Catering Kitchen

Only God and Chef Pete know what treasured secrets lay in the pages of the cookbooks in the catering kitchen.

Day 217 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Antique Photo of Broadway and Pearl

This is one of our antique photos that should look very familiar if you're acquainted with the downtown Boulder area. This is the intersection of Broadway and Pearl, circa early 1900s. The building on the left side of the road now houses Weekends and the Downtown Boulder Inc office, among others, and the building on the other side is now Lindsey's Deli/Haagen-Daaz.

Day 216 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Organic Apples for Family Weekend

We like to roll out special perks for special occasions. One such occasion is the University of Colorado's Family Weekend. We like to do the "A-B-C Treatment" for our guests; organic "A"pples at the Concierge desk, gold and black "B"alloons all over the lobby, and, of course, gold "C"andy at the Front Desk. I captured this shot of the apples at the Concierge Desk before they all got gobbled up.

Day 215 of 365 Days of Boulderado Photos ~ Exterior in October

Check out that beautiful blue sky! This is the Hotel Boulderado at the dawn of a new month, October. The leaves have been falling off our tree steadily, and the shadows are reaching farther than before.