New businesses a gem for Creede

CREEDE—Last March Jim and Anna Tillery finished the long process of refurbishing an old historical building on Main Street in Creede and opened the Aspen Inn and Finding Gems Gift Shop. “I have always wanted to own a storefront and when Jim brought me here to Creede, I knew that this was the place I wanted to do that,” said Anna.

Anna originally came from New York and after meeting Jim, planned a vacation to his family’s vacation home located in Creede. “Jim has been coming here all his life and has always enjoyed Creede,” said Anna. “As soon as I saw it, I thought it was charming and cute, but the fact of the matter is that Creede chose me.”

Renovations on the building began in November of 2016 and the new business owners knew that in order to be open for the coming summer they were going to have a quick turnaround. “We were going to have two businesses in one, so we started refurbishing the hotel first. We redid all of the fixtures and appliances, bought new furniture and tried to keep true to the historical layout of the building,” explained Anna.

Anna and Jim relied on the expertise of their family and friends to help with the renovations and that process alone holds a very special significance for the whole family. “Now, every time I look at the bar or the floor, I will think about who accomplished the work and I hold that dear to my heart,” finished Anna.

The hotel portion of the business consists of four rooms. Three of the rooms are queen size rooms with an extra guest amenity if someone needs extra accommodations. The fourth room is a master king suite that can hold up to six people. “We love Aspens, hence the name of our inn, and we wanted to incorporate that into our rooms. Each room has a mural on the wall depicting different stages of the Aspen tree. We also named the rooms for their interior. We have the springtime room, summertime room, starry night room and the twilight room.”

Once the hotel was completed, work began on the lower half of the building and the gift shop. “We had a vision and as the work began to unfold so did our vision for what we wanted. We removed all of the old metal sheeting from around the walls and built a custom bar out of beetle kill lumber that turned out just beautiful,” said Anna.

The gift shop holds several items from local artists and gems from around the area. “When we named the gift shop we used the word gem both metaphorically and literally. We are huge rock hounds and bring back our spoils from hikes around the area, which is our literal gems. Then we also want to sell things that are hidden gems— things like old baseball cards or local things related to Creede, which are metaphorical gems. What we really wanted was for anyone, whether they had $10 or $100, to be able to come in here and find something special.”

The Tillerys are also planning on hosting craft workshops throughout the year. Right now, guests can come in and for $10 they can have a beverage of their choice, a stack of stationary and envelopes and can write letters to family and friends. “It’s a lost art, writing hand written letters and we wanted to encourage people to get back into the habit. We wanted an old-time coffee shop inside the gift shop, so we serve high quality coffee, tea and ice cream. We even do the traditional tea ceremony from the east if people want to come in and experience it.”

In addition to the craft workshops, Anna also has plans to host non-alcoholic dances. “These will be so fun! People can come and enjoy some music, warm or cold beverages and some kind of snack food while they dance the night away. When we first got here, I noticed that there wasn’t really anywhere people could go to dance and I want to offer that.”

Anna finished by stating though the business is just now getting started, she and Jim hope to offer something special to the Creede area that helps other businesses grow. “We wanted to offer something unique that didn’t take away from the businesses that were already here, and I think we will accomplish that.”

The Aspen Inn and Finding Gems Gift Shop is currently open Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 5 p.m. and will change to summer hours in May. They are also looking to hire employees to help with the craft workshops and other activities on the agenda for the coming year. Be sure to stop in and say hello.

 


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