Tom Noel

State Historians’s Council Emeritus

Dr. Thomas J. Noel is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Colorado Denver. Known as “Dr. Colorado,” Noel has written more than fifty books and numerous articles about the state, including the perennially popular Colorado: A History of the Centennial State.
 

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Tom Noel

Written by Tom Noel

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    Home Base

    As the History Colorado Center celebrates its tenth birthday, we look back on its many homes. 

  • Beloved Primary

    Why I Love Colorado

    In preparation for Colorado Day on August 1, we asked each member of the State Historian’s Council to reflect on what “our beloved Colorado” means to them. There are so many reasons to love Colorado that it’s hard to keep count, but “Dr. Colorado” Tom Noel shares his top ten.
     

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    May Bonfils and Her Lost Belmar Mansion: A Lavish Lakewood Estate Housed a Wealth of Benevolence

    Today, Jefferson County residents know Belmar as a vibrant shopping, dining, governmental, and residential development that opened in the heart of Lakewood in the early 2000s. The main attraction, once known as Villa Italia, opened in 2004 as one of the state’s largest shopping malls. It has since evolved into a much larger commercial and retail complex that keeps expanding.

    What shoppers, residents, and visitors may not know is that the name “Belmar” comes from the extraordinary estate built there by May Bonfils, daughter of Fredrick Bonfils. The Bonfils name—both famous and infamous—conjures not only Colorado’s most successful and feared newspaper tycoon but also his two feuding daughters, May and Helen, striving to improve and culturally enrich the lives of Coloradans.