#colfax ave

[americaisdead]

colfax ave, denver, colo. july 2024

© tag christof

[deadmotelsusa]

Another dead Colfax Ave motel: the Sunset Village Motel of Denver, Colorado was partially demolished in 2015 to make way this massive apartment building. The “24 quiet units” that used to home tourists were located behind this structure and somehow survived 2 years after the motel office was razed, before also being replaced by an apartment building.

[5thdistrict]

Colfax Ave.

Denver, CO 2019

[deadmotelsusa]

Boll-E-Ana Motel in Aurora, Colorado was demolished in 2013.

[deadmotelsusa]

Another Colfax Ave motel gone: The Dunes Motel in Aurora, Colorado. It was already closed and fenced off the first time Google Street View drove past in 2007. An empty field has taken it’s spot, surrounded by a massive parking garage and office building

[deadmotelsusa]

In Denver, near the intersection of Colfax & Colorado Blvd, sits the neglected Royal Palace Motel. Opened in the 1969 and closed in 2013, it is now totally abandoned. The past reviews of this place show only the negatives: bed bugs, water damage, no refunds, terrible management, the like. Apparently, there were also a few murders here and one of it’s most well-known is still unsolved. 

[deadmotelsusa]

Gerald Foos once owned the infamous Manor House Motel, yet another Colfax Avenue motel in Aurora, Colorado where he outfitted more than a dozen rooms with fake ceiling vents so that he could watch people having sex.

He started in the mid-1960s and continued for decades, never getting caught. Nearly four decades later, The New Yorker magazine published “The Voyeur’s Motel” by Gay Talese, an extensive investigation into voyeurism — specifically, how Foos bought the motel to achieve his “uncontrollable desire to peer into other people’s lives,” including their most private sexual moments, which he said both of his wives supported.

The Manor House Motel has since been knocked down, leaving only an empty lot. 

[deadmotelsusa]

Hart’s Park Cottages originally opened in Aurora, Colorado and was an adorable “modern motor court” at it’s peak around 1935. Over time, it’s name transitioned a few times, changing to the Dutch Mill Cottage Court then to the Dutch Mill Cottages & Trailer Park. It’s unclear exactly when it closed for good but the dutch-style windmill appeared to stand the test of time and was only torn down fairly recently (around 2009). The 2003 - 2004 Historic Building Survey of Aurora identifies this site as a historic landmark but unfortunately, it looks like they couldn’t do enough to save it. This site now sits empty, although it may be developed soon.