narrator: in this episodeof colorado experience, we'll hear a story of amysterious frenchman who is a master of second chances. hi, i'm john ferrugia. louis dupuy was aseminary dropout turned newspaperreporter, who became the proprietor ofone of the finest establishmentsin colorado. he opened the hotel de parishotel amidst a mining boom that nearly killed him.
and left a legacy ingeorgetown that todaylets you step back in time to the days when silver kings and queensreigned in colorado. and now, colorado experience: hotel de paris convery: the hotel deparis was a destination. it was designed tocatch your breath. rutherford: we had thislittle bit of france in the middle ofthe rocky mountains. kuharic: it was thebest of the best. the west has alwaysbeen a place where
you would either try to loseyourself or find yourself. louis dupuy walksa fine line when it comes to tellingwho he is and who he wants you to think he is. clark: he was verymysterious and everybody likes a good mystery. broadcaster: this program wasfunded by the history colorado state historical fund. narrator: supportingprojects throughout the state
to preserve, protect,and interpret colorado's architectural andarchaeological treasures. history coloradostate historical fund. create the future,honor the past. broadcaster: with supportfrom the denver public library history colorado. with additional fundingand support from these fine organizations andviewers like you. thank you.
[music playing] narrator: gold was discoveredin the rocky mountains in 1859. and once word got out, pioneerspacked up their belongings and hit the trail makingtheir way west with their eyes on the prize. mining town, such as bonanza,creed, and georgetown hopped up across thestate of colorado and soon became booming,bustling hubs of activity. as georgetown's populationgrew, the need for refinement
became apparent. and a mysterious frenchmancreated a sanctuary for weary prospectors, travelingsalesman, and intellectuals in the heart of the wild west. 30 years earlier,adolphe francois gerard was born to two innkeepersin alencon, france. and here, begins our story. kuharic: adolphefrancois gerard is raised by his stepfather andhis mother, who at the age of 15
send him away toa nearby seminary run by the catholic church. at the age of 19,he was in a mass. and he was giventhe communion wafer. he chews it anddecides to spit it out onto the floor of the church. convery: gerard droppedout of seminary or perhaps was expelled. kuharic: he then goesto paris, france.
and he gets a job as adishwasher in a hotel. when he turns 22,he decides that he will come to the united states. he sails across the atlantic. convery: and movedto new york city to become a translatorand a newspaper reporter, but that fell apart. and so, he joined the army. kuharic: he's first sentout to fort riley, kansas.
and then, further on into thewyoming territory to cheyenne. convery: and allegedly,deserted from the army. kuharic: this is when he takes nthe name louis dupuy, the name of a french philosopher. narrator: with a new nameand another new career, writing for therocky mountain news, louis dupuy set offfor the mountains. like many coloradoadventures before and after, he cast his troubled past aside.
building up a new identity witheach new step and each word he wrote for thenewspaper until one day we came across the greatestsilver camp in colorado. kuharic: the west hasalways been a place where you would either try tolose yourself or find yourself. convery: ultimately, dupuybecame a wage earning miner. made his living deep undergroundwrestling silver from the rock and from the mountain. kuharic: he and his partnerwere working in the mine.
two shots of dynamite are set. one fires and one does not. louis realizes that theshot is about to fire, so he shouts out a warning. [explosion] shot fires. and he's seriously injured. in fact, nearly killed. narrator: accordingto the colorado miner,
louis accident left himmangled in a most cruel manner. and after 2 and 1/2years of self-reflection and recuperationunder the loving care of georgetown's nuns, louiswas eager to take advantage of a second chance at life. dallas: the public raisedmoney so that he could acquire the del monaco bakery. clark: and hedecided that he would build a littlesouvenir of his home
in alencon, france inthe rocky mountains. kuharic: in 1875, when louisdupuy opens hotel de paris, the population ofgeorgetown was 3,500 people. it would eventuallyclimb to 5,000. and local boosters had theireye on being the state capital. kuharic: imagine if youwill, coming to georgetown before the railroadarrives on a stagecoach over these backbreakingrocky mountain trails. you arrive in georgetown.
