When Denver’s Five Points was the Harlem of the West, the Rossonian Hotel was an especially hot spot.
Opened in 1912, on a wedge of land where Welton Street meets Washington, it was a lavish, triangular-shaped accommodation first known as the Baxter. Then a group of Black entrepreneurs acquired the building in 1929, renamed it for one of their own — Mr. AHW Ross — and reopened the Rossonian as one of the rare places in highly segregated Denver where jazz luminaries could stay when they performed elsewhere in town. Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald all stayed there and played in the Rossonian Lounge, one of the hottest jazz clubs between St Louis and the coast.
The building’s starry brightness has dimmed since then, but the Rossonian Hotel still stands at the center of Five Points. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places, a testament to genius and grit in a time of adversity.
About Colorado Postcards
Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado.
