Denver : Old West survives amid thrusting skyline and some fine little hotels : Unusual Properties Match the Best in Their Ambiance : DENVER: Hotels Tops in Milieu

DENVER —  Get out the pad and pencil, we’ve completed another chapter in our lineup of the world’s leading little hotels.

Besides Denver, we’ve covered New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Honolulu, Tokyo, London, Paris, Vienna, Rome and Copenhagen, among others.

And while Denver doesn’t possess the number of small hotels we’ve discovered in other cities, it offers a couple of unusual properties that match some of the best of the rest. Namely there is the Oxford, and it is a gem. So is the Cambridge Club. Although unalike in some respects, both properties reflect the style, grace and good taste associated with the operation of a genuinely appealing small hotel.

The Oxford--it describes itself as Denver’s “Grand Small Hotel”-- was a pitiful derelict until undergoing a three-year, $12-million face lift beginning in 1979, during which the little 82-room hotel was rewired, replumbed and air-conditioned. Indeed, it was renovated throughout.

While stripping paint from the chandeliers, artisans discovered sterling silver underneath. They also found that rugs had been piled one on top of the other as they’d grown threadbare. Meanwhile, a couple of other chandeliers were cast in Italy especially for the new Oxford, stunning pieces reflecting 19th-Century elegance.

A sense of well-being envelops the newly arrived guest immediately upon being ushered into the Oxford’s tastefully furnished lobby with its elegant period pieces. Management likens it to an “English gentleman’s club” complete with Oriental rugs, bookcases, beveled glass and a marble fireplace.

Guests lounge in deep sofas before the fireplace, sipping brandies, and when day ends mood music is provided occasionally on a magnificent piano once owned by Baby Doe Tabor.

The Oxford, which faces 17th Street barely a block from Union Station, is a delightful, intimate and unassuming little hotel steeped in tradition. During the original opening in 1891 it was acclaimed “Denver’s grandest hotel.” Designed by Frank E. Edbrooke who created the city’s world-renowned Brown Palace, the Oxford appeals to the carriage trade, reflecting both a European ambiance and a sense of the Old West.

Guests who attended the original opening were feted with champagne and entertained by a Hungarian orchestra. Later, writers Gene Fowler and Ernie Pyle used the Oxford as their base of operations, shadowing celebrities who arrived daily at Denver’s nearby Union Station, the classic old (circa 1881) “crossroads of the West.” (It was from Union Station that Teddy Roosevelt began his epic visit to Colorado--this during a period when Union Station and the Oxford reigned as two of Colorado’s classic landmarks.)

Denver’s oldest grand hotel was the first in the city to possess a “vertical railway,” which is to say an elevator that whisked guests to the top of the Oxford--a breathtaking five stories above the city where they stared in awe at Denver’s skyline. Remember, this was nearly a century ago when five stories constituted a skyscraper out West. Or nearly anywhere else in the United States for that matter.

The Oxford featured frescoed walls and stained glass, a library, its own Western Union, gas lamps, steam heat. Yes, even stables. This was a period when lodging came to a mere dollar a night and meals cost half a buck.

Later the city moved uptown and the neighborhood surrounding the Oxford became a slum. The hotel had lost its luster. Not even dinner shows and jazz engagements couldstave off the end. Not even after the original Victorian style was replaced with Art Deco.

Presently, there’s a combination of both, what with three rooms on each floor devoted to Art Deco styling; in addition, the bar just off the lobby is a garish replay of this particular period.

Following its restoration, the Oxford attained new prominence when it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Guests dine in the Sage Room (grilled buffalo and Mississippi mud pie). Others gather in the Oxford Club, which is open to hotel guests and members only. It is simply a smashing place to lift a snifter of Cognac while sinking into a fine old leather sofa. Again, the management likens it to one of those snug clubs that London is famous for. Likewise, the Oxford’s guest rooms offer the same sense of subdued elegance.

Twenty-four-hour room service is provided along with a complimentary continental breakfast and a morning newspaper, fluffy robes, a fruit basket and the chance for chocoholics to dive into a serving of Godiva goodies.

Less Troubled Times

The Oxford is a flashback to less troubled times, providing a sense of escape, which is further enhanced by rides in old-fashioned horse carriages complete with a liveryman straight out of the pages of Charles Dickens. (Other guests are delivered about town in an ancient Hudson as well as a vintage London cab.)

As for the rates, they reflect the charm and service: $105-$140 single, $135-$170 double.

Besides providing shelter, the Oxford is a neighbor of historic Larimer Square and only a short stroll from the 16th Street Mall, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and the city’s business and financial districts.

Denver’s other gracious small hotel, the Cambridge Club, which is just around the corner from the State Capitol, offers 30 one- and two-bedroom suites featuring antiques, original prints, fruits, flowers, terry cloth robes, imported toiletries, refrigerators and microwave ovens, along with butler’s pantries stocked with china and glassware.

Like the Oxford, it appeals to the discerning guest. Registration formalities are dispensed with in a jiffy, a porter unpacks one’s luggage, and shoes left outside the door are returned shining the next morning. Just as they are in London’s fine hotels.

Only recently the Cambridge was elected to that celebrated society, the Distinguished Inns & Historic Hotels, which features properties both in the United States and abroad.

Although the Cambridge has been open only since 1982, already it is billed as a “tiny hotel in the grand manner.” A London visitor remarked: “When I walk in, they remember my name, what I drink, my favorite newspaper and that I take tea with lemon, no sugar. It is a marvelous little hotel.”

Tea in the Afternoon

A complimentary breakfast along with a newspaper is part of the deal. So is high tea each afternoon. Besides this, for an extra $3.50 one may drink all the hooch in the house in a hospitality suite that’s reserved exclusively for hotel guests. In addition butler’s pantries are stocked with liquor and soft drinks (the coffee, tea and snacks found inside are on the house).

For those who call ahead, the Cambridge will send a handsome limousine to Stapleton Airport. It can also be used on shopping sprees.

Beds are turned down at night; Cognac and Swiss truffles are delivered courtesy of the management. And the price for all this pampering? Rates start at $99 a day single, $119 double (and they’ve got corporate rates to boot).

Sightseeing, shopping tours and dinner reservations are booked by a concierge (Denver’s oldest French restaurant, the four-star Le Profil, does business on the same premises). In addition the concierge will order the guest a private jet, this in the event one’s in a rush to fly the nest.

That, chaps, shows real style.

For other details:

--The Oxford Hotel, 1600 17th St., Denver 80202. Telephone toll-free (800) 228-5838.

--Cambridge Club, 1560 Sherman St., Denver 80203. Telephone toll-free (800) 621-8385 (ask for extention 917).