U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt stayed there.

So did Crown Prince of Austria Franz Ferdinand, P.T. Barnum, Thomas Edison and Clark Gable.

Buffalo Bill and his Wild West show dropped by, along with his star Annie Oakley.

With 150 years of existence, The Cliff House in Manitou Springs is a long-standing shrine to the history of the Pikes Peak region and the West — many of its rooms are named after famous guests.

The hotel will celebrate its sesquicentennial Friday through June 10 with dinner and dancing on Friday; a grand gala on Saturday, reminiscent of those thrown in the early years of Manitou’s history; Roosevelt reenactor Kurt Skinner; and historical presentations by Ed Nichols III, the great grandson of E.E. Nichols, who bought the property in 1876. His family ran the hotel for more than seven decades.

“No two rooms are alike,” said general manager Martin Lays. “The celebrity suites are themed with pictures of that person. You get the feel, you can reminisce about the day. We also feature artwork from Charles Rockey, who was a local Manitou artist.”

At the base of Pikes Peak, The Inn, as it was first known, opened in 1874, two years before Colorado became a state. Manitou Springs was barely a town, though it had started growing in the late 1850s in response to the activity around the gold mines in the region. American Indians still lived in the area and the mineral springs drew people from the East Coast who believed the waters would heal what ailed them, including Nichols, who showed up in the 1870s hoping to heal his tuberculosis.

“The building sat here by itself; there was nothing much around it,” Lays said. “There were stables. At one point they had a billiard hall and a bowling alley and tennis court.”

The Inn operated as a stop on the famous stagecoach run from Colorado Springs to Leadville. The 20-room boarding house, with its parlors and porches, attracted trappers and hunters. And when the Leadville mines proved fruitful, more well-to-do folks, such as mine owners, miners and investors, popped by the establishment. The amenities proved so popular tents were pitched outside the building to accommodate all the guests.

By the mid-1870s, though, times had changed. With the gold rush dying out, The Inn struggled to fill its rooms. Fortunately, Manitou’s mineral springs were catching more attention and visitors. Nichols, who had healed from his disease, bought The Inn in 1876 and renamed it The Cliff House. He turned it into a resort hotel for those lured to town by the sparkling waters.

California real estate developer Jim Morley bought the property in 1981 and turned the building into a 42-unit apartment building. The following year, a tenant fell asleep in bed with a lit cigarette and torched the fourth and fifth floors. The building sat vacant for 16 years until Morley spent $10.5 million in restoration and reopened it in 1999. He’ll also be in town for the sesquicentennial celebration.

At its peak, the hotel had 200 rooms. Nowadays 55 rooms, a ballroom, music room, The Dining Room and Red Mountain Bar and Grill attract about 20,000 room guests, dining guests and people who wander in for a look back in time.

Contact the writer: 636-0270