dust yourself off. and right away, you are in theheight of elegance and luxury. kuharic: it would belike a fantasy land. dallas: the hotel is designedas a french country inn. convery: dupuy startedwith one simple building. but as time went on, headded on to the hotel. kuharic: an addition isput off the back. that is the commercial kitchen. in 1882, there was a west wing.
in 1889, an east wing. convery: and added them intoone big monumental building. kuharic: what he ended up withwas a facade that looked like three different buildings. and he hated it. and so, he put stuccoover the whole thing. has it scored to looklike blocks of stone. adds a marquee at the topthat says hotel de paris. and then, his own nameover the dining room door,
so you know whothe proprietor is. convery: and that'sjust the outside. once you come inside, there'sa large sumptuous dining room. kuharic: one of the primaryfeatures of the dining room is the striped floor. it is made of silvermaple and black walnut. primus: and it was very muchlike a country inn in france, where there would be a fewrooms to rent if people had come from a long ways.
he is charging $4.00 a night,which is an outrageous figure for our town. dallas: in the earlyhotels, you rented a bed. you might not havethat bed to yourself. you very often sleptwith someone else. kuharic: so it was basicallyyour pillow right. rutherford: this place wasway ahead of its time. a boiler, steamheat, running water. absolutely amazing.
kuharic: hotel de paris hadflushing toilets by 1889. clark: every room hada sink with faucets. and they had hot andcold running water. we had gaslight until wegot electricity in 1893. convery: you're supposed to be na rough and rugged mining camp. and suddenly, youfind yourself in what would be a respectablehotel in paris. dallas: whatdistinguished the hotel de paris was its restaurant.
primus: the focuswas on the restaurant and on his wonderfulfrench cooking. louis was often standing atthe door greeting people. and bringing theminto the dining room. or giving them aroom for the night. he would be dressed in a tuxedogreeting people at the door. and then, he woulddisappear in the kitchen. and he would put on anapron and a chef's hat. and he would comeback and he said, now,
you will meet your chef. kuharic: you couldorder something as simple as cold cuts and a beeror something as extravagant as raw oysters, pheasant,and champagne. rutherford: a lot ofwild game meat. buffalo and elk and venison. dallas: rocky mountain trout. he had a fountainin the dining room. and he would pluckthe trout out.
and you can selectyour own trout. and then, he would fixit for you for dinner. kuharic: they would have acrisp white linen tablecloth under french importedhaviland china from limoges, france. clark: the winethat louis served had to be a big deal,especially in our small town. kuharic: they would bedrinking french champagne. they would be drinkingcalifornia clarets.
they would have whiskey, portwine, and beer available. louis was also famous for hiscoffee, tea, and hot chocolate. but in particular, he wasknown for his fine wine cellar. clark: one of the thingsthat louis dupuy offered was oysters on the half shell. and i think we all know that,that is a tricky business. convery: oysters, raw oysters,fried oysters, canned oysters, fresh oysters. how did they get oystersinto the rocky mountains?
dallas: oysters were verypopular all over america. and so, when people camewest, they expected oysters. convery: and forsomebody like dupuy to have oysters onthe menu was a sign of how civilized you were. kuharic: after 1877 when thetrain connects us tothe marketplace, we're able to getoysters from the gulf. convery: which they werepacked with ice and salt. clark: and peoplewere hired on the train
to throw corn meal intothe barrels of oysters, so that they would be kept aliveall the way to our mountain town. convery: and it musthave been something if you were from theeast coast to come into a hotel inthe rocky mountains and find freshoysters on the menu. kuharic: hotel de pariswas a site where a lot of traveling salesmanwould come through.
louis dupuy was smartabout driving business through this hotel, so hebuilt three salesman show rooms or sample rooms. convery: where salesman couldcome and set up their wares. and actually sell theirgoods out of the hotel. kuharic: you could havewomen's hats, statuary tools. primus: and there wasa manufacturer of soaps. and one of riding instruments,pins, and things like that. mining supplies.
