Last updated: August 9, 2021
Place
Coronado Lodge
Photograph by Thomas H. Simmons, courtesy of Colorado State Historic Preservation Office
Quick Facts
Location:
2130 Lake Ave. Pueblo, Colorado
Significance:
Ethnic Heritage/Black, Architecture
Designation:
Listed in the National Register – Reference number 100005146
MANAGED BY:
Private
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2020, The Coronado Lodge is significant for its role in the local tourism and hospitality industry in Pueblo, Colorado. Most of Pueblo’s motels of the period were located along Lake Avenue, Santa Fe Drive, or Elizabeth Street, following the route of the highway. In the 1940s the Coronado was affiliated with the United Motor Courts referral chain and advertised in tourist publications. A 1954-55 brochure for Pueblo motels showed the motel with twenty-seven units, slightly larger than the twenty-five room 1951 national average for such reported facilities. In its height, the Coronado regularly drew in overnight travelers as well as offered units for extended stays.
The Coronado Lodge is also significant for its association with the history of African American travel and tourism during the era of segregation. The motel offered accommodations to African American travelers since at least 1946 and advertised from 1957 to 1967 in The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, publication historian Gretchen Sullivan Sorin described as “the bible of every Negro highway traveler in the 1950s and early 1960s.” Most Colorado Green Book lodging facilities were small “tourist homes” in existing residences. The Coronado in 1957 became the second Colorado motel to be listed in The Green Book under owners Arthur H. and Hattie L. Copley and remained one of only three motels listed in it through 1967. The facility was integrated, welcoming both whites and guests of color prior to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The Coronado Lodge is also significant for its association with the history of African American travel and tourism during the era of segregation. The motel offered accommodations to African American travelers since at least 1946 and advertised from 1957 to 1967 in The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, publication historian Gretchen Sullivan Sorin described as “the bible of every Negro highway traveler in the 1950s and early 1960s.” Most Colorado Green Book lodging facilities were small “tourist homes” in existing residences. The Coronado in 1957 became the second Colorado motel to be listed in The Green Book under owners Arthur H. and Hattie L. Copley and remained one of only three motels listed in it through 1967. The facility was integrated, welcoming both whites and guests of color prior to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.