Managing Change During the 2020 Pandemic

Before the COVID-19 pandemic was upon us, Hotel de Paris Museum set a financial goal to raise $25,000 in admissions, donations, and shop sales between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021.  Then, on March 25, 2020 Governor Jared Polis issued the first in a series of COVID-19 related executive orders for all Coloradans to stay at home due to the presence of COVID-19 in the state.  An extension of the order went into effect April 6.  On April 26, the  executive order labeled “safer at home” loosened restrictions for Coloradans to shelter in place.  A disaster emergency was declared May 22 due to the presence of Coronavirus disease in Colorado, and on May 25 the safer at home executive order was amended and extended.  Most recently, the Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors executive order was passed June 1, offering some hope of a slow, but eventual recovery.

However, this long-term situation will make it exceedingly difficult for the museum to raise $25,000 by the end of its fiscal year.  To mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 to the museum’s financial health and stability, plans were undertaken early on to prepare the site for a phased reopening of Hotel de Paris Museum during its 66^th year of operation.

A Public Health Order issued by the State of Colorado closed our site, but guidance from Clear Creek County Public and Environmental Health aided in a successful (safe) reopening of Hotel de Paris Museum June 19, 2020 (one day after Governor Polis addressed reopening museums, which are considered non-essential and a small to medium exposure risk).

The closure was a time to continue fulfilling our mission and make changes in preparation of resuming guided tours and inviting customers back into our museum shop (admissions and merchandise sales are two of our revenue streams).  Thankfully, Governor Polis and County Commissioners Randall "Randy" Wheelock, George Marlin, and Sean Wood provided regular informative briefings to aid businesses reopen and work toward normalcy and recovery.

The following information is based on best practices shaped by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Governor Polis’ COVID-19 Response Team, Clear Creek County Public and Environmental Health, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America/Great American Treasures, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Press conferences, meetings, webinars, websites, and documents provided information that was collected and disseminated into five categories.  The result was “Reopening Plan for Hotel de Paris Museum."

HYGIENE

• Daily employee temperature check
• Hotel de Paris Museum provides a non-contact infrared thermometer and keeps an employee log of temperatures and symptoms
• COVID-19 Employee Health Screening Form for Onsite Screening in use
• Staff members with temperatures 99+* F will be sent home
• Temperature logs become part of the museum’s personnel files
• Staff were issued one non-surgical face mask
• Hourly hand washing by staff
• Repetitive use of hand sanitizer by staff
• Hand sanitizer containing 65% alcohol in use
• Hand sanitizer at points of entry/exit
• Museum Shop
• Museum
• Annex
• Staff restroom
• Executive director’s office
• Metal folding chairs available in each room 1^st Floor (museum)
• Replaces folding wood chair
• Can be disinfected after use
• No access to visitor security lockers until further notice
• Mandatory masks or face coverings for staff, volunteers, and visitors
• Masks or face coverings must stay on and cover the nose and mouth when on Hotel de Paris Museum property
• Single use masks or face coverings are available for visitors who arrive without a mask or face covering
• Visitors will be asked to leave the property if not compliant (Executive Order 6.4.2020)
• Disinfecting wipes, paper towels and bleach based cleaner in use
• Museum Shop
• Museum
• Annex
• Identify clean pens from used pens
• Provide separate, labeled containers
• Disinfect used pens with a bleach based cleaner

 

SOCIAL DISTANCING

• Guided tours of no more than 6 visitors + 1 tour guide
• Group size determined by room configurations
• Group size determined by room furnishings
• No more than 3 staff members on site
• Keep site occupancy to 10 or fewer people
• Executive director’s office restricted to ED only
• 6 feet social distancing
• Distinct standing spots identified for visitors (1^st Floor)
• Distinct standing spots identified for tour guides (1^st Floor)
• Guide will address from doorway in Room 13
• Guide will address visitors from doorway in Sample Room 2
• Relocated proprietor portrait gallery from a congested area to a large room
• Minimal changes to historic furnishing configurations add more usable floor space
• Removed seating to discourage congregating
• 6^th Street entrance
• Museum Shop
• Courtyards
• Sneeze guard installed at admissions desk
• No more than two customers in museum shop at any time; shared households may have no more than four in museum shop at any time
• Signage

