The Red Onion

Building

The Red Onion sits on the north side of East Cooper Avenue, halfway between South Galena and South Mill streets. This block is a pedestrian mall, lined with brick walkways and mature trees that border a small stream feeding the Roaring Fork River. When the weather warms up, tables often appear out front. The area around the building blends historic and modern commercial structures, most standing one or two stories tall. To the west is Rubey Park, a big open space stretching between South Mill and South Monarch streets. Just around the corner, at South Mill and East Hyman, you’ll find the Wheeler Opera House, another Aspen landmark on the Register. One block southeast sits the base station and gondola for the Aspen Mountain ski area.

The building itself is a brick structure with three bays, rising two and a half stories, and a roof that slopes gently northward. Its front, or south, facade features a three-section glass storefront divided by wood. The main door is on the east side. Above each section is a rectangular transom—eight panes in the larger western section, four in the other two.

A wood cornice with dentils and modillions crowns this storefront. On the second story, three round-arched windows stand out. Their lower parts have one-over-one double-hung sash windows with black wooden sills. Projecting bricks create another modillioned cornice that acts as a springline for the arches and wraps around them.

At the roofline, a third cornice, also modillioned and dentilled, is supported by ornate brackets beneath a broad overhanging eave. A small pediment with scroll brackets sits in the center. Gold lettering spells “1892” in the entablature, surrounded by decorations, with “T. LATTA” below for the original owner. Spherical finials top each end. The side and rear facades have few windows; on the east side, “RED ONION” appears in golden vertical letters.

Inside, the original pressed tin ceiling, bar and backbar, and clay tile floor are still in place. That floor matches one found at the Hotel Jerome, another Register-listed Aspen landmark at Main and Mill. Two small Hungarian gypsy figurines over the bar are thought to be original, and the bar itself still bears a bullet hole from an accidental discharge by a city policeman in 1899. In the basement, you can find the entrance to a tunnel that once led to a nearby bank building.

History

Alderman Tom Latta built the unnamed brick structure on East Cooper Avenue in 1892 and opened a saloon, possibly with a brothel on the upper floors. At that time it was a standalone building with vacant lots on either side. The saloon quickly became popular among miners and local men interested in bicycling, boxing, and wrestling, and was one of only three places in the city to buy a meal. Initially called 'the brick saloon' or 'the new brick saloon', it soon became known as 'the red onion', a contemporary colloquialism for something rare and unique. Patrons were served Monongahela rye and Crab Orchard whiskey with their billiards matches.

After the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893, Aspen's prosperity faded, and many buildings fell vacant or succumbed to fire and neglect. The Red Onion remained open through the city's 'quiet years'. In 1918 Tim Kelleher purchased it and kept it open during Prohibition by serving sandwiches. Interest in Aspen as a ski resort grew in the late 1930s but was delayed by World War II.

After the war, John Litchfield, a veteran of the Army's Tenth Mountain Division who had trained in the area, bought the building from Kelleher in 1946. Litchfield formally named it the Red Onion and remodeled it. It became popular in the resort's après-ski scene and hosted musical performances, including a notable one by Billie Holiday. In the 1960s, owner Werner Kuster added a gourmet restaurant and performance space next door, and many more musicians played there, including John Denver, who later made Aspen his home.