The Broadmoor is a 5-star

Star (classification)

Stars are often used as symbols for classification purposes. They are used by reviewers for ranking things such as movies, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, one to five stars is commonly employed to categorize hotels.-Restaurant ratings:...

/5-diamond luxury hotel

Hotel

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...

 and resort, located in southwestern Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...

, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. Built in the early 20th century as the "Grand Dame of the Rockies", it was one of the finest resort destinations along the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 during the age of railroads. It continues to be a popular conference destination for businessmen and government officials. It also offers a tennis facility rated #3 by Tennis magazine and three 18-hole golf courses

Broadmoor Golf Club

The Broadmoor Golf Club is a golf resort located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, consisting of three 18-hole courses; East, West, and Mountain. The East Course, a Donald Ross design opened in 1918, has hosted several USGA championships since 1959, most recently the 2011 U.S. Women's Open, won by So...

; the East Course has hosted numerous USGA championships, most recently the 2008 U.S. Senior Open

United States Senior Open

The U.S. Senior Open is one of the major championships in men's senior golf. It was first played in 1980 and is administered by the United States Golf Association and is recognized as a major championship by both the Champions Tour and the European Seniors Tour...

. The hotel sits at an elevation of 6230 feet (1900 m) above sea level.

History

The resort dates from 1891, when it began as a small hotel and casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

. The current resort was built in 1918 by Spencer Penrose

Spencer Penrose

Spencer Penrose was a philanthropist in and around Colorado Springs at the turn of the 20th century. He was born into a prominent Philadelphia family of Cornish descent and was brother to Boies Penrose and Richard Penrose...

, a Philadelphia entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 whose brother was Senator Boies Penrose

Boies Penrose

Boies Penrose was an American lawyer and Republican politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1897 until his death in 1921.-Biography:...

. Nicknamed "Spec" for skill at speculation

Speculation

In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...

, Spencer Penrose amassed a fortune from mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 claims at nearby Cripple Creek

Cripple Creek, Colorado

The City of Cripple Creek is a Statutory City that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, United States. Cripple Creek is a former gold mining camp located southwest of Colorado Springs near the base of Pikes Peak. The Cripple Creek Historic District, which received National Historic...

, and after a grand tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

 through Europe's

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 finest hostelries, decided to build one, with no expense spared. The hotel attracted a wealthy clientele in the early 20th century, drawn to the beauty of Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County in the United States of America....

, as well as to the mountain air which aided recuperation from tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

. Penrose was so pleased with the Broadmoor that in 1937 he completed nearby a monument to its creator — his tomb

Tomb

A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...

, taking the rather novel form of an 80-foot hilltop observation tower

Observation tower

An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision. They are usually at least tall and made from stone, iron, and wood. Many modern towers are also used as TV towers, restaurants, or churches...

 which overlooks the resort. Persuaded not to name the structure after himself, it is instead called the "Will Rogers

Will Rogers

William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....

 Shrine of the Sun

Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun

Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, also known as Will Rogers Shrine or 5EP2175, is the tomb which holds the ashes of Spencer Penrose , a philanthropist who contributed many of the most prominent landmarks in Colorado Springs, including the neighboring Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the Broadmoor Hotel...

," honoring Penrose's friend who died in a plane crash in 1935, during construction of the tomb.

The Broadmoor resort was formerly the site of the Broadmoor World Arena

Broadmoor World Arena

The Broadmoor World Arena was a pioneering skating rink and hockey arena located at the Broadmoor Resort & Spa in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Originally an outdoor riding academy, the building was enclosed and converted to an ice arena which opened in January 1938...

, a historic ice arena which hosted the World Figure Skating Championships

World Figure Skating Championships

The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...

 five times between 1957 and 1975. The original home to the Broadmoor Skating Club

Broadmoor Skating Club

The Broadmoor Skating Club is a figure skating club based in Colorado Springs, Colorado that has long been a major training center for the sport of figure skating. Founded in 1939, it was originally known as the Pikes Peak Skating Club, and was based in the Broadmoor World Arena on the grounds of...

, for many years the rink was an important international training center for the sport, employing such notable coaches as Carlo Fassi

Carlo Fassi

Carlo Fassi was a well-known Italian figure skater and international coach whose students included several World and Olympic champions.-Career:Fassi was born in Milan....

