Seth Lake constructed rough stone walls, up to 18 inches thick, with stone from a quarry a few blocks away at the west end of 12th Street to build what is now the oldest stone hotel in Colorado. For the foundation, he dug a trench, filled it with boulders, and then tamped in local fire clay. The two-story building bears little resemblance to its New York City namesake. One of its few architectural refinements is a reconstructed frame balcony forming a porch over the entrance. Window and door trim consists of heavy, hand-hewn square logs. Additions dating from 1892, of local pressed brick, have fine, round-arched windows on both stories beneath a mansard roof with pedimented dormers. On the eve of demolition in 1972, Golden voters rescued it, allowing the Golden Landmarks Association to convert it to a municipal museum.