By Margaret Malsam
Dolores Spellman
If you want to know something about Gilpin County history, talk to plucky 77-year-old Delores Spellman, a friendly greeter at The Lodge Casino.
“My roots are here. My grandfather was born in Black Hawk,” said Spellman. “I was born in Black Hawk, and I am probably the only person who was born here and still living here.”
Her parents, Otto and Ruth Blake, owned and operated the Gilpin Hotel in Black Hawk from 1945-1952, and Delores worked there when she was a teenager. The original Gilpin Hotel structure was built in 1896 by Julius Kline, replacing an earlier wooden building that was the site for Black Hawk’s first school. The hotel suffered a devastating fire in the early 1990s. Only the crumbling walls remained for many years until it was renovated and opened as the Gilpin Casino in 1992. It was expanded and remodeled in 2003.
The old crumbling Gilpin Hotel. Photo by George Malsam.
Spellman now lives in Black Hawk with her retired husband, and she enjoys walking and talking with people throughout the town. Everybody seems to know Delores. For many years, the energetic 5-foot-2 lady walked from her home to and from work as a security guard at the Gilpin Casino. Now after greeting visitors at The Lodge she has her husband drive her home because the walk is uphill, but she still likes to walk down the hill to work in the morning. Married for 56 years, she says she met Bill, her Kansas-born husband, at The Gilpin Hotel when she was working there and he was staying at the Gilpin on a business trip.
Spellman recalls performers at the Central City Opera House, such as Gypsy Rose Lee and Mae West, having dinner at the Gilpin Hotel after the show when she worked there. When I asked about famous people she greets now at The Lodge, she replied, “Everybody who walks through the door is important to me.”
In the ’40s, she also helped her grandmother clean the Central City Opera House. By the 1980s, she had become quite knowledgeable about the history of Gilpin County and became a tour guide at Central City’s Teller House Museum and later at the Lace House in Black Hawk during the summer seasons.
Only after we had chatted for some time and I asked her about her family did she tell me that her son, David Spellman, is now the mayor of Black Hawk. Another son, Mark, lives in Central City. She also has a sister, Linda Armbright, living in Black Hawk. She has a daughter living in Branson and loves to visit there and see all the great shows.
Gilpin plaque. Photos by Margaret Malsam.
Spellman and her family are perhaps some of the greatest boosters of gambling in Central City and Black Hawk. Proudly, she said that several of the early casinos were named after some relative of hers.
“If it hadn’t been for gambling, the Gilpin Hotel and other historic buildings would have been torn down, ” said the Black Hawk native, adding that the hotel once was condemned and marked with yellow tape for demolition.
She remembers when the old Belvedere Theater (home of the first opera house in Central City) reopened in the ’90s.
“It was restored beautifully, but it didn’t stay open long. Paint Your Wagon played there,” she said.
She pointed out that Black Hawk’s historic Lace House once stood where Canyon Casino’s parking lot is now. This ornate 1880s Victorian house was moved several years ago to a development in Central City. She also recalls that Black Hawk’s first Texaco service station was located on the site of an old livery stable. Later she graciously helped me identify the photos my husband took of old buildings in Black Hawk and Central City before gambling started.
She mused that today’s bustling Black Hawk once was a service town for Central City.
“When I was growing up, we had to go up the hill for both school and church,” Spellman said.
