A family trying to make ends meet during tough times opened a two-bedroom building on West Colfax Avenue in the 1940s as a stopping point for vacationers heading West.
Now that original part of the Estes Motel, which hasn’t been open for 20 years, will become a monument to Lakewood’s history at the Lakewood Heritage Center’s 20th Century Museum.
The building was loaded on a flatbed trailer Thursday and is scheduled to be hauled today from Colfax Avenue and Kipling Street to Wadsworth Boulevard and Ohio Avenue.
“These two rooms are in such good shape, it’s a time capsule,” said Andrea Miller, the heritage center’s administrator.
The original building also has an attached carport.
Other parts of the motel, which were added years afterward, will be left behind because of deterioration and lack of resources to restore them. They will be torn down.
Michael Bettmann bought the property three years ago, planning to redevelop the area and expand his framing and art-restoration businesses.
“Instead of taking a bulldozer to it, I thought this piece of property has always been there so I offered it to the museum,” Bettmann said.
Bettmann said he plans to keep Colfax history in mind when building.
“We intend to use an old neon sign from the Colorado Historical Society that was really used in the 1950s,” Bettmann said. “We want to restore a little of the old Colfax flavor.”
After some restoration work, Miller said, the original hotel will be placed at the heritage center’s Colfax Hub, next to Ethel’s Beauty Salon and 88 Variety Store.
The exterior restoration will be complete before the end of this year, but funding for some indoor restoration is pending.
The Colfax Hub is one of four parts of the museum. Its focus is on the 1930s through the 1960s, including the important role of tourism.
By the time the Estes Motel opened, West Colfax was already rapidly developing as a “Gateway to the Rockies,” Miller said.
Buses had been introduced in 1928 and the road had just been widened to make Colfax Avenue into U.S. 40, so the road was cluttered with motels and diners.
“Most of the motels now are extended-stay motels that are still there,” Miller said.
The hotel is a unique example of a family-owned startup business, she said.
“It’s a significant addition,” Miller said, “Especially for the Colfax Hub, which is not as developed as other parts of the museum.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
