The Aspen story
Shopping here since the silver boom.
A Victorian silver-mining town turned ski town, with its shops, galleries and the gondola all a short walk apart.
- 1879
Ute City in the silver boom
Aspen's roots go back to miners in the winter of 1879. The camp was first named Ute City, then renamed Aspen. The silver boom lasts until the Panic of 1893.
Open Downtown → - 1889
The Hotel Jerome
Jerome B. Wheeler, then co-owner of Macy's, builds the hotel during Colorado's silver boom. Its J-Bar is still pouring on Main Street.
Open Downtown → - 1889
The Wheeler Opera House
Built in ten months from June 1888 to April 1889, at the corner of East Hyman Avenue and South Mill Street.
Open Downtown → - 1946
Skiing comes to town
The new Aspen Skiing Company builds the first chairlift to the top of Aspen Mountain and opens the ski area.
Open Downtown → - 1949
The Music Festival begins
Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke found the Aspen Music Festival and School as a two-week Goethe bicentennial celebration. Today it runs eight weeks each summer.
Open Downtown → - 1976
The pedestrian mall
The brick mall is completed on stretches of Hyman, Mill, Cooper and Galena. City council made it a historic landmark in 2017.
Open Downtown →
