Underground tunnel said to have once connected brothel to iconic Denver hotel

Those familiar with the 'Wild West' past of Colorado probably aren't too shocked to hear that numerous cities hid underground tunnels beneath their sidewalks. As might be expected, one of those cities was Denver, which was once home to an operational network of tunnels interconnecting numerous buildings and destinations around the city – some connections made for legitimate reasons and others more nefarious.

One of the most famous – or infamous – tunnels was a tunnel connecting The Navarre building to the iconic Brown Palace Hotel.

In 1889, two notorious gamblers purchased The Brinker Collegiate Institute, turning it into a gentleman's club called Hotel Richelieu. Six months later, the gamblers lost the building in a card game and with new owners, The Navarre was born.

The Navarre served various roles in the local community, with its status in 1892 described by its current occupants as "offering public dining and private gambling on the bottom two floors, and more illicit pleasures on the top two levels." Others have described it as a brothel.

Regardless of what The Navarre is called, it's known that a tunnel was installed with the construction of the Brown Palace Hotel. Officially, the tunnel was said to help the two buildings share coal. Unofficially, the tunnel was said to be used to discretely transport male clientele from the Brown Palace to The Navarre and back.

The tunnel has since been sealed to the public and remains rather mysterious in the current era, often said to be the first of many tunnels that would be created beneath the roads and sidewalks of Denver in decades to come.

After a later stint as a fine dining restaurant and another as a popular jazz club, The Navarre is now home to the The American Museum of Western Art – fitting for a place so intertwined with the 'Wild West' days of the Centennial State.