The neon sign of the La Vista Motel at 5500 E. Colfax Ave.

The La Vista Motel at 5500 E. Colfax was home to visitors for decades, but not in recent years. Now, the renovated building will be welcoming customers again starting this month.

One of the 1960s inspired rooms at the motel.

The motel, built in 1956, was purchased by developer Nathan Beal in 2022. The building has undergone a complete 1960s-style renovation. Its 23 rooms are filled with nods to the past with unique appliances and bright Colorado-themed wall-covering photos. There’s El Piñon coffee shop and bar, and underneath is a welcoming space fittingly named Grandma’s Basement.

Grandma’s Basement at the La Vista Motel takes visitors back in time.

At a preview event Oct. 2, Carla Beal, Nathan’s wife, talked about the importance of restoring roadside motels that are “little time capsules of adventure and possibility.”

“These places weren’t just stopovers,” she said. “They were landmarks along the highway of American life.”

La Vista Motel was part of a booming travel culture in the 1950s and 1960s when Colfax, then the main east-west highway through Denver, was lined with diners and motels welcoming families packed in station wagons.

Carla recalled a story about one of those travelers, a man who came to look at the construction work at La Vista while her husband was at the site alone. The man told Nathan, “I found it. I finally found it.” He went on to explain that he lived in Colorado Springs, and when he and his wife married, they drove to Denver and spent their honeymoon at the La Vista Motel.

The man had spent time over the years trying to find what he called their “honeymoon oasis,” but many of the motels along East Colfax didn’t look the same.

Nathan took the man on a tour of the motel, and they visited the room where the couple had stayed. At the end of the visit, the man explained that he had recently lost his wife and was thankful for the opportunity to revisit special memories.

His is one of the many stories of roadside motels like the La Vista.

“If these walls could talk, I’m not sure I would want to hear everything they have to say,” Carla said.

Front Porch photos by Linda Kotsaftis