GOOD MORNING POU! We hope you’re enjoying your weekend!
We conclude our series on African-American Owned Resorts with….
LINCOLN HILLS
Gilpin County, Colorado
(From BlackPast.org)
Lincoln Hills Country Club (1922-1966)
In the years prior to World War II, the Lincoln Hills Country Club was a renowned vacation development for African Americans in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Located in Gilpin County, an hour outside Denver, between Pinecliff and Rollinsville, Lincoln Hills was for years the only African-American resort area west of the Mississippi River. Other African American resorts included Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; Idlewild in Michigan; and American Beach in Florida.
Lincoln Hills was the brainchild of African-American entrepreneurs Robert E. Ewalt and E.C. Regnier, who in 1922 created the Denver-based Lincoln Hills Development Company which sold mountain property to African Americans to build summer cabins at a time when they were not otherwise allowed to obtain lodging or enjoy the amenities of public parks in Colorado.
The resort area extended over 100 acres on both sides of the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad which brought the cabin owners and their guests to the resort. Over 600 lots were sold in the 1920s and 1930s. Most of the lots were small, only 25 feet by 100 feet and they sold for between $50 and $100 depending on the location in the resort. Some owners came from as far away as New York and California.
Lincoln Hills was also home to Winks Lodge, a full-service resort that was the country club’s major attraction, and Camp Nizhoni, a summer camp for prominent African-American girls offered by the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the YWCA.
The Lincoln Hills Country Club began a slow decline in the Great Depression when many cabin owners were forced to sell or abandon their properties. The end of the resort came quietly in the mid-1960s. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act outlawed racial discrimination by predominately white country clubs and resorts. Many affluent African Americans then joined the larger, integrated facilities. One year later Obrey Hamlet, the owner of Winks Lodge, died and the property was sold. With the lodge closed there was a reduced interest in owning property at the Lincoln Hills Country Club.
Winks Lodge (1928-1965)
At the epicenter of Lincoln Hills was Winks Lodge, a full-service resort. In the early 1920s Denver entrepreneur Obrey
Wendell Hamlet, who was also known as “Winks,” saw opportunity and set out to build a resort in the budding area. He and first wife Naomi Hamlet began construction of a three-story, six-bedroom lodge in 1925 and finished it by 1928.
The resort was officially named “Winks Panorama,” though it became commonly known as “Winks Lodge,” and was visited during the summer and early fall. The structure was built into the side of a hill, and its base and north walls were built of native rubble granite and authentic river rock from the area. While the first floor was primarily used for storage, the second floor and main entry had an extensive wraparound porch built of hand-hewn pine beams and posts, where breakfast, lunch and dinner were served to thousands of guests and diners over the years. The lodge’s six bedrooms and single bath were located on the upper floor.
In addition to the lodge, Winks also built several other properties, including the orange cabin, where he lived while building the lodge; a honeymoon cabin; the tin house; a three-plex cabin; and the tavern, which offered live entertainment and a jukebox.
Guests from across the country visited the lodge, including such luminaries as singers Billy Eckstein, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, bandleader Count Basie, and writers Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Many of those who stayed at the lodge also performed in Denver’s Five Points. According to Niccolo Werner Casewit, a historical researcher who has studied the facility, “Winks Lodge has been likened to the literary salons during the Harlem renaissance. Except this one is nestled in the mountains.”
The Hamlets (after Naomi’s death, Obrey and second wife Melba), owned and operated the lodge, providing room and board to guests for 37 years until Obrey Hamlet’s death in 1965. Winks lodge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
For more information on Lincoln Hills, check out the Historic Lincoln Hills website.