Designed by John Conkie in 1879 and originally called the Grand Union Hotel, this 100 room, three-story brick landmark trimmed was renamed in honor of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The picturesque aesthetics of heavily hooded and elongated windows, polished stone quoins, an ornately bracketed cornice above a decorative frieze of Italianate style architecture exude Italian Renaissance. The terrazzo-floored lobby lead to the Rococo ballroom, ladies' "retiring room," gaming room, saloon and smoking parlor. The Columbian Hotel, with her storied past, operated well into the 1970s but she is as relevant to Trinidad as the Oxford Hotel is to LoDo in downtown Denver.