 | ||
The Baldpate Inn is a hotel located in Estes Park, Colorado, with a designation on the National Register of Historic Places.
It was founded in 1917 by Anglo-American brothers Charles Mace (combat and commercial photographer, 1889-1973), and Gordon Mace, and their families. The Inn is known especially two reasons: the hotel was named for the popular mystery novel, play and film Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers, and was eventually accepted to be the "true" Baldpate by the author. While the hotel originally gave away keys as curios, today it is known for its collection of more than 20,000 keys, usual, unusual and figurative, that have been offered to the inn by visitors, hotel guests, and dignitaries from all over the world.
Keys are cataloged in a database, supported by a grant from American History Savers and maintained by rotating curators who offer insight into the collections through a lecture series and blog.
The hotel structurally survived the historic floods of 2013, although the road leading to the property, which also connects to local trailheads, was severely damaged. They received support from the History Colorado State Historical Fund and Colorado Preservation.