rutherford: fabrics. threads, of course. silverware. primus: and one of themore interesting one was a representative ofthe heinz pickle company. kuharic: the salesman werealso a source of news. so people wouldrely on the salesman to find out sort of whatwas going on in the world. convery: if you wenton the tour-- what
was called theswitzerland of america-- you would inevitably findyour way to georgetown and to the hotel de paris. dallas: everybodywanted to see colorado. primus: there were someguests from england, ireland, scotland. there werescandinavian countries. russia. some far flung places,like constantinople.
oh. australia. convery: railroad men. people like jay gould,the railroad titan of the 19th century. the men who collectedrailroads like other people collected baseballtrading cards. opera singers. vaudevillians.
dancers. performers. would all come to thehotel de paris as well. dallas: and there were alot of investors who came. people who wantedto see the west. writers and newspaper men. kuharic: william henry jackson shired by the federal government to go into the westand take pictures of the developing andthe untouched west.
jackson was a guest here. primus: lena stoiber. she was a mining engineer. she was marriedto edward stoiber. and they actuallyvisited the hotel on their honeymoon ontheir way to silverton, where they made their home. convery: isabella bird,an english traveler who traveled throughcolorado in the 1870s,
came up to georgetownas a tourist. and she stayed atthe hotel de paris. and she said that georgetown wasthe only community in the rocky mountains that she couldactually label with the term picturesque. kuharic: dr. james russellcame to hotel de paris. he visited quite abit with louis dupuy. and he found louis tobe a bit irascible, but they grew on each other.
clark: and they discussedthe art of healthy eating. dr. russell felt that louishad some really good ideas about health. kuharic: he ate healthy and hewent to the gym almost daily. he liked the punchingbag in particular. as part of louisdupuy health regimen, he took an ice cold bath daily. clark: he broughtthat idea from france, where he thought that was a verygood way to stimulate the body.
kuharic: dr. jamesrussell developed a course on domestic scienceat columbia university based on his visit at hotel de paris. and it became home economicsas we know it today. clark: in the boom time,louis put on a big dinner in the dining room. he invited a lot ofvery prominent people, like mr. loveland,mr. berthoud, and he has a wonderful speech.
he wanted to be rememberedfor this little souvenir of his hometown in the alencon. the housekeeper,sophie gally, was kind of a mysteriousperson in her own right. kuharic: she was afriend, a confidant, and trusted employee. rutherford: she had her ownprivate room upstairs right at the head of the stairs. convery: she took care of guest.
she took care of the rooms. clark: and she liked to sit infront of the hotel, in the sun. convery: and she was in herway kind of mysterious, but like dupuy, verybeloved in the community. clark: louis dupuy had someother help running his hotel. there was quite afew chinese people that came with the railroad. kuharic: we know from the1885 colorado census that one of the employeesat hotel de paris
was a chinese man weknow as john touk. he was working as a gardenerat hotel de paris, growing leafy greens like shard andspinach for the restaurant-- also herbs. he grew flowers, suchas roses and sunflowers for the dining roomtables and for the rooms if a lady stayed here. during the winter, which isquite long in georgetown, he would have been helpingwith just basic duties,
like chopping wood forthe stoves in the kitchen. stoking the boilerwith the coal. plucking chickensand helping to cook. unlike the other chinesemen living in georgetown, john had a roof over hishead, food in his belly, and money in his pocket. louis dupuy was known asthe mysterious frenchman. clark: and everybodylikes a good mystery. rutherford: he had alittle mustache.
he had a fairlydecent head of hair. of course, everybody thathad any wealth at all always appeared properly clothedin a suit, and tie, and vest. and never wentout without a hat. clark: the newspaperwas obviously full of stories about louis dupuy. the mcclellan operahouse burned down in 1892, which wasone building over. as the fire laddies,as they were
called-- the firehouseboys were putting out the fire of the mcclellanhouse, louis dupuy was standing at the door ofthe hotel holding a shotgun. and he was saying, ifany of the fire laddies come into my hotel totake out my furniture, i will shoot them. and then, after this wasover and the fire was gone, he invited all ofthe firemen back into the hotel for free drinks.
