An 1880s Victorian Mansion in the Colorado Rockies: The Estemere Estate at Palmer Lake

by Edwards, Daniel

  In 1906, Fred Wilson and H.C. Wilson appear in a local business directory. Fred was born in Illinois in 1848 and had been a wholesale baker in Denver. “H.C.” referred to his wife, Harriet Wilson, born in Connecticut in 1849. Fred was the postmaster in Palmer Lake, and Harriet ran a general merchandise store until about 1918. (Sabin refers to her as “Harriet E. Wilson.”) Fred also engaged in real estate sales in 1914, after which he appears to have retired or died.

  No evidence of a formal partnership between Wilson and Judd has been found, but it is likely that both establishments offered postcards for sale to tourists at the eating house/hotel (Judd) and the general store (Wilson) in Palmer Lake. Postcards labeled “Wilson & Judd” probably were printed and sold for 10 to 15 years at the Wilson store and the Judd hotel in the early 1900s.

  [3]For a biography of William Finley Thompson that discusses his efforts to develop Palmer Lake, see Daniel W. Edwards, Dr. William Finley Thompson: Dental Surgeon and Founder of Palmer Lake, Woodbridge, VA, 2008.

  [4] “Agreement between the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and W. Finley Thompson,” 21 August 1883, Book 57, pp. 115-116, El Paso County Clerk & Recorder’s Office Colorado Springs, Colorado (hereinafter EPCCRO).

  [5] “Articles of Agreement, The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company and W. Finley Thompson,” 28 February 1887, Book 66, pp. 409-413, EPCCRO.

  [6] Waranty Deed, W. Finley Thompson to Ada Mary Thompson, 24 March 1888, Book 102, p. 85, EPCCRO.

  [7] Marion Savage Sabin, Palmer Lake a Historical Narrative, Denver: Sage Books, 1957, p. 56.

  [8] “Palmer Lake,” Denver Times, 04 August 1890.

  [9] “Palmer Lake,” Denver Times, 05 August 1890.

  [10] Letter to Dr. W. Finley Thompson from J.F. Vaile, Joel Frederick Vaile Papers, Western History Collection, DPL.

  [11] In the original plat W. Finley Thompson and Dr. A. Baxter Visick filed in December 1882 for the town of Loch Katrine (later renamed Palmer Lake), one of the streets was named Estabrook Avenue. Could Thompson, soon after his arrival in Denver, have bought horses from George Estabrook, and/or just met Mrs. Charles Kountze when he was doing a business transaction with her husband at the Colorado National Bank, and sought to memorialize their friendship by naming a street in her honor in the town he planned to develop? Thompson sold $3,000 worth of land near Estamere to Mary Kountze in April 1888, but the family never built a home there.

  [12] See Rocky Mountain News (hereinafter RMN), 19 August 1890, p. 9 and 09 September 1890, p. 2.

  [13] “Almost a Century Old,” Independent (New York), 09 November, 1893, p. 26.

  [14] New York Times, 14 December, 1898, p. 7.

  [15] El Paso County Treasurer Tax Book, Vols. 16-17 (1891-92), Colorado State Archives.

  [16] Warranty deed from Ada Mary Thompson to The Rollins Investment Company, 13 October, 1891, Book 128, p. 172, EPCCRO.

  [17] These deeds of trust are recorded in Book 52, Trust Deeds, pp. 40-47, EPCCRO.

  [18] Colorado Springs Gazette (hereinafter CSG), 23 May 1894. A similar ad, but without the asking price, had appeared in a Denver paper the year before. See RMN, 08 April 1893, p. 6.

  [19] RMN, 14 June 1896, p. 19.

  [20] Some of this information on Cass is taken from Sketches of Colorado being an analytical summary and biographical history of the State of Colorado…, Denver: Western Press Bureau Co., 1911, p. 131.

  [21] Scott, Henry W., Distinguished American Lawyers, with their Struggles and Triumphs in the Forum, New York: Charles L. Webster & Co, 1891, p. 120.

  [22] “A Colored Juror, Insisting to Dine at a Hotel Table, Excites Comment,” Christian Recorder, 09 Dec 1886.

