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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.

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.

The Heritage Garden (Part 2)

Technically this lovely ladybug wasn't in the Heritage Garden, it was in the parking lot of the Van Briggle building, but close enough! Lots of nice texture in this shot.

The Heritage Garden (Part 1)

Adjacent to the Van Briggle building's parking lot is the Heritage Garden in Monument Valley Park. Its focal point is this beautiful replica of a Van Briggle vase.

Van Briggle (Part 5)

One last post about Van Briggle. I don't know what the Roman numerals mean. I tried plugging them into a Roman numeral converter, there is no such number. You got me! Anyway, this building now belongs to the Colorado College, and they're doing a great job of keeping it in good repair. Once a year they do a public tour, but I always seem to be shooting a wedding when it happens. Oh well! One of these days I'll get to go in there and explore!

Van Briggle (Part 4)

A fanciful gargoyle! Yet another interesting detail on the Van Briggle building that I've never noticed before.

Van Briggle (Part 3)

More beautiful Van Briggle tiles. I love how Van Briggle is such an integral and interesting part of our local history. You can read more about it HERE.

July 2021 Theme Day: Tools

It's the first of the month again, that means it's Theme Day for City Daily Photo bloggers! Believe it or not, I've used this very same subject for Theme Day before, back in May of 2009. That month, the theme was shadows. This month it's tools, and of course a sundial is practically the most analog tool out there, one that humans have used for millennia. This one can be found on the Van Briggle building.

For more tool images from CDP bloggers all over the world, click HERE. Enjoy!

Van Briggle (Part 2)

I've never noticed this wonderful Art Nouveau cat figure on the Van Briggle building before. Cool!

Van Briggle (Part 1)

Pat and I spent a little time on Sunday wandering around the Van Briggle building. For those who aren't aware of Van Briggle pottery and its long history in Colorado Springs, let me direct you to THIS blog post from 2009. I'll share more images over the course of the week.

The Heritage Garden

A few pretty pictures of one of my favorite spots in the city, the Heritage Garden in Monument Valley Park, at my favorite time of year. I was there location scouting for a wedding client who lives out of state. It's such a nice garden, and something of a well kept secret -- as usual, no one was there but me.

The beautiful Art Nouveau statue is clearly a Van Briggle design; the Van Briggle building is a stone's throw away from this spot. The square tiles that you see embedded in the wall behind her are also Van Briggle.

Van Briggle Pottery tours!

I saw this the other day while I was stopped at a red light and quickly took a picture. Here's your chance to see one of the coolest historic buildings in Colorado Springs! As far as I know, they have never allowed tours here (or if they have, I've never heard about it).  I would love to see the interior of this incredible building but I have a wedding to shoot, so please go for me! You can find it on the corner of Glen and Uintah, just a block east of I-25 when you take the Uintah (Colorado College) exit, at the entrance to Monument Valley Park.

Van Briggle Pottery

Van Briggle Pottery is one of the many things that help make Colorado Springs cool and unique. I think it's a very interesting and wonderful part of our history. Many of our beautiful downtown Victorians and Craftsmen bungalows have Van Briggle tiled fireplaces. It's something you won't see in any other city.

Here is the basic story: In 1899, an artisan named Artus Van Briggle moved to Colorado Springs with the dream of establishing his own fine art pottery business. Van Briggle Pottery opened soon thereafter, with Artus and his sweetheart Anne at the helm. Artus was a gifted artist (yes, his name is a homonym!); his award-winning pottery had all the hallmarks of Art Nouveau style and a distinctive, matte-green glaze that he personally developed. Artus and Anne were married in 1902, and as a couple their artistic collaborations in pottery earned them accolades and worldwide fame. They developed a unique logo of two mirrored A's to symbolize their initials, which I think was very sweet. It's an instantly recognizable hallmark of Van Briggle Pottery to this day and is incised on the bottom of all Van Briggle pieces.

Unfortunately Artus succumbed to tuberculosis in 1904 at the young age of 35, and Anne was left to carry on the trade. Van Briggle's first location was somewhere on Weber Street (or maybe it was Nevada Ave.), very near where I used to live. I once went on a search for the building, armed only with the street address, but could not find it -- it must have been demolished at some point. In 1907, Anne collaborated with city founder William Jackson Palmer to erect a distinct new building, a detail of which is shown in the photo above (and in yesterday's photo as well), designed by Dutch architect Nicholas Van den Arend. It's a really cool building! As you can probably tell from my pictures, it's uniquely adorned with decorative tiles. It looks particularly beautiful in the late afternoon.

Anne remarried a few years after Artus' death and moved to Denver. In her absence, the Van Briggle building and business eventually fell into disrepair until she sold both. Van Briggle Pottery perservered through the years under the ownership of the Curtis family, and later the Lewis family. It has continued to produce beautiful fine art pottery in the Art Nouveau style.

Van Briggle relocated to an old railroad roundhouse on 21st and Cimarron in the 1950's, leaving the fantastic Van den Arend building empty and unused. It was eventually sold to the Colorado College in 1968, and CC now uses it as the plant! By that I mean it houses heating and air conditioning stuff. I'm not kidding. Though for years it was apparently just used as a junk room. Yes, this beautiful building was filled with castaway office furniture and the like! It kills me to think of that. At least they didn't tear it down. In fact, it's still gorgeous, having seen a bit of restoration after 40 years of neglect. Well, no matter what's inside it, the old Van Briggle building is just stunning.

Van Briggle recently relocated again; it took me some months to find them but just the other day I discovered that they are now on South Tejon Street near Black and White Auto. So the tradition perserveres, which makes me happy. I am very proud of the single piece of Van Briggle pottery that I own, a vintage piece (circa 1930's) that Pat bought for me. It's one of my prized possessions.

The Van Briggle building

Just a quick shot of the Van Briggle Pottery building on the CC campus adjacent to Monument Valley Park, taken a few days ago. More about Van Briggle tomorrow...

May theme day: shadows

It's the first of the month and you know what that means -- theme day for City Daily Photo bloggers! This month's theme is shadows. I thought about it for a few days, then decided that a sundial would be a great subject. There's a sundial on the south side of the former Van Briggle Pottery building in Monument Valley Park near the Colorado College, so Pat and I ventured there yesterday to photograph it at around 4:30 or 5:00pm. (More about Van Briggle in another post.)

The shadow wasn't as dramatic as I'd hoped it would be, but still you can see where it tells time very accurately! According to the shadow I took this photo at 4:45pm.

To see more theme day photos from City Daily Photo bloggers around the world, click here to view thumbnails for all participants . Happy May Day everyone!

[ETA -- Some of the CDP bloggers seem to have confused shadows with silhouettes or even reflections, but even so the pictures are cool, so check them out! One clever blogger in Sydney, Australia even took a photo of someone's five o'clock shadow!]