On a bright Spring morning, John Cullen walks up and down the sidewalk in front of what will soon be The Stanley Chocolate Factory. He is talking on the phone and stops to pick up some litter that someone has dropped. He puts it in a trash basket and notices another piece of litter. He picks that up too without missing a beat.
With the clock ticking on the July 4 opening date – T-minus nine weeks and counting – dozens of construction workers wearing hardhats and reflective vests hustle and bustle in and out of the building like an army of Oompa-Loompas, as Cullen, owner of The Stanley Hotel, oversees the progress.
The man is about as excited for The Stanley Chocolate Factory as a 10-year-old kid set loose in a candy store. The multi-million-dollar project has been three long years in the making and Cullen is ready for show time.
The venue will provide visitors with an immersive experience that blends a bit of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” with Disneyland’s Main Street. There is also an echo of the tag line from Kevin Coster’s 1989 film “Field of Dream” – “if you. build it, they will come.”
Cullen purchased the property on West Elkhorn Avenue, originally constructed as a church, in 2022 with the idea of creating a do-it-yourself chocolate factory – the first of its kind — where visitors could learn about the history of chocolate and, under the tutelage of a chocolatier, create their own gourmet candy bar in a state-of-the-art temperature-controlled kitchen.
As would-be-chocolate chefs cross the threshold from the sidewalk into the building’s vestibule, a talking stuffed moose outfitted with AI will greet them and answer their questions: Where does chocolate come from? How many calories are there in an ounce of chocolate? What’s the difference between dark chocolate and milk chocolate?
The first-floor retail space will be appointed with period antiques from the time F. O. Stanley came to Estes Park and built his iconic hotel, including a 1906 Stanely Steamer Car.
Oak and glass display casings from a pharmacy in Brooklyn that date to 1904 line the walls. The shelves will soon be outfitted with boxes of candy. Cullen bought the pharmacy and had the vintage woodwork – and even the store’s original apothecary jars – shipped to Estes.
Enormous chandeliers of handblown glass bubble clusters that look like they could be from Venice or from Dale Chihuly’s studio hang from the ceiling. Decorative Corinthian columns call to mind the elegance of Herrod’s, the famous department store in London built in 1905.
A grand staircase beckons visitors to the second level. The steps are covered in a chocolate brown and gold swirled carpet. Cullen spent $250,000 just to have hundreds of balusters milled to replicate the four-season motif that F. O. Stanley designed for both his hotel and his private residence.
Cullen’s attention to detail is nothing short of fastidious. Pointing to the intricately carved spindles on the handrail, the man who has owned The Stanley Hotel for the past 30 years explains that while today’s ADA building codes dictate that banisters must be taller than when Stanley built the iconic hotel, he wanted to make sure the alignment of the millwork in the chocolate factory was exactly as it is in the hotel.
He also points out that while Stanely used pine in the original staircases, the replicas were turned in oak.
As visitors stand to take it all in, a toy train will run along a track from the chocolate kitchen on the third floor to the first to deliver the finished handcrafted chocolate bars to patrons.
Showing off the enormous chocolate kitchen on the third floor Cullen says, “this is where the magic happens.”
Worktables are lined up ready for hands on classes in chocolate making. Chocolate chefs from around the world will spend 30 to 60 days at the Chocolate Factory as the featured chocolatier. Guests will select from a variety of ingredients, from coconut to nuts and milk chocolate or dark, to create their own unique candy bar.
Full steam ahead
Steamers, a coffee shop on the first floor, draws its name from the famous steam-powered vehicles manufactured by the Stanley Motor Carriage Company founded by F. O. Stanley and his twin brother, F. E. Stanley, in 1898.
The brothers perfected a dry-plate photographic process which they sold in 1904 to George Eastman who founded Kodak, the photographic film and camera company. The Stanleys invested their money into their steam powered automobile company.
Eventually the gas-powered internal combustion engine captured the market and the Stanleys’ car company folded in 1924, but it played a significant role in popularizing the auto as the future of personal transportation.
On top of The Stanley Chocolate Factory, a rooftop restaurant will serve barbecue foods prepared by Wes Moore, owner of the popular WesTex barbecue food truck.