  [23]RMN, 03 June 1897, p. 3.

  [24] RMN, 26 May 1897, p. 9.

  [25] RMN, 17 July 1897, p. 10.

  [26] Denver Post, 31 July 1897, p. 2.

  [27] RMN, 12 Sept 1897, p. 2.

  [28] H.H. Nininger, Roger W. Ward, and other Estemere residents also have appeared in Marquis’ Who’s Who in America.

  [29] Garraty, John A. & Mark C. Carnes (eds.), American National Biography, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, Vol. 4, p. 205. Many of the details of Judge Caldwell’s life are taken from this source. Caldwell also appeared in John W. Leonard (ed.), Marquis’ Who’s Who in America 1899-1900, Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Co, p. 107.

  [30] Sabin, Marion Savage, Palmer Lake a Historical Narrative, Denver: Sage Books, pp. 70, 71.

  [31] E.H. Rollins & Sons, “Description of Block No. 80 Thompson’s Re-Sub Division of Palmer Lake,” 25 May 1898, Eben Smith Collection, Western History Section, Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado (hereinafter DPL).

  [32] “E.H. Rollins & Sons to Eben Smith,” warranty deed, 28 July 1898, Book 298, p. 126, EPCCRO.

  [33] Details in this chapter about the Smith’s family use of Estamere are drawn primarily from columns on Palmer Lake news that appeared in summer editions of Denver’s RMN.

  [34] It is interesting that a dance was held in the barn at Estamere. There also was a carriage house on the premises. One account mentions a “stable,” which may have referred to the barn or a separate facility.

  [35] RMN, 10 July 1898.

  [36] “Palmer Lake,” Republican, 01 July 1900.

  [37]“Frank Smith Is Badly Injured,” Republican, 08 August 1901.

  [38] RMN, 22 June 1900, p. 18.

  [39] Weekly Gazette, 18 July 1900.

  [40] RMN, 06 July 1902, II: 8.

  [41] Duluth News-Tribune, 25 Aug 1902, p. 8.

  [42] Letter from Eben Smith to F.L. Smith, 21 January 1903, Eben Smith Collection, Denver Public Library (hereinafter ESC).

  [43] Letter from Charles M. Franklin to Eben Smith, 06 February 1903, ESC.

  [44] Letter from [Mrs.] C.A.J. Berry to Eben Smith, 28 June 1903, ESC.

  [45] RMN, 13 August 1905, III:9.

  [46] Letter from R.H. Reid to H.P. May, 01 August 1898, ESC.

  [47] Minutes of Town Council (1889-1903), Book One, p. 282, Palmer Lake Town Offices (hereinafter “PLTO”).

  [48] Agreement between Eben Smith and the Town of Palmer Lake, 22 May 1899.

  [49] Invoices 750, 764, 09 June and 16 June 1899, CF&I Invoice to Eben Smith & CF&I letter to Eben Smith, 27 June 1899, ESC.

  [50] Letter from Eben Smith to W.E. Doyle, 16 November 1899, ESC.

  [51] Letter from M.N. Rogers to Eben Smith, 30 January 1900, ESC.

  [52] Letter from W.E. Doyle to Eben Smith, 22 October 1900, ESC.

  [53] Source of records: ESC.

  [54] RMN, 21 June 1908, III and 04 July 1908, III:4.

  [55] RMN, 18 June 1911, II:9.

  [56] “Estemere Shows Classic Taste of Palmer Lake Home Builders,” Palmer Lake Life, 22 June 1912, p. 1.

  [57] CSG, 20 May 1913, p. 8.

  [58] Record Journal of Douglas County (Castle Rock, CO), 13 August 1920, p. 5.

  [59] RMN, 24 July 1921, p. 11.

  [60] RMN, 07 August 1921, p. 9.

  [61] See Daniel W. Edwards, Dr. William Finley Thompson Dental Surgeon and Founder of Palmer Lake (2008), pp. 129-148.

  [62] Ordinance #112, 26 October 1925, p. 186, Ordinance Book, Office of the Town Clerk, Palmer Lake, CO (hereinafter OTCPL).

