Former 19th-century school, 20th-century college now a Hilton hotel in downtown Denver

Where a Hilton hotel now sits on Welton Street in downtown Denver was once the site of former Colorado schools – and close to 150 years of history.

The Slate Hotel at 1250 Welton St. is the property’s latest iteration, with its past lives including the Emily Griffith Opportunity School and the Longfellow School. Part of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection, the four-star hotel nods at its legacy with features from its school days.

Guests are first welcomed at a front desk built like a card catalog, with slate chalkboards behind it. The school’s original glazed block and terracotta-tiled columns remain standing, and the hotel layout still follows the original school corridors.

Within its walls, the Teachers’ Lounge Food + Drink restaurant serves literary-inspired cocktails like “Monte Cristo,” “Paradise Lost” and “Atlas Shrugged.”

After the original Longfellow School was condemned, it eventually ended up in the hands of Emily Griffith, a Cincinnati native who moved to Denver with her family in 1895, according to the Emily Griffith Technical College.