CONTACT TRACING

• Online admissions have precedence to walk-up admissions
• Regulates size of group
• Serves as a reservation
• Aids in locating visitors should an outbreak occur
• Collects customer names
• Records contact information

PROGRAMMING CHANGES

• Reduced tour schedule
• Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays
• 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m.
• Discounted General Admission pricing for 2020
• Online convenience fee $1 per paid admission
• 1^st Floor tour only (Commercial Kitchen, Dining Room, Sample Room 2, Rooms 13 & 14)
• 2nd story virtual tour
• Cellar virtual tour
• Onsite visitors unable or unwilling to wear a mask or face covering can visit us online
• Take a virtual tour of the 2^nd Story for FREE
• Take a virtual tour of the Cellar for FREE
• Read Louis’ menu online for FREE
• Watch a variety of videos for FREE
• Examine our in-depth blog articles for FREE
• Removed interactive experiences until further notice
• Call bell
• Cold roll mangle
• Copy of restaurant menu
• Albums of historic photos, correspondences, and receipts
• Smell jars
• Suspended indefinitely Group Tours and Facility Rentals
• Cancelled experiential wine tours for 2020
• Cancelled annual Bastille Day celebration for 2020
• Cancelled Blue Star Museums for 2020
• Cancelled Smithsonian magazine Day for 2020
• Developed and executed a new online auction

SITE CHANGES

• Opened doors between rooms on 1^st floor
• Improves air circulation
• Eliminates touching of door hardware
• Opened windows for air replenishment and improved circulation
• Commercial Kitchen
• Sample Room 2
• Room 13
• Room 14
• Museum Shop (Sample Room 1)
• Restricted some areas
• 2^nd story
• Cellar
• Security lockers
• Admissions desk
• Separate entrances for museum tours and museum shop

VISITOR GUIDELINES

• Face mask covering nose and mouth required.
• Maintain social distance of 6 feet.
• Sanitize hands regularly.
• Follow staff instructions.
• Service animals allowed.  No pets.
• No seating, restrooms, or water available.
• Daily capacity is capped to ensure necessary space for social distancing.
• First floor tour only.  The 2ND story and cellar are closed at this time.
• Set aside one hour for your visit.
• No bags, backpacks, luggage, or strollers allowed.
• Do not visit Hotel de Paris Museum if you are COVID-19 positive, have had close contact with someone COVID-19 positive, or are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
• Visitors not following requirements may be asked to leave.

To help Hotel de Paris Museum fill its fundraising gap, go to www.hoteldeparismuseum.org before April 1, 2021.

Lung Disease and Improved Healthfulness of Louis Dupuy’s Hotel de Paris

After the completion of the 1889 addition to Hotel de Paris, proprietor Louis Dupuy acquired a copy of Professor Koch’s Cure for Consumption by Berlin physician Dr. H. Feller.  The sixty-one-page book explained the discovery of tubercle bacillus by Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch, his experimental investigation, and application of his discovery.  It is Koch's claim of a remedy that seems to have impressed Dupuy and perhaps influenced his plans for expanding his popular French inn.

Professor Robert Koch

Due to Dupuy’s reputation as the best cook in the Colorado Territory, Hotel de Paris thrived into the 1890s.  The remodeling of his hotel restaurant and adding of a commercial kitchen in 1878, rapid-fire building of staff and guest rooms in 1881, constructing of salesmen’s sample rooms and guest rooms in 1882, and, shortly-thereafter, erecting of guest rooms and his own private quarters in 1889 indicates a depth of financial resources and a reason to grow his business:  demand for a variety of fine food prepared in the best manner, choices of imported liquor and soft drinks, and luxuriant accommodations in the refined and picturesque silver mining town of Georgetown, Colorado.  

