1950s Era Grand Junction,Colorado La Court Hotel letterhead / stationery-VINTAGE

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1950s Era Grand Junction,Colorado La Court Hotel letterhead / stationery-VINTAGE:
$9.99

IMPORTANT! Please read the ENTIRE description below and scroll down to see ALL of the pictures with this listing BEFORE offerding as we DO NOT accept returns. We meticulously describe every item to avoid confusion. Ask questions BEFORE offerding. Thank you. 1950s Era Grand Junction,Colorado La Court Hotel letterhead / stationery-VINTAGE a.imagelink {color:#8c3709;} a:hover.imagelink {color:#8c3709;} a:visited.imagelink {color:#453c45;} a.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #8c3709; } a:visited.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #453c45; }
DescriptionCheck it out...Here\'s a Unique ORIGINAL 10 1/4\" tall by 7 1/4\" wide 1950s Era hotel stationery letterhead from a historic hotel in Grand JUnction, Colorado- The colorful letterhead pictures the iconic doof the the hotel\'s bar known as \"The Tavern\" at top and reads: \"LaCourt Hotel and Motor Lodge Grand Junction, Colorado Swim Heated- Filtered Pool. Famed for Fine Food.\" at bottom -The item has a typed portion of a Sept. 27, 1958 Saturday Evening Post article by Robert Natan on the back- Front is unused and in fair condition with some edge wear and wrinkling, otherwise wear from age and normal use / display- A great VINTAGE item ready for display. How many of these throwaway items survived?

Here is some history on the famed hotel:

