Historic Glen Haven B&B restored after September 2013 flood
GLEN HAVEN — In December 2012, “Curtis B.” felt he had found a great place for his wife and him to spend their 10th wedding anniversary, and he was excited to tell others about it on the Yelp website.
“If you love the idea of staying in a warm and cozy inn up in the mountains on a cold and blustery night, this is the place for you,” he wrote, awarding the Inn of Glen Haven Yelp’s maximum five-star rating. He described the “warm, rustic, welcoming inn” as “a nice mix of mountain cabin with Victorian décor,” serving “delicious” dinners and breakfasts.
Nine months later came the deadly deluge of September 2013. The charming inn was all but gone, devastated — along with the tiny Larimer County hamlet of Glen Haven that surrounded it.
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“We had 16 inches of rain in 48 hours,” said Tom Sellers, who along with his wife, Sheila, has owned the inn for the past 28 years. “The flood came up and took Glen Haven almost off the map.”
For Tom Sellers, the flood disrupted far more than the Inn of Glen Haven.
“We had put it up for sale five weeks before the flood,” he said. “I’m getting old; I’m 70 now, so I was 66 then. We wanted to retire. We wanted somebody younger, with new ideas, to take it over — somebody that had more ambition.”
It’s taken nearly four years of sweat, money and love, but the Inn of Glen Haven is about to reopen this summer. It’s ready for more cozy high-country getaways, upscale dinners, homey breakfasts and new memories to treasure — as soon as Sellers can finish hiring its staff.
The building started in 1919 as a general store, then served as a post office before becoming a lodging facility in 1935. It was purchased in 1965 by Bill Wells, then the priest at St. Francis of Assisi Anglican Church in Estes Park, who added some of his own stained-glass artistry.
Bill and Doris Wells eventually sold the inn to Ted and Karen Haines, who then sold it to Fritz Sterling. Sellers said Sterling “tried to make a drug and alcohol rehab center out of it but never succeeded.” The business had been closed for about a year and a half when Tom and Sheila Sellers bought it in April 1989. “I had worked in the auto-body trade and wanted a change,” he said.
While Tom Sellers renewed the business, his wife worked a day job in Boulder for the telephone company then known as Qwest. Every evening and during weekends, the couple would work at the inn.
Bill Wells “really brought the bed-and-breakfast idea and fine dining to the inn,” Sellers said, “and we just carried on the tradition from him” — including a Twelve Days of Christmas celebration Wells started and that continued until the deluge closed the inn.
Unlike many homes and other buildings in Glen Haven, the inn wasn’t entirely swept away, Sellers said, but “we had a lot of downstairs damage. It busted windows. It busted all the exterior doors off. We had water as high as five feet in some areas.”
The inn also lost antique furnishings, a 1963 Austin London taxi, and all its appliances, including a freezer that had just been stocked with lamb and elk meat.
Reopening the inn would mean mud to dig out, a collapsed roof to repair, a water system to restore and a kitchen to gut and replace. The extent of the work needed was staggering. Even after the water finally receded and the sun broke through, thoughts of rebuilding were yet to emerge.
“It took us a long time. Our house got hit too,” Sellers said. “We were all kind of dumbfounded by it for a while.”
Neighbors and friends in the close-knit village rallied to help, however — including Marsha Hobert, who, along with husband Ken, owns the Hobert Haven guest cabins in Glen Haven and Hobert Office Services in Estes Park.
“Tom wanted to make sure he could rebuild, and I wanted to help Tom,” she said. “They’re just hard-working people, and it was difficult for them, with everything they’d lost.”
“Everyone was doing something to help someone,” Sellers said, “so we decided to put it back together.”
Rebuilding, even if only to groom the inn for sale, was going to take money, though, and that was a tall order.
“If you’re not turning any business, you can’t pay back a loan,” Sellers said, but “Larimer County funded some stuff for us and got us some people to physically come in and do things. Church groups were so great to come in, too, in more ways than one.” Some unspecified “private help” also helped, he said. “We didn’t solicit for anything.”
One piece of unsolicited help came from Hobert, who also is a professional photographer. On her own initiative, she launched a crowdfunding page in the summer of 2014 to raise money to rebuild the inn, featuring many of her own images.
“I’ve known Marsha for forever and a day,” Sellers said. “She was so kind to do that for us.”
Nearly four years after the disaster in Glen Haven, a general store has reopened, infrastructure such as bridges and utility lines are still being built, and groundbreaking was held in June for a new town hall to replace the one that was swept away. A fundraising drive for the town hall is about halfway toward its $500,000 goal.
“Everyone had started a campaign because no one would help Glen Haven rebuild,” Hobert said. “The roads alone were going to take $2.2 million. We raised the money with fundraising and grants. I raised $51,000 myself to rebuild the roads.
“Glen Haven is the most remarkable community. It makes you feel so good to be part of it,” Hobert said. “People have been tirelessly volunteering their time, including at the inn. The inn’s a very important part of the town.”
Glen Haven is “starting to look like a little town again,” Sellers added. “Everybody’s done a great job putting the place back together. They’ve done an awesome job, they really have.”
The Inn of Glen Haven looks fresh and inviting now. Colorful flowers adorn hanging baskets. The kitchen sparkles. Each Victorian-themed bedroom is ready to welcome new visitors.
“I’m ready to go,” Sellers said. “I’ve just got to find some employees willing to work. We’ve got chefs to interview, but at least our old wait staff is going to come back. They’re pretty loyal people. But whoever I hire for the other positions are going to have to be committed. I want to open in the next week or 10 days, but I can’t until we find the right people.” A new website also is in the works, he said.
Returning guests will see a different landscape than they remember, with many trees washed away and the creek carving a new course through washed-out banks. But the inn should be much the same, with breakfast for overnight guests and elegant dinners open to the public. Lunch and a public bar aren’t offered.
For Tom and Sheila Sellers, retirement will have to wait.
“I’m going to have to run it,” Tom Sellers said. “Retirement gets put off for awhile. You gotta do what you gotta do.”
More of Marsha Hobert’s before-and-after photos of the Inn of Glen Haven are online at here.
For more information on the inn or to apply for employment, call 970-586-4696.
