The Sheepherder

Fifteen years ago the Broadmoor was sold to a billionaire named Philip Anschutz, and it hasn't been the same since. It just lost some of its magic. He also bought out the local newspaper around the same time and somehow managed to make the Gazette even more conservative-leaning than it already was, which is some feat. I really miss the days before that guy became a household name around here. When it comes to Mr. Anschutz, let me just say that I have some opinions. I will give him, however, that he has augmented the Broadmoor's art collection with some very nice pieces, mostly 20th century paintings depicting the American West, like this lovely one by Thomas Hart Benton. It's just gorgeous.

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The doors to the historic El Paso Club (see yesterday's post). I've never noticed that they're off center. Look again. They are positioned slightly to the right of center for some reason. This bugs me, darn it. Ha!

Men Only

The famous El Paso Club, which is still strictly an old school "gentlemen only" bastion, one of the few left of its kind I suppose. Only men can become members. I've entered its hallowed halls only as a wedding and event photographer, never as a guest. It's really nice in there but you'd think they'd get on board with the rest of society already.

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You're looking at an image of Pikes Peak on New Year's Eve, when the famed AdAmAn Club puts on an incredible fireworks display from the summit right at midnight. It's an awesome tradition that started in 1922, and yes the club members hike to the top of the peak for this event -- they don't do it the easy way. Imagine hiking to the summit of a 14,000+ foot tall mountain in the dead of winter and one of the shortest days of the year! I personally have never made it to the top of Pikes Peak on foot, although I have summited a (small) handful of other fourteeners. Some of them  are "easier" than others. I put that in quotes for a reason. Ha! Hiking up a giant mountain is not exactly easy!

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A more or less life sized statue inspired (apparently) by early residents of Colorado Springs. I don't think they represent actual historic individuals. You can find it on Tejon Street a little south of Colorado. I have no idea what it's called but I can tell you that the lantern works.

Elsie Palmer

Behold seventeen year-old Elsie, one of General Palmer's three daughters, in a portrait painted by none other than the great John Singer Sargent around 1889 or 1890. At the time, Palmer was here in Colorado Springs while his wife and daughters were on an extended stay in England.

Sargent is one of my favorite portraitists. His works are generally quite large, even life sized, and Elsie's portrait is no exception. It's part of the permanent collection of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and I've always admired it. What you're looking at here is not the actual painting, it's a copy that hangs on the wall in the Palmers' family home, Glen Eyrie Castle, where my mom's birthday celebration was held last weekend.

A Man's Home Is His Castle

The man in question being our city's founder, General William Jackson Palmer, and the home being quite literally a castle. This is where my mom's birthday party took place over the weekend. They do a high tea thing on the weekends. I am a big Colorado Springs history nerd as you know, so naturally a visit to Glen Eyrie Castle is always a treat.

The View from the Top (The Top of the Social Pyramid, That Is)

Saturday was my mom's 90th birthday, and we celebrated this landmark achievement with a tea party at Glen Eyrie Castle attended by many friends and family. Glen Eyrie was built in the early 1870s by our city's founder, General William Jackson Palmer, who was quite the anglophile and fancied a proper English castle for his beloved wife, Queen. (Yes, that was really her name. Okay technically it was Mary, but everyone called her Queen.) If you step out the front door and walk around to the patio, you're treated to quite a lovely view indeed! More to come.

First Congregational

Here's one of our historic downtown churches, First Congregational. I've blogged about it many times. This impressive building with its distinctively massive stone columns was completed in 1889 and sits on the northwest corner of Tejon and Saint Vrain, in the Near North End neighborhood. According to Wikipedia, it's listed on the National Historic Register and "Its design is in the Richardsonian Romanesque style and is constructed of Colorado Wall Mountain Tuft (rhyolite) quarried near Castle Rock, Colorado." It cost $40,000 to build, which is somewhat hilarious until you do the math: that's about $1,409,226.09 in today's money! Anyway, I think it's gorgeous, and having documented my share of weddings at First Congregational, I can tell you that the inside of it is beautiful as well.

Not Much Has Changed

I took this from the overlook in Palmer Park this afternoon. The foothills above the Mountain Shadows neighborhood still look bare, thirteen and-a-half years after the Waldo Canyon Fire torched everything in its 18,247 acre path, including 346 homes in that part of the city. I'm sure it looks different up close, but from this distance it's almost like the fire just happened, there doesn't seem to be any apparent new growth although there was actually a huge push to plant things as soon as they were able. It must all be low bushes and grasses. I know that it takes decades (or even centuries) for Mother Nature to rebuild after a catastrophic fire. I miss the way these foothills used to look.

The Second Midland School

This old school on the deep west side was built in 1902. It's known as the Second Midland School because there was a previous Midland School; this one was presumably built to replace it when more room was needed. In turn, there's a third, more modern Midland Elementary School nearby, servicing grades kindergarten through five. The Second Midland School now houses offices and I'm giving serious consideration to relocating my studio here. We shall see.