Once upon a time, Grand Junction had a hotel that was as elegant as the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs. It was La Court Hotel, and it sat grandly at the corner of Second and Main streets, convenient to the train depot through which flowed most of the area’s travelers in the early 20th century. Long before visitors began to arrive by limousine from the airport, the hotel’s horse-drawn vehicle, called a “boos” by the driver, Arie “Skip” Schippers, met each of the 12 daily passenger trains. The La Court saga began in 1904, when N. I. Nearing was close to completing construction of the hotel. A description in The Daily Sentinel read: “That the La Court will have no equal as a delightfully furnished European hotel in western Colorado is unquestionable.” The furniture was made of solid mahogany, curly birch and quarter-sawed oak for the guest rooms. The floors were covered with Bokhara and Persian rugs. The lobby was furnished with mission-style furniture. At first Nearing said he had no intention of having a dining room at the hotel. However, one was added shortly after the hotel was completed. When William Buthorn became the owner in 1907, the La Court was in the budding stage of what he would turn into a luxury hotel. It would become one of the most prestigious hotels on the Western Slope. Buthorn’s enjoyment of the unusual was reflected in the hotel. The party room, which later became the Green Room, was first decorated in an Indian theme, featuring leather fringe on the draperies. Deer heads lined the walls, each point decorated with a small electric light. A “medieval castle” was located on the north wall in the lobby. Apparently Buthorn had seen this in a magazine, obtained the plans and had it duplicated in the La Court lobby. A model of a fancy sailing ship, named La Court, sat proudly on the castle wall. The writing room, located behind the lobby, had a chandelier fashioned from an iron wheel from a mowing machine and six lights. Each light bulb was topped with a Tiffany glass shade. Also in the writing room was a huge, black-rock fireplace with a massive buffalo head that had belonged to Buffalo Bill. It was mounted high on the rock chimney. Years later, when the La Court was demolished, the fireplace was saved and used by the owners of the Ivanhoe Lounge at the corner of Second Street and North Avenue. The Ivanhoe has since been demolished. It was reported in a Sentinel story that Buthorn “dressed meticulously, with utmost regard for the correct attire, regardless of the more casual habits of his fellow townsmen. He was generally the only one wearing a top hat at the theatre; and at church he invariably wore a cutaway with striped trousers and a derby.” For many years Buthorn ran a farm north of North Avenue between First and Seventh streets, in what is now the Brownson addition. The farm supplied all the milk, cream and butter for the kitchen as well as beef, pork and vegetables in season. Buthorn was a charter member of Rotary, active in the Masonic Lodge, Elks, Redlands Country Club and Chamber of Commerce. He went along on the first auto trip to Salt Lake City. He was also a member of the school board. Buthorn loved the theater and knew several of the stars, many of whom stayed at the La Court at one time or another. The register listed Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Bill Hart, W.C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Ethel Barrymore, George Arliss, Pavlova, Otis Skinner and his daughter, Cornelia. Buthorn was born in Germany and was 12 years old when the family moved to the United States, settling in Brooklyn. He learned the hotel and restaurant business when he worked for the Fred Harvey Co., the parent company of the Harvey House restaurants. His first hotel was in Milwaukee, not far from the central office of the Schlitz Brewing Co. Buthorn and Joseph Schlitz, the brewery’s founder, became friends. Later, Schlitz built the Schlitz Hotel in Omaha, but it didn’t do well, so he offered Buthorn an interest in the hotel if he’d take over the management. Eventually Buthorn became the sole owner, and it was this hotel Buthorn sold when he bought the La Court. William Buthorn died in July 1929 shortly after he had returned from a two-week business trip to Los Angeles by auto with driver Schippers, who had joined the staff as a porter in 1909. Schippers continued to work for the La Court until he retired in 1962. From the day the Buthorn family moved in until the day the hotel was closed in 1967, responsibility for management of the La Court had been in Buthorn hands except for a two-year period immediately after the elder Buthorn’s death in 1929. When the doors of the La Court Hotel at Second and Main streets were locked on Nov. 30, 1967, more than a half-century of memories remained locked inside, according to the “obituary” written by a Daily Sentinel reporter. The stately hotel was demolished shortly afterward, and Two Rivers Convention Center was built on the site. When the Buthorns first moved into the hotel the family consisted of the owner, William, his wife, Alice, and Alice’s mother, Mrs. Howard Bittinger. William and Alice’s twins, Mary and Willa, were born in the hotel. Their son, William Jr., known as Bud, would have been born there, except for a fire that damaged the building and caused the family to move into a private residence for a time. Bud was a student at Cornell University when his father died in 1929. As soon as Bud finished his studies he came back home and took over the management of the hotel. Bud served three years in the Army in World War II and earned the Purple Heart. While Bud was serving his country his sisters, Mary and Willa, managed the hotel. Mary never left Grand Junction. Willa married Maurice Griffin and moved to Casper, Wyo. But the Griffins soon returned to Grand Junction, where Maurice became registrar and the head of the science department at Mesa Junior College The La Court was the hub of Grand Junction’s social life for many years. During World War II, soldiers on leave from Camp Hale at Leadville would arrive in town on the train and line up for two blocks waiting to register at the hotel. The La Court was a favorite for ladies’ afternoon card parties and, as reported in a Sentinel story, “guests donned their very best diamonds, furs, and feathers.” The hotel was the place to have company parties, and most of the services clubs had their lunch meetings there. A renovation in 1912, after a fire in the boiler room, doubled the size of the party room, thereafter known first as the Blue Room and later as the Green Room. Briefly in the 1930s the room was used as a Saturday nightclub with dinner, local talent and dancing. In 1927 the hotel went through another renovation that enlarged the lobby, doubled the size of the dining room, and added 20 rooms on the west side of the building. Thirty more rooms were added in 1936. Ron Tipping, who was a bellhop at the La Court in the 1950s and 1960s, shared some “inside information” about the hotel. Ron remembered that Bud was a cigar aficionado and had a large humidor with the finest Cuban cigars for sale in the lobby, where large aluminum ashtrays were located. There was also a spittoon. For several years after World War II and during the uranium boom, Jimmy and Augie Pantuso had a bar and lounge in the basement. The Pantusos closed the bar and opened Pantuso’s restaurant at the corner of First and Main, catty-corner from the La Court. At times during the uranium boom the hotel was so swamped that rollaway beds would be put in the ladies’ powder room off the lobby. Once or twice guests included Charles Steen and Vernon Pick, legendary prospectors who made fortunes from uranium. There was a small, private dining room on the south side of the coffee shop for those needing privacy for a meeting. There were many famous visitors over the years including John F. Kennedy, shortly before he announced he was running for president. Tipping said there was a great deal of movie filming going on in the surrounding area, and many movie stars were guests at the hotel. For a number of years a group of local businessmen met once a month in one of the showrooms provided for traveling salesmen. The evening started with a game of craps, followed by dinner, then a few games of poker. Reportedly these were high-stake games. The La Court was home to many of the town’s best-known citizens. Some lived there briefly, others for long periods. Included in that list were: Dr. Knud Hansen, 25 years; Mrs. Sabina O’Malley, 35 years; Mrs. Arley Roland, 25 years; Welby Schrader, Jock Watson, Neil Muir and the Baron, a traveling salesman who taught the bellboys how to play cribbage. Because the Buthorns were good to their employees and treated them with respect there were several longtime employees. Among them were Louis Kordt; Nellie Boyd Sparks and her husband, Everett; Medford Klein, desk clerk; Irene Abbey, Emily Johnson, Mary Mathias, Gladys Perry and Florence Scheideman, waitresses; Mary Tipping and Lillian Webb, hostesses; Fred Coleman, a cook; Florence Kirkpatrick, pastry cook; and Anna Gettman, a maid for 30 years. In addition to Ron Tipping, some of the young bellhops during the uranium booms years were Andrean Booth, Rosco Booth, Clayton Tipping, Butch Billings, Dennis Whyne, Tom Moore, Dick Mashe and Sammy Milligan.

This is an ORIGINAL item, NOT A REPRODUCTION item! Postage information is listed at the bottom-$ 3.00 postage is required.
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