The restaurant with its on-site kitchen will feature family-friendly picnic tables and checkered tablecloths. A retractable awning will provide shelter from the sun on hot summer days and five-foot-high glass enclosures that will surround the perimeter of the outdoor space will shield diners from wind.
“Every day will be like the Fourth of July,” says Cullen who explains that Stanley opened his hotel on July 4, 1909, so it is fitting that The Stanley Chocolate Factory should also open on July 4.
Moore says the significance of the July Fourth date is not lost on him as he will celebrate the fifth anniversary of opening his food truck business this year on the Fourth as he also opens the rooftop restaurant.
Three event spaces within the chocolate factory building – a dining and conference room, a chocolate tasting room, and a whiskey cellar – will be available for groups.
The attention to detail in each of the rooms is extraordinary. Arched antique doors to the dining room were imported from Italy.
A year from this summer, Cullen expects an expansion, which will house a vintage carousel from France, to be ready. A little over a week ago, the Estes Park Town Board approved the preliminary plans for the indoor carousel which he says will open on July 4, 2026.
Not only will the carousel be an added visitor attraction next summer, but children’s hospitals in cities around the county can adopt one of its 23 carousel animals, give the animal a name and a story, and then use the animal as a fundraiser in their annual auction or gala events. Winners will receive a stay at The Stanley Hotel and the 23 hospitals will benefit from the unique auction item.
Cullen sees these relationships as a win-win to create a unique connection between Estes Park and 23 cities across the country.
The building’s history
On New Year’s Eve 1907, Roy and Sarah Wiest and G. Elmer and Beulah Wright chartered the Presbyterian Church of Estes Park. R. H. Tallant, George Wagner, Samuel Service, James Boyd, and J. J. Manford were elected to serve as the first trustees.
Services were initially held in the town’s log schoolhouse as plans were made for the town’s first church building.
A lot was purchased on the northside of West Elkhorn for $600 and in 1909, the same year The Stanley Hotel was built, a small wood framed church was completed by volunteers at a cost of $4,000 for materials.
At the time, Estes Park had not yet been incorporated and there were no municipal building codes, a fact that would create expensive and complicated challenges down the pike.
In his book, “American Switzerland: Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, the Growth Years,” James Pickering wrote, “An unplanned assortment of houses and commercial structures claimed vacant land, and seemingly overnight — ‘asparagus-like’ — a community had put down roots.”
As Cullen began the renovations, engineers soon discovered the original church building lacked a proper foundation to support the weight of the building. Experts said it was nothing short of a miracle that the building was still standing and had not fallen in on itself. It was just a matter of time.
Before the cosmetic remodeling and decorating could begin, the construction crew had to replace hollow concrete blocks with a new foundation. They then had to shore up the floors with steel piers that could support the occupancy load and raise the interior ceiling height by five feet in several places.
In what had once been the nave of the church, construction workers had to lift and install a 90-foot beam that was constructed on the street and then lifted into place by a crane.
“I spent more on steel than I did to buy the building,” said Cullen, explaining that steel pilings and new beams were needed to ensure the building did not fall down.
Inspectors are now going through the building and signing off on certificates of occupancy, room by room.
As the church’s congregation grew, there was a need for more space. Several additions over the years enlarged the original log and wood building including a major expansion in 1955 that added a social hall and banquet hall, a new kitchen, and classrooms. With that addition came a major façade change from the original white wood clad exterior to a reddish-brown Lyons sandstone.
In 1952 the name was officially changed to the Community Church of the Rockies. Operated as a church until 1981, the building was purchased by Peter and Maureen Marsh and renovated in 1982 as a retail space dubbed The Old Church Shops.
Fifty years ago next year, Dr. James Durward developed the Centennial Plaza with the Water Wheel Shops and the glockenspiel. A visionary who also started the community’s Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival, Durward wanted to draw visitors and business to West Elkhorn.
Now ready for its next iteration as an emporium of all things chocolate, The Stanley Chocolate Factory is expected to continue to draw visitors to Estes and to the west end of Elkhorn for a sensory experience of sights, sounds, and flavors.
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