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.

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Just a snap of a sculpture located downtown, in the Near North End. This has been there for years. I lived around the corner from this spot in the late 1980s and I think I remember seeing it way back then.

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.

Cranes on a Nice Spring Day

I have featured these cranes on the blog many times, but it always seems to be in wintertime. I'm not sure why that is. Here they are on a not freezing, not snowing day. :) 

Tempus Fugit

I had some location scouting to do today for a shoot tomorrow, and it took me around the Near North End and part of Monument Valley Park. The old Van Briggle building abuts a section of the park, so I stopped there to take a couple of pictures. I've featured these beautiful details on the blog before, but Van Briggle never gets old.

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The iron fence that encloses Grace Episcopal Church on North Tejon features this lovely old gate. I wonder how old it is.

A Nice Day for a Bike Ride

On March 16th I stopped by the north duck pond in Monument Valley Park to see if there has been any progress on the improvement project. I couldn't tell if much has been done lately to the pond itself, but I did notice that a fence has been erected above it to keep people on the trail. This is probably a good idea, because as you can see, there's quite an incline from where the bike riders are down to the pond. On the other side of them, there's far more of a drop, down to a trail below and Monument Creek.

Like New

I was in the Fine Arts Center parking lot today taking pictures of my friend Paula modeling a skirt that I sewed for her, and this was a test shot for the lighting. This is just a small section of a very long mural that I've featured on the blog before. I noticed today that the whole mural suddenly looks brand new and the paint seems much brighter than the last time I was here, even though it's been there since the eighties. It must have been restored recently. Or maybe it's just my imagination. Oh and if you check back on Sunday night, you'll get to see the skirt, too.

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I haven't blogged since my birthday, as things have gotten a little crazy with my portrait photography of late. Thankfully I'm fully caught up now, although I'm very tired and I've caught a bug that's making me feel a bit under the weather. Anyway, here's the William I. Spencer Building, which I've featured here on the blog many times. For some reason I like it better in black and white than in color.

October 2024 Theme Day: Blue

The first of the month is Theme Day for City Daily Photo bloggers, and this month the theme is blue. I dig this assignment, because blue is one of my favorite colors! This building is on the Colorado College campus and I've always loved it because the color is so beautiful. And of course I had to include our trademark Colorado blue sky up above. Yes!

For more takes on blue from CDP bloggers everywhere, click HERE. Enjoy!

The Sobriety Dance (Or Not?)

This guy can almost always be found in the median at the intersection of Uintah and Cascade, dancing while holding up a sign. I've noticed him there many times over the last few months (he's kind of hard to miss). Although it doesn't look like it in this photo, that's actually a busy intersection with queues of cars perpetually waiting for the light to change color, so I just assumed the sign had something to do with panhandling, since he always has a captive audience. But while getting this photo ready to post, I could see that it actually reads "Dancing to make you smile while you wait awhile - 4 years sober." Hm. Part of me says, "Good for you, buddy!" And the cynic in me thanks fat chance, he just takes the handouts he receives and gets loaded. Who knows? At any rate, he's one of the more eccentric characters to land downtown lately.

Silver Birds, Grey Skies

Artist Kent Ullberg's iconic whooping cranes looked so fetching the other day, I had to stop for a picture even though I've featured this artwork here on the blog many times before (here, for instance). Behind it sits the Cascade Park Apartments, looking very spiffy in summer. Do you notice how grey and horrible the sky looks? Multiple forest fires out of state and in Canada have been casting a smoky pall over a huge swath of the United States lately, and it's been sitting over Colorado Springs and Denver for the last three or four days. The situation in Denver was so bad yesterday, I heard on the news that it was literally the worst air quality in the entire world. And we are just south of Denver, so you can imagine how bad it's been here, too. Unfortunately when this happens, it has a very undesirable effect: my right eye will swell up and weep nonstop, and it feels like I have grit stuck in my eye that won't budge. It's pretty awful. For two and a half days, all I could do was keep dumping Visine into one or both eyes, although it didn't much help. Thank goodness the cloak of gloom finally (mostly) shifted away from us late this afternoon.

Feels Like Summer!

It finally feels like summer! Perfect weather for taking a walk with your bestie in the Near North End. I'm loving these warm-but-not-hot days. Bring it!

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Looking west across Cascade Avenue and through the front sculpture garden of our lovely Fine Arts Center rewards you with a nicely framed view of our favorite hunk of granite.

Virginia Creeping

The Cascade Park Apartments are covered in Virginia creeper. I really like the look of it, especially in the fall when the leaves turn crimson. I make it a point to drive by and check it out every year during autumn.

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The "crest" above one of the doors of the Cascade Park Apartments looks rather fawncy, don't you think? Especially with that eagle/griffin/gryphon thing to top it off. I think this stuff must all be original to the building, which was erected in 1884-ish although it was added on to in the 1930s.

Ancient Aztec Art (No, Not Really)

It's not ancient unless you consider the mid 1980s to be primordial. This is just a small section of the very long mural in the parking lot of the Fine Arts Center, photographed on January 15, 2020.

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A favorite subject, Grace Episcopal Church, taken on December 8, 2018.

The McAllister House Museum, Again

I know I've blogged about this little museum before, ages ago, and at the time I swore I'd go in there and finally check it out. I've always been intrigued by the McAllister House Museum but never took the time, even when I lived only a block away. For shame! The other day I found myself walking right past it again, and all I did was stop and take a picture. Sigh. One of these days...

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The bell tower of Grace Episcopal Church. This gothic church is beautiful on the outside, but even more beautiful on the inside.