Durango
The Strater Hotel
Henry Strater's 1887 red-brick hotel on Main Avenue, where Louis L'Amour wrote in Rooms 222 and 223 above the Diamond Belle Saloon.
- Built
- 1887Built 1887 as a hotel: the original four-story brick block at Main and 7th, with a slightly later three-story annex to the south (NRHP district nomination).
- Style
- Eclectic Victorian (Italianate, Romanesque and Renaissance details)
- Type
- Grand hotel
- Rooms
- 88
- Credentials
- Inside a National Register historic district; Historic Hotels of America member
The story
Cleveland pharmacist Henry Strater built the hotel for about $70,000 with 376,000 local red bricks and hand-carved sandstone trim, and leased it to proprietor H. L. Rice. Strater, who had failed to exclude his own pharmacy from the lease, built the competing Columbian Hotel next door in 1893, and the silver panic soon bankrupted both men. In 1926 a group led by banker Earl A. Barker Sr. bought the aging hotel. In the 1950s Western novelist Louis L’Amour wrote in Rooms 222 and 223 above the Diamond Belle Saloon.
Good to know
- Pets welcome
- Address: 699 Main Avenue, Durango, CO 81301
Sources (3)
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.