The Oxford Hotel

I took the above photograph of the entrance to the Oxford Hotel in Lower Downtown Denver this past Friday night while taking photos of the downtown Christmas lights. The Oxford was built in 1891, just down the street from Union Station. The architect was Frank Edbrook, who one year later designed the more famous Brown Place Hotel. Lower Downtown became a very iffy area in the 1950s. The official hotel website says that the Oxford was a "bastion of respectability in a declining lower downtown" during this period, while Wikipedia  says the place was known as a flophouse. Regardless, it was restored to it's former glory back in the 1980s, which means that these days you should probably avoid staying at the place unless you are on an expense account. Most importantly, the Oxford is home to The Cruise Room, an Art Deco bar and landmark modeled after a lounge on the RMS Queen Mary. It has been a bar since the hotel opened back in 1891, but officially reopened to the public the day after prohibition ended. Before that, according to Wikipedia, it was an illegal speakeasy. Amazingly, the official hotel website says nothing about this. Big surprise.