One of Colorado’s most documented hotel disasters involves a maid and a candle

Elizabeth Wilson’s Explosive Plunge Through Room 217’s Floor

The Stanley Hotel had a big problem on June 25, 1911. Just one day after new gas pipes were filled, the power went out at 8 PM.

Head chambermaid Elizabeth Wilson took a lit candle to Room 217 to help guests see. She had no way to smell the gas leak.

The room blew up in seconds, sending her crashing through the floor into the dining room below. Though the blast wrecked 10% of the hotel and sent a bathtub flying, Wilson lived with just two broken ankles.

Today, Room 217 stands as Colorado’s most famous hotel room where you can walk the same floors that couldn’t hold Elizabeth Wilson.

F.O. Stanley Built His Hotel as an Electric Marvel in 1909

The Stanley Hotel opened on July 4, 1909, as one of the first hotels fully powered by electricity. F.O. Stanley built the huge 70,000-square-foot Colonial Revival building for rich Easterners and folks with TB looking for fresh mountain air.

Guests enjoyed fancy perks most hotels didn’t have yet: electric lights, phones, running water, and modern bathrooms in every room.

Stanley brought electricity to Estes Park for the first time, selling power to locals by the light bulb instead of using meters.

Mountain Power Outages Forced a Backup Plan

The Stanley Hotel lost power often during its first two years because of its remote mountain spot. These blackouts pushed Stanley to add an acetylene gas lighting system in June 1911 as a backup.

Workers put gas pipes throughout the entire hotel during winter 1910-1911, but left them empty until June 1911.

They installed an acetylene gas generator at the nearby Stanley Manor to supply backup lighting for all 140 rooms in the main hotel when the lights went out.

Gas Filled the Pipes for the First Time in June 1911

Workers filled the acetylene gas pipes with gas for the first time on June 24, 1911. Nobody had tested the system before this point.

Room 217 served as the Presidential Suite back then, taking up what’s now rooms 217 and 215 in an L-shape. A gas leak started in Room 217’s pipes right after they filled the system, though nobody knew it at the time.

Sunday Night Blackout Set the Stage for Disaster

The lights went out around 7:50 PM on June 25, 1911, during dinner at the hotel.

Guests gathered in the main lobby while staff got ready to light backup acetylene lamps throughout the building.

Head chambermaid Elizabeth Wilson from Lancaster, Pennsylvania got the job of lighting gas lamps room by room. Wilson had worked at the Stanley since it opened in 1909 and moved to Estes Park just for this job.

Invisible Danger Lurked in Room 217

Acetylene gas in 1911 had no added smell, making leaks impossible to spot by sniffing. The gas slowly filled Room 217 and the space between the dining room ceiling and second floor.

Huge pressure built up in the west wing as the gas collected in closed spaces.

Wilson had no way to know she was walking into a room full of explosive gas when she approached with her candle.

One Candle Flame Triggered a Massive Blast

Wilson walked into Room 217 holding a lit candle to light the acetylene lamp. The moment her candle flame touched the gas-filled air, a huge explosion rocked the hotel.

The blast destroyed the entire west wing and about 10% of the hotel.

People heard the explosion more than a mile away throughout Estes Park village, with the sound bouncing across the mountain valley.

The Blast Sent a Bathtub Flying Through the Air

The explosion blew doors off their hinges throughout the west wing and completely wrecked Room 217. At least ten glass windows on the ground floor shattered from the force.

People watching from outside saw a bathtub fly through the air during the explosion.

Large steel beams crashed through floors into the MacGregor Dining Room where guests were finishing their dinner, sending people running for safety.

Elizabeth Wilson Survived Her Two-Story Fall

The blast knocked Wilson through the floor from the second story into the MacGregor Dining Room below. She broke both ankles but somehow lived through both the fall and explosion.

Seven other hotel workers got hurt too, including waiters hit by flying debris.

One waiter took a plank to the face, while another hurt his hip from falling wreckage and ceiling materials.

The Explosion Put Itself Out and Saved the Hotel

The blast put out its own fire, stopping the wooden hotel from burning down completely. If fire had spread, the wooden building would have been totally destroyed.

Property damage totaled about $10,000, which equals roughly $320,000 today. Amazingly, no hotel guests got hurt even though the dining room ceiling collapsed during dinner.

Injured Staff Members Traveled to Longmont Hospital

All eight injured people, including Wilson and seven staff members, went to Longmont Hospital for treatment. Newspapers at the time said Wilson was hurt worst with both ankles broken.

She stayed in the hospital for about two months recovering from her injuries.

Not many records exist about the patients’ hospital stays from this time, but we know all eventually recovered.

Wilson Returned to Work at the Hotel She Almost Died In

After two months of healing, Wilson came back to her job at the Stanley Hotel. She kept working as chambermaid until her late 50s when she retired.

Wilson lived to be 90 years old, passing away in her Estes Park home decades after the accident.

Hotel management fixed the damage right away and kept the hotel open despite the disaster, moving dining services to Stanley Manor during rebuilding work.

Visiting Stanley Hotel, Colorado

The Stanley Hotel at 333 Wonderview Avenue in Estes Park offers a 60-minute Historic Stanley Day Tour covering the 1911 gas explosion when chambermaid Elizabeth Wilson entered Room 217 with a lit candle, triggering an acetylene blast that launched her through the floor.

You’ll need advance reservations online, and kids under 8 can’t join tours. Parking costs $10 May-October with a $5 Stanley Token included.

Tours view Room 217 from the hallway only.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• How Sun Yat-sen learned of China’s revolution from a Denver hotel room
• Jerome Wheeler built Aspen’s grand hotel in 1889. Four years later, he couldn’t afford a room.
• Colorado’s Georgetown Loop: when Union Pacific installed an entire bridge backwards