. The rink was demolished in 1994 to make way for a new wing of the hotel. On the hotel grounds, there remains a memorial to the Broadmoor skaters who were members of the United States team killed in a 1961 plane crash

Sabena Flight 548

Sabena Flight 548, registration OO-SJB, was a Boeing 707 aircraft that crashed en route to Brussels, Belgium, from New York City on February 15, 1961, killing the entire United States Figure Skating team on its way to the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.The flight, which...

. From the 1940s to the 1980s, a small ski area below Cheyenne Mountain, called "Polomar" or "Ski Broadmoor", operated but shut down due to lack of snowfall and insufficient funds to keep it running. The mountain was mostly beginner-oriented.

The Broadmoor has over 700 rooms, 18 restaurants and cafes, 3 golf courses, and a world-class spa. The El Pomar Carriage House Museum houses an extensive collection of vintage carriages and automobiles on-site. The Penrose Room, named after Spencer Penrose, is the only Five-Diamond dining in Colorado.

Awards

• Mobil Five-Star (49 years in 2009)
• AAA Five-Diamond (35 years in 2011 )
• Condé Nast Traveler – Gold List
• Zagat Survey Exceptional Rating – Resorts
• American Express Departures Magazine Readers' Favorite Award
• Travel & Leisure Top 500 Hotels in the World
• Facilities Magazine – Elite Hotels
• Resorts & Great Hotels – Connoisseurs Choice
• Official Hotel Guide (OHG) – Super Deluxe Hotels
• CitySearch – Colorado’s Best Resort
• Travel + Leisure Golf - West and Northwest Best Family Trips (Reader Survey *Award)
• Travel Age West Editor's Pick - Best Historic Hotel (2007)
• Web Marketing Association - Web Award for Hotel and Lodging Standard of Excellence (2007)
• Travel Weekly Magellan Award - Best Luxury Resort (2008)

Raised letter 'A' in the Broadmoor name

The hotel's name and logo is always officially presented as all uppercase with a small letter 'A' raised higher than the other letters: BRO^ADMOOR. The reasoning behind this is surrounded by legend. One story is that Spencer Penrose had a friendly rivalry with the nearby Antlers Hotel, and for that reason, Penrose required the 'A' in "Broadmoor" to always be smaller than the other letters. In fact the hotel archives revealed that the alteration was necessary to obtain exclusive copyright due to other uses of the word Broadmoor for the nearby area since the 1880's. The original copyright documents were filed 12/15/1918 and are in the hotel archive.

Golf

The U.S. Women's Open

United States Women's Open Championship (golf)

The United States Women's Open Golf Championship, one of thirteen national championships conducted by the United States Golf Association , is one of the LPGA's major championships along with the LPGA Championship, the Women's British Open, and the Kraft Nabisco Championship...

 has been held twice at the resort's East Course:

Year	Winner
1995 1995 U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship The 1995 U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship was contested from July 13 to July 16 at Broadmoor Golf Club, East Course. It was the 50th edition of the U.S. Women's Open.This event was won by Annika Sörenstam.-Final leaderboard:-External links:**...	Annika Sörenstam Annika Sörenstam Annika Sörenstam is a Swedish-American professional golfer whose achievements rank her as one of the most successful golfers in history. Before stepping away from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she won 90 international tournaments as a professional, making her the female golfer...
2011 2011 U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship The 2011 U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship was the 66th U.S. Women's Open, and was played from July 7 to July 11, 2011 at The Broadmoor East Course in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was one of 13 national championships conducted by the United States Golf Association . The course is at an...	So Yeon Ryu

Donald Ross, master golf course architect, designed the original Broadmoor Golf Club which opened with the hotel in 1918.

In 1948, Robert Trent Jones

Robert Trent Jones

Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was a golf course architect who designed about 500 golf courses in at least 40 US states and 35 other countries all around the world...

Sr. was hired to design an additional nine hole course. This redesign formed the famed East Course. In 1963, an additional nine holes was added by Jones forming the West Course. In 2005, the Mountain Course was re-opened after a renovation and reconfiguration that was done by Nicklaus Design.

External links

• Official Broadmoor Hotel website
• Review of the Broadmoor Hotel
• Member of Colorado's Finest Hotels
• History of the Broadmoor Hotel
• Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun
• Vice-President Cheney at the Broadmoor
• NATO Summit at the Broadmoor
• Newsweek article mentioning President Bush's hangover at the Broadmoor
• Design Packaging Inc.