Wink’s Lodge fundraiser honoring legendary Lena Horne
Good food and music on August 28th in Lincoln Hills
Besides all the activity and interest generated by the fishing clubs at the north end of Gilpin County, there’s another focus of attention in the same Pactolus area.
Winks Lodge, that great old rooming house in Lincoln Hills, is having a fundraiser on Saturday afternoon, August 28th.
As everyone around here should know, Lincoln Hills—along the banks of South Boulder Creek, just up the railroad tracks from Pinecliffe and below the Rollinsville gorge—was one of the few resorts catering to African-Americans in the Jim Crow days of the 1920s and ‘30s.
The developers sold off lots to private buyers for vacation cabins beginning in 1922, for $40 each. But one enterprising Denver resident, Wendell “Wink” Hamlet, saw a need for a boarding house that would allow folks who didn’t have the wherewithal to buy or build a cabin to enjoy the restful mountain setting.
Originally called Winds Panorama, the lodge had six small bedrooms that rented for $2 a week. Meals were served on a veranda overlooking the pine forest sloping down to the creek far below.
The lodge succeeded wildly, however, not just as an overnight retreat, but as a social center where as many as 100 people a day would come up from Denver to frolic in the mountains and enjoy some of Wink’s famous barbecue.
Winks also became a haven for many of the musicians—like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong—who played in the black jazz clubs in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood.
Among those performers was a sultry singer named Lena Horne; besides being a sensational cabaret entertainer, Horne also went on to motion picture stardom in such hits as Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather.
After a long and illustrious career that included a one-woman Broadway show, numerous television appearances, and a pioneering role in the civil rights movement, Horne died this past May. So it seemed appropriate that the latest Winks Lodge fundraiser honor the legendary singer, with an afternoon of good food and great music.
A pair of Denver’s best jazz musicians are headlining the bill. Lionel Young studied violin at the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University and Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh. Moving to Denver, he continued his classical career with the Denver Chamber Orchestra, but also developed an interest in the blues; the Lionel Young Band was named Best Blues Band by Westword in 1997 and 1998. He’s played in concerts with such diverse talents as Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Page, Linda Rondstadt and Count Basie—another great jazz musician who used to stay at Winks Lodge!
Also entertaining at Winks Lodge next weekend will be Ayo Awosika; also classically trained, Ayo mixes influences from Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald into a soulful sound that is uniquely her own.
Tickets for the event are $50; contact Gary Jackson at 303-320-4848 for details. Spend a day in the mountains celebrating Gilpin County’s cultural heritage, and helping preserve one of its greatest legacies.