Dupuy earned wealth from his childhood experiences, innate talent, professional training, self-imposed discipline, and hospitable demeanor.  After a fire vacated neighboring lots occupied by the  McClellan Opera House and Mrs. Johnson's millinery store in January 1892, Dupuy stepped up efforts to improve the appearance of the hotel, and, most importantly, developed plans for a six-room addition.  However, the Panic of 1893 and subsequent years-long economic depression could have stymied Dupuy’s achievements and closed his business, ending his dreams of redemption through respectability.  Yet in those uncertain economic times, instead or ratcheting down operations, he forged on.

The 1890 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the Block 20 location of McClellan Opera House, Mrs. Johnson's millinery shop, a carriage repository, and Hotel de Paris

It is likely the economic depression negatively impacted Dupuy’s thriving business, although he continued to enjoy patronage from businessmen, Denverites, and wealthy tourists seeking entertainment in elevated regions where tuberculosis occurred less frequently (tuberculosis has been called "the disease that helped put Colorado on the map").  This is what makes the timing of his plan to expand the hotel during a financial disaster so curious.  Instead of clinging to his previous business model of packing people into his guest rooms to satisfy demand, Dupuy adopted a new business model that focused on high health and made changes to reduce congestion within the guest rooms and common areas of Hotel de Paris by offering what Dr. Koch recommended: clean living, privacy, and health.

The only way to accomplish this, yet maintain the volume he was experiencing, was to decrease the number of lodgers per room and add more rooms at a financially inopportune time.  Based on furniture, accessories, and linens stored in Rooms 7 and 8, Dupuy appeared to prepare the outfitting of an additional guest room and a gentlemen’s smoking room that would increase his own privacy as well as allow guests to spread out within the confines of his establishment. 

Dupuy's key board showcased twenty guest rooms, even though only fourteen existed within Hotel de Paris

No longer would same-sex lodgers (and strangers to one another) cram into hotel rooms and beds; by decreasing the occupancy in each guest room and common areas, Dupuy followed Dr. Koch’s recommendations to create uncrowded conditions by social distancing.

It may be the number of drinking glasses, towels, and pillowcases recorded on the appraisement bill (a just valuation of property) from the “Estate of Louis Dupuy, Deceased” (January 1901) that best reflects efforts to reduce guest room and common area occupancy levels:

• Sample Room 1 had become an office.
• Sample Room 2 had become Dupuy’s private library and smoking room.
• Rooms 3, 13, 14, and Annex Room 1 were staff quarters.
• Room 4 contained 1 pillowcase, 1 glass tumbler, 1 fancy Turkish towel, and 1 cuspidor (indicating one lodger).
• Room 5 contained 1 pair of sheets, 2 pillowcases, 1 glass tumbler (indicating up to two lodgers traveling together).
• Room 6 and Annex Room 2 each contained abundant furnishings and linens (indicating families or larger traveling parties who desired to remain grouped).
• Rooms 7, 8, and Annex Room 3 had become storerooms.
• Rooms 9, 10, 11, and 12 each contained 1 pair sheets, 2 pillowcases, and 1 glass tumbler (indicating up to two lodgers traveling together per room).

By the end of 1900, it appears Sample Rooms 1 and 2, Rooms 7 and 8, and Annex Room 3 were taken out of the Hotel de Paris guest room inventory; Rooms 3, 13, 14, and Annex Room 1 remained private staff quarters; Room 4 was decreased from two to one lodger; Room 5 (original capacity of four) was reduced to 1-2 lodgers; Rooms 9, 10, 11, and 12 continued to host 1 lodger (or two if traveling together).

By following Dr. Koch’s recommendations to cure consumption, Dupuy worked to decrease guest interaction by cutting his lodging capacity by nearly half; therefore, it seems plausible Dupuy’s earning potential could potentially be recovered by building more hotel rooms and common areas as well as developing a clientele keen on clean living, privacy, and health. 

Unfortunately, Louis Dupuy himself died of a lung ailment (pneumonia), which halted his plans for continued expansion of Hotel de Paris.  The land he acquired after the 1892 opera house fire is presently a public parking lot.

Please consider making a tax deductible contribution at hoteldeparismuseum.org.