Winks Lodge

Winks Lodge, established in 1925 by O. Wendell "Winks" Hamlet and his wife Naomi, stands as a significant landmark in American history. Nestled in the Rocky Mountains, it provided African Americans with a safe and welcoming space during a time of segregation and racial discrimination.

• The first of these sites, Winks Lodge, was constructed in 1925 by O. Wendell “Winks” Hamlet and his wife, Naomi, and was surrounded by rental cabins. 

• The lodge was significant socially, serving as a safe haven for Black people, created by a Black man where visitors could interact freely.

• Opening for business in 1928, the rustic lodge was the centerpiece of the resort community and continued to operate as “Winks Panorama” until Hamlet’s death in 1965.

• The lodge drew such notable guests as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, and Billy Eckstein. These musicians could perform at Five Points jazz venues in Denver, places like the Casino Club and the Rossonian, and then follow the gig with a trip to Winks Lodge.

• Not all VIP guests were musicians, however; one historian who has studied the history of Winks Lodge has likened it to the literary salons of the Harlem Renaissance for the readings that Winks and Naomi Hamlet hosted there. In the heyday of Winks Lodge, one could hear readings by luminaries like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Countee Cullen. 

• Hamlet’s second wife, Melba, whom he married in 1952 following Naomi’s death, was a noted cook, and the barbecue at Winks Lodge was likened to the best in Kansas City. Visitors praised the meals prepared by Hamlet’s wives, which featured such dishes as fried chicken, trout, greens, biscuits, rhubarb pies, peach cobblers, and smoked meats. The Hamlets raised chickens and planted rhubarb on the grounds.

• Wink’s was a family-friendly venue, where guests dined on the wraparound porch with a view of distant mountains, used the outdoor picnic area to barbecue, and gathered in the lodge living room for conversation and games.

• Wink’s Lodge provided rooms, food, and recreational, relaxational, and contemplative opportunities for visitors. Wink’s offered a safe space for African Americans to pursue mountain activities, including hiking, horseback riding, sightseeing, and trout fishing in nearby South Boulder Creek, while enjoying views of the Rocky Mountains, fresh air, nature, and eating delicious food.

• Wink’s to be the only such resort between Minneapolis and southern California. Wink’s Panorama is the only remaining Rocky Mountain vacation destination listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book and Ebony magazine’s early 1950s guides for Black travelers.

• While many of Wink’s patrons came from the Denver area, guests from the East, Midwest, and South also arrived by automobile or train. Out of state guests to Wink’s were faced with the prospect of racial discrimination while traveling, even in parts of the country without state mandated racial segregation. Louisiana visitor Eugene Washington expressed his joy at visiting Wink’s Panorama: “I felt like royalty being able to rent a mountain lodge that set [sic] amid clusters of other cabins rented by colored people.