Geneva Home

The Geneva Home is significant for its history and its architecture and for its association with the history of healthcare facilities in Colorado. Colorado attracted thousands suffering from tuberculosis during the early twentieth century and a number of sanitariums and other medical facilities were established to treat consumptives. The Geneva Home was operated by a national association of hotel workers as a recuperative care facility for its members throughout the United States, especially those suffering from tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases for which Colorado's climate was considered beneficial. The property is thus associated with the efforts of working men to provide healthcare benefits for themselves during the early twentieth century.

The Geneva Home is also representative of the Craftsman style as adapted for a convalescent home. The residence includes popular features of the architectural style and elements considered to be useful in the treatment of tuberculosis during the early twentieth century. The house's broad, gabled roof with overhanging eaves, exposed rafters, and oversize brackets; the gabled projecting porches and gabled dormers; the shingled walls atop a raised foundation of glazed brick; and the triple window, bay window, and doors with geometric glazing all represent Craftsman style influences. The property's screened-in porch on the east and enclosed porch with removable windows on the west, as well as the wing with multiple bedrooms terminating in a sunroom on the north are representative of the healthcare functions of the house. Although the home continued to operate until 1975, the formal Period of Significance for the property is defined as 1927-1948, extending from the opening of the Geneva Home through the National Register's fifty-year cutoff date.

On 9 November 1926, the International Geneva Association established a convalescent home for its members in Littleton, Colorado, a small community ten miles southwest of Denver. The International Geneva Association was composed of hotel and restaurant employees from around the world. Included in its rolls were twenty-two thousand members, with over three thousand members in the United States. The largest international beneficial and fraternal organization of hotel and restaurant employees, the International Geneva Association was founded in 1877 in Geneva, Switzerland, by hotel employees concerned about the bleak future of many waiters. Branches were created in major cities throughout the world, and the association came to the United States during the early twentieth century. Leading hotel figures of the day and proprietors of large hotel chains were members of the organization, which offered members sick benefits, free medical treatments, and life insurance. In addition, the group provided old age pensions for members over fifty, club rooms in various cities, an employment service, and free legal advice. The Colorado branch included sixty-five members in Denver and Colorado Springs in 1927. The association's Littleton home was the only such facility to be established in the United States, although the organization had similar facilities in Europe, South America, Australia, and Asia.

The association selected Littleton for its rest home because of its "picturesque site and healthful climate." Frank I. Haberl, former manager of several of Denver's finest hotels, including the Brown Palace, was the father of the Geneva Home idea and chairman of the acquisition committee, which included Calvin Morse, another former manager of the Brown Palace, and Patrick Lynch, manager of the Denver Country Club. In 1923, Haberl had traveled to Budapest to convince an International Geneva Association convention that the United States needed a convalescent home for tubercular waiters and stewards, as well as other needy, old, and sick members. As Littleton journalist Houstoun Waring noted, those who stayed in the home needed three things: "Colorado's blue sky and dry climate, plenty of fresh air, and good food."

During the early twentieth century, medical experts emphasized the importance of fresh air, wholesome food, and adequate rest in the treatment of tuberculosis, which was then the leading cause of death in the United States. Colorado's dry and sunny climate had long been considered very beneficial for consumptives. Denver promoted itself as a mecca for those suffering from respiratory diseases as eastern doctors advised their patients to seek cures in the West. Several private organizations, most with religious or ethnic ties, had established sanitariums and provided for the treatment of poor and indigent sufferers who would otherwise be unable to afford the often extended periods of treatment required by the disease. These institutions continued to provide such services until the discovery of antibiotics which brought effective treatment of the disease by the 1950s.

The International Geneva Association purchased "Romoco," the home and 14.5-acre poultry farm with a lake owned by Mr. and Mrs. Stuart L. Sweet. The property had previously been known as the Dowling Farm. By 1923, the Sweets were operating a large poultry farm on the property, where they raised two thousand laying hens and sold eggs. When the International Geneva Association purchased the Romoco property, it contained several large chicken houses as well as a circa 1920 one-and-a-half-story residence and a lake. The group paid Sweets $28,000 and spent another $12,000 on remodeling the property to convert it into a healthcare facility. By March 1927, remodeling of the property was underway.

The home admitted its first guests in July 1927. Dedication ceremonies attracted three hundred people from Littleton and Denver, as well as visitors from around the country. Littleton Mayor C.E. Stephenson welcomed the new facility and offered the city's cooperation in making the home a success. Denver Mayor Benjamin F. Stapleton extended his city's greeting to visiting members of the International Geneva Association.

