Skinny Winter Gifts was Established in 1973, and has been a family run business for 47 years.
Before it was a gift shop it was a family run Drug Store. The building is an original building that was built in the 1880’s. Skinny Winter is located in the Historic Downtown District of Breckenridge, Colorado. Back in the mining days, Skinny Winter was a saloon. You can tell that it was a saloon because the front door to the building is set back from the street. This was so that the swinging doors to the saloon would not hit anyone on the sidewalk. It was one of the 18 saloons that were located in the downtown area. Above the saloon were rooms where the ladies would hang out and wait for gentlemen callers. One of the kickers was back in those days there were no stairs leading up to the rooms. If a lady was interested in a gentleman, she would drop down a ladder for the gentleman to climb up.
History of Breckenridge
Breckenridge was Founded in 1859 and was originally spelled with an i instead of an e. It was later changed to the spelling that we know today with an e. It was changed from Breckinridge, to Breckenridge because John Breckinridge went to fight with the Confederate Army. This upset the towns folk, they decided to permanently change the spelling in 1861. Breckenridge was originally a mining town and one of the largest gold nuggets, Tom’s Baby, was found in Breckenridge in 1887.
In the winter of 1898-1899, Breckenridge had received so much snow they called it the “Winter Blockade”. It had snowed over 500 inches, the train that brought goods to the town could not make it for 80 days due to the heavy snow. This still remains the most snow in the history of Breckenridge.
Today things are much different than they were back in the mining days. Breckenridge is know for epic skiing, which opened on December 16, 1961. Breckenridge also boasts an excellent Summer where the temperature has never exceeded 85 degrees. There is world class golfing, rafting, hiking and biking.