A Little Night Ramen

The latest tenant of 324 E Pikes Peak Avenue is Night Ramen, a restaurant I have yet to sample. This location has seen a lot of businesses come and go over the years. For a long time it was a Goodwill Store, which I appreciated since it's near our house (I love thrift stores!), but that eventually closed and it became a sort of antique mall called the "Treasure Shoppé." This drove me crazy for years, because as a French speaker that little accent over the final E forced me to pronounce it "shoppay" in my head every time I drove past. Now it's a restaurant and I think that's a good fit for the space. In the photo below you can see that it was a filling station and a either a car dealership or a mechanic's shop in years past.

Evergreen Cemetery Walkabout (Part 5)

I'm ending my series on Evergreen Cemetery with this grave. I've always been a bit curious about it because there's a Janitell Street and a Janitell Junior High School on the south end of town. I haven't been able to find any info at all about the Janitells of Colorado Springs, but it isn't a common surname I'm just going to assume that the name on this gravestone has some significance in our city's history.

Evergreen Cemetery Walkabout (Part 4)

A little bit more of this and that from our afternoon of exploring Evergreen Cemetery on October 12th. You can see why I like it there so much. I like old cemeteries as a rule, not just this one. My maternal grandfather is buried here, and so is Pat's uncle. I imagine I'll end up here one day too. Not a bad place to hang out for eternity.

Evergreen Cemetery Walkabout (Part 2)

Here's another somewhat funny find during our visit to the cemetery. I've featured this lovely and goth-tastic monument on the blog before, without ever realizing that it's the back of someone's headstone and not just some nice sculpture. D'oh! I finally walked around the thing and saw that the someone in question was none other than Winfield Scott Stratton, who was a generous philanthropist in the early days of Colorado Springs. Mr. Stratton started out as a carpenter, then struck it rich in the gold rush and ended up a wealthy man. He was extremely charitable with his riches, donating quite a lot of land and money to the city while also taking care of the poor. You can read all about his good deeds HERE, if you're interested.

I can't believe I've been admiring this "sculpture" for so long without even realizing that I was actually looking at the back of it, and it's a very notable grave to boot! At any rate, the message is wonderful and I wish more people would heed it in the way that Mr. Stratton did.

Evergreen Cemetery Walkabout (Part 1)

Halloween is coming up this Friday, so I figured this would be a good week to share the things we saw on our stroll through Evergreen Cemetery on October 12th. We just happened to stumble across the gravesite of our city founder, General William Jackson Palmer. This was actually quite hilarious because I can't tell you how many times I've visited the cemetery with the intention of finding his grave and somehow never noticed that it's only a few steps away from the historic chapel, which I've photographed for the blog on a few occasions. Ha! This plot contains his grave and that of his wife, Queen, and one or two other family members, apparently (I can't tell you who they were or how they were related to him). I always thought he'd have a big, elaborate headstone or even a family crypt, so maybe that's why I never noticed his grave before. It's simply marked with a large rock with a plaque on one side and some embedded script on the other. Then again, Palmer was a Quaker, which means he had simple tastes, so that probably accounts for the humbleness of his final resting place. More tomorrow!

Ivy League

I had a portrait client recently who wanted an "ivy league" look to her images, so we did a few at the Cascade Park Apartments. I took these shots while location scouting for the shoot. Technically this is Virginia creeper, not ivy, but at any rate the old building sure looks nice when it greens up in spring. The client loved it, by the way. I've featured this historic building on the blog before so I won't bore you with the details again, I'll just add this helpful signage below instead.

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This larger than life replica of a Van Briggle design sits in Monument Valley Park, just a short stroll from the Van Briggle building. She's been there for a few years now and still looks beautiful. We here in Colorado Springs are very proud of our history with Van Briggle. (Pat and I own a piece from about the 1920s.) If you're curious to know more, click HERE.

Long Live The Mill Outlet!

If you read this blog regularly, you probably already know that I'm an avid sewist. That and knitting are really my only "crafts." I'm not handy with a glue gun and don't know how to pronounce Cricut. That kind of stuff was never my jam. But I do love to sew and knit! I can crochet, too. These skills were taught to me when I was a child in the Philippines, so maybe that's why they've stuck with me. At any rate, sewing makes me a fan of The Mill Outlet, which is a locally owned fabric store on Prospect Street just south of Fillmore. I've been a regular customer for many years. This is a large city, and people don't like to drive far outside their zone to get what they need, but with the nationwide closing of Joann's Fabrics and Crafts, The Mill Outlet has suddenly become a hot spot, even for those who rarely venture west of Academy Boulevard. I'm so glad of it! I went there a couple of weekends ago and it was actually hard to find a parking spot. The place was buzzing. When a big box store opens, it makes the mom and pop stores wither and die. But when a big box store closes, here's your proof that the opposite thing happens. Long live The Mill Outlet!

Clang, Clang, Clang Went the Trolley!

Did you know that we have a trolley museum here, and that it's been around since 1982? This shot is from my archives, taken on March 3, 2010, over 14 years ago. The last time I was at this museum was probably about five years ago and it's really come along. You should check it out some time!

And now, for your listening pleasure...