convery: dupuy wasextremely well-read. the best french philosophersand political thinkers and he read them all. clark: he had over 2,500books on the property, both in french and english. and they are wellmarked and read. kuharic: at one timeconsidered the finest library in the state of colorado. clark: one of thethings that he liked to do
was to sit in his studywith special guests. and have brandy andcigars after dinner and discuss theworld's situation. convery: getting this invitationinto his inner sanctum was an education inphilosophy, and politics, and radical political thought. and in a way, that was almostunique in the rocky mountains. kuharic: louis dupuy wasknown as a lone wolf and also as aplayboy about town.
dallas: he was in lovewith a local woman, who did not return his affections. kuharic: he proposedonce to a young lady we know as eda bryant. eda said no, becauseshe was significantly younger than louis. dallas: and shemarried someone else. some years ago, someoneremoved a mirror in louis' quarters.
and behind the mirrorwas a piece of paper on which he had written afantasy about this young woman. my mother-in-law wasasked to translate this, which was written in french. i asked her what was in it. and she said, i believe i'lllet louis keep that secret. kuharic: the belief ishe was so heartbroken, he never proposedmarriage again. so instead of havingone young pretty wife,
he decides that he'llhave many girlfriends. so he was known to dateyoung women, married ladies. and he was also a bigcustomer of the brothels. clark: the newspaper oftengave louis a bad reputation, saying that he did not carefor women in his property. however, the registers showthat many women stayed here. primus: he welcomedladies who came as tourists. and they were welcome tostay here at the hotel. there was no doubt about it.
clark: in fact, when awoman stayed in the hotel, louis would put freshflowers in the room to let her know she was welcome. kuharic we know that he lovedwomen and had many girlfriends over the years. we know that heproposed marriage and that he desired a family. he still is knownas a misogynist. but we who study him,feel that, that is untrue.
dallas: louis livedlife to the fullest. and he also diedwith a certain flair. he was used to takingice cold baths and he caught pneumonia. kuharic: when he wasrecovering from pneumonia-- clark: the doctor said,for goodness sake, louis. do not take an ice bath. and of course, he didn't listento that and took an ice bath. dallas: when theend was near, he
called for two bottlesof his finest champagne. kuharic: sophie, bringme cold champagne. dallas: and he drankthem and he died. clark: that wasthe end of louis. convery: as dupuy faded, so didthe prospects of a community like georgetown. the leadville strike of 1880was really the beginning of the end for georgetown. narrator: when louis passed,he left his hotel, his ranch,
all of his belongings to hisdear friend, sophie gally. though louis referred to auntsophie as a guest, in reality she was his closestfriend, his only family. kuharic: over night sophiegoes from house keeper to proprietor. clark: now, shedid not know english. she was totally alone. kuharic: she did nothave the skills to sign a guest into the guestregister, calculate a bill,
and make change. or even sign for a delivery. clark: i can imagineher fear and her anxiety that her one mentor and her onerelative and friend in america had passed away. convery: sophie tragically onlylived a few months after dupuy. kuharic: when she dies,she is buried with louis. and on their gravemarker is a motif that is a bird's nestwith two little birds.
and it reads, deux bon ami,which translates from french as two good friends. clark: all of asudden georgetown is faced with findingrelatives of sophie gally. kuharic: so fairlyquick, hotel de paris was leased in 1901 toa local family known as the burkholders. james burkholder and his wifesarah harrison burkholder. narrator: the repeal ofthe sherman silver purchase
act in 1893 led to adrop in silver's value and a corresponding dipin visitors to georgetown. overnight the oncebooming silver city saw its population cut in half. convery: the burkholderscontinue to operate the hotel. first, as a fairly fine hotel. kuharic: they kept onwith the french cuisine and the french flair. i think the idea was to maintainthe clientele that louis
dupuy had built. but thenwhen the private automobile comes to the mountains,americans just want to get totheir destination. georgetown is nolonger the destination. it becomes a pass through town. convery: the burkholders adjust to the changingcircumstances of georgetown. so it continued to operate,but i would say nowhere at the level of classor financial success
that it had when dupuy hadbeen in charge during the glory days of georgetown. narrator: duringthe 1940s, the hotel morphed into a boardinghouse in an effort to keep the business alive. but by 1949, the writing wason the beautifully wallpapered walls. and it was time forthe national society of the colonial dames ofamerica in the state of colorado
to step in. convery: the colonial dames begnoperating the hotel de paris in 1954. and they convertedit into a museum to talk about the glorydays of georgetown and of silver mining. kuharic: i think it was one of efirst times georgetown realized that it was a historiccommunity and it could draw history lovershere through heritage tourism.
