The Broadmoor Hotel turns 100 this month, having opened for guests June 29, 1918. The resort was built by businessman Spencer Penrose, who spared no expense in creating what he hoped would be one of the grandest hotels in the world. Construction alone cost $2 million, with another million spent on furniture and interior decorating, a fortune at the time.
Leah Davis Witherow, curator of history at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, talked to Colorado Matters about how the Broadmoor maintained its posh reputation over the years. The Colorado Springs icon survived Prohibition and the Great Depression. Penrose even stashed bottles of booze and purchased boxcars of liquor for his guests. Billionaire Philip Anschutz now owns the Broadmoor after purchasing it in 2011.
