"I would not be living in Boulder, Colorado if it weren't for my grandparents, Bella and Burl Boykin. Sometime, I think it was the summer of 1914, my grandmother almost died from asthma. They lived in Beaumont, Texas. My grandmother did survive and my grandfather said that he was going to find a place for them to go to because he was not going to lose her to something that could possibly be prevented.
My grandfather did a lot of research and found that Boulder was the place to come, and the Hotel Boulderado was the place to stay. The first summer that they came it took them ten days by car. I have the journal that they kept. It went like this: 'Follow the white picket fence until you see the big oak tree, turn right and go across the field. If it has been raining, stop and put chains on the tires or you won't make it across the field.'
They soon learned about Chautauqua Park and went daily up to the park by the 9th Street cable car. The following summer they rented a floor of one of the lodges at Chautauqua Park. They used to bring nieces and nephews with them. Then they bought a cottage, #316. It was a small cottage with a center room, one bath, a kitchen and a sleeping porch around the outside of the cottage. In the summer of 1924, my grandfather said that he would not be coming again, unless he tore down the existing cottage and built a new one -- one with bedrooms. He was tired of sleeping on the porch with all of the kids, nieces and nephews. So . . . in the winter of 1924-25, a new cottage was built and everyone continued to come.
After my grandparents died, my mother inherited the cottage and I spent every summer of my life there. We would come to Chautauqua the moment school was out and not return to Texas until the weekend before Labor Day. In 1993, I got my divorce and the cabin was empty. My eight-year-old son and I came to Boulder and lived in cottage #316 for the next nine years. What a gift my grandparents gave me!
Thank you Hotel Boulderado for being the starting point of my journey to Boulder.
Fast forward a number of years, cottage #316 was chosen to be on the 2000 Historic Christmas Tour while I was living there with my son. Because the tour starts early and ends late, you are given a room at a hotel for the one night in-between the two days of the tour. And WOW, a suite at the Hotel Boulderado for myself and my son. Could it be any more appropriate?"
-- Bella Weber
Boulder, Colorado
**Favorite Story ~ May 2008** "With the privilege of years, I have three special memories of visits to the Boulderado:
In 1927 I recall one of my very first 'dinners out' was at the Boulderado grand dining room with visiting family from Texas.
On September 1, 1942 about 8:00pm, in a borrowed car, I arrived with my bride to enjoy our 'wedding night' and being very flustered, I signed in as Lt. David Rainey and wife, while the rice kept falling out of suitcases.
Then in May 2005, our dear children rented a wonderful top floor room for the celebration of my 85th birthday.
To us, the Boulderado will always be a place for special celebrations." --David A. Rainey
Buffalo Creek, Colorado |