The Geneva Home brought men from all over the country to Littleton to "rest and spend their vacations and recuperate from their strenuous duties of 'serving the public.'" Only the indigent and men without wives were allowed to stay in the home. Women hotel employees were not eligible for membership in the association. Many of the men who became guests at the home were European immigrants who had found steady jobs working in major hotels throughout the country. Hotel work was often debilitating as it required long hours in confined, often smoke-filled spaces such as dining rooms and exacted a mental and physical toil. Respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis were among the most prevalent illnesses of the guests during the early years of the home. Some men who came to Littleton were very ill and spent their last days being cared for at Geneva Home.

An average of ten to fifteen men resided at the facility under the care of its matron, Elizabeth Rees. Mrs. Rees, who was in charge of the home from its opening until the 1940s, had lived in Colorado but was residing in New York when she was hired to run the home. Mrs. Rees supervised the cooking and cleaning, coordinated the medical care for guests, and ordered all the supplies necessary to run the facility. Doctors were on call to provide necessary medical services for the guests. All of the shopping necessary to operate the home was conducted in Littleton, providing a small boost to the local economy. On some Saturday nights, members of the local community visited Geneva Home to enjoy dinners prepared by chefs who were staying there. Members of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the International Geneva Association visited frequently and provided the guests with entertainment. To provide for the maintenance of the Littleton home chapters around the country took up a collection every Christmas, with members contributing one to twenty dollars each. The Denver branch of the group supervised the operation of the home. The interior of Geneva Home featured decorations reflecting the national membership of the group. Plates of prominent hotels and restaurants were displayed on a plate rail near the ceiling in the home's public rooms. Brass medallions of various national chapters were placed on interior doors at the home.

Geneva Lake presented members with recreational opportunities for fishing and rowing. The lake was stocked with bass, perch, and bluegill fish, and the catch of fishing guests sometimes provided meals for the home. The guests also raised vegetables and kept some sheep and flocks of chickens and ducks which also contributed to the wholesome meals served at the home. Anton Senekowitsch, who convalesced at the home for many months, worked on the landscaping of the grounds and created a decorative rock garden. During his search for suitable rocks and gravel, Mr. Senekowitsch found a prehistoric artifact and some petrified wood on the site. Elizabeth Croft, daughter of Elizabeth Rees, recalls that the setting of the home was very beautiful, landscaped with trees, bushes, and flowers.

In 1937, the Geneva Home celebrated its tenth anniversary. By that date, approximately one hundred men had stayed in the facility while recovering their health. In 1941, rising demand for convalescent care for hotel workers prompted the association to enlarge the house with the erection of a new wing containing eight bedrooms and a sunroom. The addition was made possible by a donation from Emil Coulon, a wealthy New England hotel operator who began his career as a waiter. With the new rooms, the home could accommodate twenty guests. The $30,000 wing was dedicated by Oscar Tschirky, celebrated chef of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. 12 The home's expansion occurred near the peak of Geneva's membership in the United States. The association had as many as 27,000 members in the United States in the early 1940s. In the late 1940s, many hotels and restaurants were unionized with closed shops, and the International Geneva Association lost membership, as workers could not afford to belong to two organizations.

By the 1950s, the discovery of drugs for effectively treating tuberculosis diminished the need for a recuperative facility for ill hotel workers. The Geneva Home then functioned as a retirement facility for association members who needed nursing care. A 1953 newspaper article noted that "twenty superannuated waiters" were "pleasantly spinning out their lives" at the home. For a variety of reasons, all of the residents were unable to continue their hotel work. The number of men seeking lodging in the Geneva Home gradually dwindled. In 1973, the last three men staying at the house were transferred to a local nursing home.

In 1964 architect Eugene Sternberg designed Geneva Village, a complex of twenty-eight apartment units for the retired married members of the International Geneva Association on the grounds west of the original home. In 1975, the City of Littleton purchased the Geneva Home, Geneva Village, and the surrounding land for the site of a new city hall. On 17 August 1975, representatives of the International Geneva Association lowered their flag and the City of Littleton raised its flag in front of the Geneva Home. Members of the association from the Denver area and representatives from around the country attended the ceremonies. From 1977-80 the city used the building for offices. After considering the demolition of the building for several years, in 1997 the City of Littleton determined to preserve the Geneva Home as representative of the city's heritage. The building is currently being leased and rehabilitated by a local architectural and engineering company for use as offices.