The Palace Hotel—561 Main

By Eilene Lyon

A Brick Edifice

Durango was founded in 1881. Many original buildings, particularly those built of wood, no longer exist. This is the third in a series of the oldest buildings standing on Main Avenue, originally called First Street.

What is now the 500 block abuts the railroad depot. Being the principal method by which people arrived in town, it made sense for hotels to spring up nearby. One of the earliest was a two-story wood structure called the National Hotel. It burned to the ground in 1925. This Sanborn Fire map from 1883 shows the depot and the hotel.

Between 1890 and 1893, a brick hotel arose between the depot and the National called the Palace Hotel. In the same time period, another brick building, housing a butcher shop, was built just north of the National Hotel. It no longer exists. The Palace Hotel acquired an addition in the late 20^th century to expand the Palace Restaurant.

The first half-century of Durango’s existence encompassed the era of the traveling salesman. Before good roads had been built, the railroad brought them in and they obtained rooms in the nearby hotels where they could display their wares in addition to dining and sleeping. According to a 1919 news clipping, the hotel then had 30 rooms, a bar, club rooms, and a pool hall.

The Palace Hotel building still stands at 561 Main, but is no longer an independent facility. It is used as an annex for the General Palmer Hotel on the corner of Main and College Drive (formerly 6^th Street; originally called D Street). A gift shop and Thai restaurant occupy a portion of the ground floor. A parking lot fills the space between, where once stood the National Hotel and butcher shop.

The Proprietors

The hotel operations were leased out to various proprietors over the years. One of the early ones was Willis S. McNeely, a Union veteran from Kentucky, and his Irish wife, Mary J. O’Grady. They were managing the hotel in 1899 and perhaps earlier. Their second tenure came in 1910, but they left by the end of the year, turning the operation over to J.W. Bradford. The McNeelys were running the hotel again in 1920.

In 1907 and 1908, John F. English was the proprietor. He hosted a wedding at the hotel in June 1907 for Helen Hoagland and Charles Decker. Helen was the daughter of bookkeeper Charles L. Hoagland of the Fort Lewis Mesa (southwest of Durango). Decker was born and reared in Durango. He worked for the railroad and the young couple resided in Silverton after their wedding.

Another wedding that occurred at the Palace Hotel was the second marriage for Lucy Higgans. Her first husband, Thomas Hackett, had been a mining superintendent in Silverton and died of illness in 1895 while in Pueblo. The Hacketts had five children. Lucy then married a miner named Thomas Edwards on January 1, 1900. They had three children before Edwards died in a mining accident in 1909. Following her second husband’s death, Lucy operated a rooming house in Durango.

A Mysterious Death

One of the oddest stories regarding the Palace Hotel is the mysterious death of Edward R. Sullivan in the wee hours of October 31, 1901. Was it murder, or suicide? The coroner’s inquest jury left it undecided. No one was ever arrested in the case, and the circumstances are puzzling.

Ed Sullivan was a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He married Mary Ann Arkes in 1896 and they moved to Chama, New Mexico, where Ed worked for the railroad as a fireman (one who fuels the locomotive boiler). At the Durango end of the tracks, he would stay at the Palace Hotel between work shifts. In the summer of 1901, Mary Ann was expecting the arrival of her second child, in Ferguson, Missouri, where she had returned in 1900. She was there with her two daughters when Ed died of strychnine or arsenic poisoning in his room at the Palace.

A 17-year-old girl, Martha Lechner, who worked at the hotel dining room, called for a doctor at 12:20 a.m. for a sick baby. What the doctor found was Ed Sullivan gasping for breath and too near death to save. Sullivan did not name any culprit, and the look on his face was calm, not panicked.

Found in his room were two large envelopes from the New York Life insurance company, and a note to a fellow railroad employee saying that he was planning to fight a duel. A second note directed that in the event of his sudden death, he wished his remains to be shipped to St. Louis for burial. He may have mailed a couple letters that were not found in his room.

Martha told investigators that the alleged duel had taken place and Sullivan had “dispatched his man.” Then some female spectators had lauded Sullivan by giving him a beer, which he told Martha he believed had “been doped.” But he drank it anyway and returned to his hotel room, where he related these events to her.

The investigation turned up no weapons and no poison in his room. Nor were any victims or witnesses to a duel ever found. Some people claimed that Sullivan and another man, identified only as “Ripple,” had been vying for Martha’s affections. Supposedly, Martha ran off to Denver to marry this Ripple character.

Sullivan’s mother went to Denver police with a letter from her son allegedly detailing a plot involving an unnamed female employed at the Palace and an unnamed man. Mrs. Sullivan declared the pair were in a Denver boarding house and she wished to have them arrested. Nothing supports these allegations.

Rather, witnesses said Martha had been seen with Sullivan that evening and that he had been at his desk writing at 11 p.m. He went to bed about midnight before asking Martha to call for a doctor. It had also been reported that Sullivan had been “brooding sometime over domestic troubles.”

But Martha insisted that Sullivan had been murdered and did not commit suicide. Unfortunately, per the insurance papers found in his room, his policy was delinquent. In neither case would his widow be receiving any proceeds.

Feature image: The building formerly known as the Palace Hotel, now home to a gift shop, a restaurant, and hotel rooms on the second floor managed as the Palace Annex to the General Palmer Hotel.

Sources:

“W. H. McNeely [sic]…” The Silverton Standard, March 5, 1910, p. 3 c. 3; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed March 7, 2022.

“The Palace Hotel [ad]” The Mancos Times-Tribune, November 27, 1908, p. 4 c. 1; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed March 7, 2022.

“The Palace Hotel [ad]” The Great Southwest (Durango), April 8, 1910, p. 4 c. 5; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed March 7, 2022.

“The Palace hotel at Durango…” The Bayfield Blade, December 22, 1910, p. 1 c. 4; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed March 7, 2022.

“Want Them Arrested” The Durango Democrat, January 7, 1902, p. 2 c. 6; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed March 7, 2022.

“Trying to Clear Mystery: Some New Facts Regarding Suicide of E. R. Sullivan” Durango Semi-Weekly Herald, January 9, 1902 p. 2 c. 7; image, Durango Herald digital collection, Durango Public Library.

“Wedding Bells” The Silverton Standard, January 6, 1900, p. 3 c. 2; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed March 7, 2022.

“Decker-Hoagland” Durango Semi-Weekly Herald, June 24, 1907, p. 3 c. 2; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed March 7, 2022.

“Thomas Hackett, and [sic] old time resident of Silverton…” The Silverton Standard, April 27, 1895, p. 3 c. 2; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed September 13, 2022.

“Thomas Hackett of Silverton…” The Colorado Daily Chieftan (Pueblo), April 26, 1895, p. 8 c. 3; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed September 13, 2022.

“Cavein Kills 2 Men Near Silverton” The Telluride Journal, July 29, 1909, p. 1 c. 4; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed September 13, 2022.

“Suicide or Double Cross Duel: Ed Sullivan Died Early This Morning in the Palace Hotel: Tinge of Mystery in the Case” The Durango Democrat, October 31, 1901, p. 1 c. 1; image, Durango Herald digital collection, Durango Public Library.

“Probable Suicide: Ed. Sullivan, a Railroad Fireman, the Person” Durango Semi-Weekly Herald, p. 2 c. 4; image, Durango Herald digital collection, Durango Public Library.

“Mr. and Mrs. Rod McLeod went to Durango…” The San Miguel Examiner (Telluride), August 16, 1919, p. 10 c. 3; image, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : accessed March 7, 2022.