Elders, aunts and uncles trickle through the front door, escaping the wintry morning. The air is so cold it nips like a crotchety lap dog. Warm drinks circulate. Stories and laughter mingle. Platter after platter colonizes the dining table with a glistening, steaming feast.
Jolly holiday gatherings form the bulk of Tracie Trotter’s fondest childhood memories. “I was an only child and there were no other kids,” she explains. With no young cousins to play with, Tracie donned an apron and helped prepare and serve food. She journeyed into adulthood armed with an unshakable yen for people seated around a sumptuous breakfast—a yen she satisfies daily running the Gable House Bed & Breakfast with her partner Charlie Goodman.
Fluffy omelets with locally grown mushrooms and sausage. Baked French toast. Waffles à la mode. Sesame-crusted pancakes with house-made ricotta and applesauce. These are some of the edible delights guests savor as they gather around the communal breakfast table and swap tourist tales.
Originally built in 1892, the Gable House was designed to be a palatial private home for a wealthy flour merchant and his wife. Its blushing bricks were kilned in Pueblo, Colorado. Its turrets, bay windows, ornate bannisters, and fish-scale shingles are icons of the late Victorian Queen Anne style.
“There’s nothing like this in the grid or downtown,” Trotter attests. She notes that Durango boasts two historic guest homes which have been markedly modernized through renovations. Its two historic hotels offer Victorian luxury, but not with the same dose of intimacy enjoyed at the Gable House. Its home-away-from home feel makes it ideal for family reunions, company retreats, leaf-peeping rendezvous, and ski getaways. Wise locals enjoy lower winter rates when booking the house for their out-of-town holiday guests, ensuring a singularly cozy and nourishing experience.
The Gable House also stands out for its quirky evolution as a center of community service, which began in 1913 when Dr. Benjamin Oschner, a renown doctor and surgeon, converted the house into a hospital. After the second World War, the county took ownership and continued to operate it as a community hospital. Doomed by stricter laws and regulations governing hospitals, the house was shuttered. According to reporting in The Durango Herald, the iconic structure fell into disrepair until four students from Fort Lewis College (FLC) rescued it and converted it into a dormitory. By 1991, the one remaining owner painstakingly restored the house’s former elegance and opened it as a bed and breakfast.
For their part, Trotter and Goodman never dreamed of running a bed and breakfast. “How did it happen?” Trotter splutters. “We don’t even know. It wasn’t ever a twinkle in our eyes. We hadn’t even thought about it!”
She was a lifelong nurse and he worked in commerce. In 2022, they were about to retire and were house-hunting in Durango, a town they’d fallen for while Trotter’s youngest daughter attended FLC. When a deal for a house on Third Avenue fell through, Trotter and Goodman stumbled upon the Gable House’s online listing.
“It was very serendipitous that we found each other,” Tracie says, as if she and the house were star-crossed lovers. What else, but fate, could have united a loving mother and nurse with a house-turned-hospital-turned-bed-and-breakfast? “I’m a caretaker. Hospitality comes naturally to me.”
Now with three seasons under their belt, Trotter and Goodman are navigating the delicate dance between historical preservation and carbon-friendly adaptations. For instance, they’ve added EV charging stations and eliminated all single-use plastics and products. They use WeFill for soaps and detergents. They compost kitchen scraps. Their efforts to reduce the old house’s carbon footprint recently earned 4CORE’s platinum rating for a green business certification!
Trotter and Goodman also take every opportunity to showcase a plethora of Durango’s local goods, including EsoTerra ciders, Skagua, Bread, Tortilleria Flor, Gosar Sausage, 81301 Coffee, Cream Bean Berry, and more! Trotter also enjoys helping her guests find the best local spots for shopping, eating, and exploring. She notes, “I kind of coin myself as the unpaid, unsolicited concierge for Durango—because I’m passionate about it!”
Keeping the Gable House tied to community service is essential to both Trotter and Goodman. To that end, they provide a wealth of in-kind room donations when sponsoring diverse events, including the West Slope Startup Week, the Cowboy Gathering, Music in the Mountains, and Durango Filmfest, to name only a few. They also host an ice cream social fundraiser for the Animals Museum. And they participate in Snowdown with a not-to-be-missed murder mystery game that weaves through the historic house.
"It’s about giving and receiving. Sharing. We truly enjoy sharing. When you give, you get so much!” Trotter points out. She concludes, “We’re grateful to live here.”
The Gable House also stands out for its quirky evolution as a center of community service, which began in 1913...
“It was very serendipitous that we found each other,” Tracie says, as if she and the house were star-crossed lovers. What else, but fate, could have united a loving mother and nurse with a house-turned-hospital-turned-bed-and-breakfast?