clark: the dames hadopened it all summer long every year from 1954. rutherford: costumeswere provided for us. long skirts, brownwith overlay aprons. long sleeves, a lace collar. and a little chapeau hat. we served coffee and croissants. we had a french baker thatcame just on weekends. convery: they restored therooms back to their look
and appearance inthe 1870s and 1880s when this was sort oflouis dupuy's hotel. clark: and there was alot of restoration to do. my mother got involved. one of her bigjobs was to repair certain parts of the hotel,which were in danger. so the restoration preservationstarted in the early 1970s. convery: they kept thisplace from falling down. they made sure thatthe roof was good
and that repairs took place. and that they kept up with themaintenance of the building, so that the harshwinters in georgetown wouldn't pull thisbuilding apart. dallas: one of the greatthings about the hotel is that it simplyclosed its doors. when the colonial dames acquiredit, the furniture was here. the decor was here. the kitchen was here.
and so, this is the real thing. rutherford: we've triedvaliantly to keep the look of the19th century alive, because it was an importantpart of our history. without the silver andgold, where would we be? narrator: frenchlouis was a pioneer. one who brought sophisticationto a booming mining town at a time when whiskeycured colds and a hot bath was hard to find.
preserved today as a museum anda sight of the national trust for historic preservation,the hotel de paris remains a treasure ingeorgetown's historic district and continues to tell the taleof the mysterious frenchman. convery: this was the place tosee and be seen in georgetown. and the fact that asa 21st century visitor you can drive up to georgetown,you can come into the hotel de paris, and you cansee the old world elegance that louis dupuy wantedhis visitors to experience,
it's kind of a form ofvicarious time travel. dallas: the hotel gave thetown a feeling of gentility, of elegance. it made it a little moresophisticated than some of the neighboring towns. clark: it tells a story ofthe west and of our country. and how different parts of itcame to be and were successful. convery: louis dupuyand sophie gally created a sense ofrespectability, of refinement,
of luxury and civilization,which set georgetown apart from any other mining community. georgetown wouldn'tbe georgetown today without the hotel de paris. this is an artifact anda relic of georgetown in its silver mining heyday. this was a place wheremillions of dollars were produced everyyear, literally wrestled out of the ground.
but it was also a place topursue an intellectual life. louis dupuy hadworked as a miner. he had worked as a journalist. but he alsounderstood that people did that work, so that theycould live a rich life. rutherford: the main lesson youcan learn from louis dupuy is that you can do anythingif you work hard enough at it. that your dreams canbe realized if you have the fortitude,and the knowledge,
and the interest, and the love. kuharic: his story is reallyone of human foibles. the legacy of louis dupuywould be the ability to change direction in life. i think his is a storyof second chances. rutherford: this buildingis really his monument. kuharic: hotel deparis is considered the most completehistoric parcel and with that comes alot of responsibility.
clark: and i think tohave a standing hotel that is a little piece of historylooking just as it was in 1900 is going to bean outstanding legacy for the future forpeople to see and realize that this was an importanttime in our country. rutherford: people in the west einclined to fabricate history, because it's glamorous. but we didn't need to here. kuharic: it is the real thing.
clark: it was a very proudera for georgetown, colorado. we need to keep that heritage. convery: by preservingthe hotel de paris, we remember that richness. we remember why it is westruggled through our own lives today.
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