  [63] Excerpt of a letter from Gertrude Vaile to Lucretia Vaile, 05 December 1925, Vaile Historical Museum, Palmer Lake, CO.

  [64] RMN, 09 August 1903, p. 1.

  [65] Al Mitterling, “Nininger Moment #21, The Tough Early Years,” quoting from Find a Falling Star.

  [66] Minutes of Town Council (1904-1928), Record 2 Town of Palmer Lake, p. 355, PLTO.

  [67] Nininger, H.H., It Wasn’t Always Meteorites: The Rest of the Nininger Saga, typewritten manuscript, p. 220, McPherson College Library, McPherson, Kansas.

  [68] Book 2 Record Town of Palmer Lake, op.cit., p. 379.

  [69] Bulletin of McPherson College, February 1925, pp. 99-100. Special thanks to McPherson College for making available some of these materials on the RMSS from their archives.

  [7
0] “Articles of Incorporation of the Rocky Mountain Summer School,” 08 September 1926, Colorado State Archives, Denver, CO.

  [71] See Special Warranty Deed from Cora I. Costello to the International Trust Company, “Deed from the International Trust Company, as Trustee under Last Will and Testament of Eben L. Smith, Deceased, to Rocky Mountain Summer School, Inc.,” and other deeds dated 01 October 1926, Book 791, pp. 91-96, EPCCRO.

  [72] RMN, 03 July 1927, II: 5.

  [73] In the Matter of the Application of John Stutzmann for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, Application No. 1957, Public Utilities Commission of Colorado, May 14 and 24, 1928.

  [74] This is one of hundreds of old photo postcards on which the name “Sanborn” appears. Strange to say, it seems no one today really knows who William P. Sanborn was. One Internet site says, “From the 1920s through the 1960s, Western photographer William P. Sanborn traveled throughout Wyoming and Colorado photographing towns, mines, scenery, rodeos, cowboys, and narrow gauge railroads.” Another site claimed he was born in 1895!

  We located his obituary, which makes clear that Sanborn never took most of the photos on the postcards bearing his name. He certainly could not have taken any of the Sanborn photos in this book. Sanborn was born in Denver on 09 April 1926, graduated from North High School, and attended the University of Colorado. He lived in Arvada and operated a family business, the Sanborn Souvenir Co., which purchased photos from other photographers. He then printed and sold the photos as postcards, as well as color lithographed postcards and souvenir folders. It is unclear whether Sanborn took any photographs himself. He died 17 June 1980 at the age of 54.

  [75] H.H. Nininger, It Wasn’t Always Meteorites: The Rest of the Nininger Saga, undated typescript, p. 223, McPherson College Library.

  [76] McPherson College Bulletin, Special Number No. 4A, 1930, pp. 15-16.

  [77] Clara Ricter Euhus donated these photos from her personal collection after her visit to Estemere August 2000.

  [78] “The Pikes Peak Woodland School, A Home School in the Mountains at the Estemere Palmer Lake, Colorado,” PL 622, Vaile Historical Museum.

  [79] CSG, 15 September 1929, II: 12.

  [80] Material from the Gamma Phi Beta’s magazine, the Crescent, was kindly provided by Mimi McMann, editor, at the sorority’s Centennial, Colorado, office.

  [81] The Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta, October 1931, p. 137.

  [82] The Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta, December 1932, p. 267.

  [83] Ibid., p. 143.

  [84] Unfortunately, the Gamma Phi Beta headquarters does not have copies of the 1931 or 1932 films that were shot at Estemere.

  [85] There were a few references to these camps at Estemere in the CSG, e.g., 12 July 1931, p. 3 and 10 July 1932, II: 5.

  [86] The Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta, December 1932, p. 266.

  [87] CSG, 01 July 1934, II: 4. [The address of the old Gallup house today is 393 Largo.]

  [88] Roberta Graham Clarke prepared an account of her early years at Palmer Lake, “Remembrance of the Past,” in 1990, a copy of which is at the Vaile Historical Museum.

  [89] Clark, “Remembrance of the Past, op.cit” p. 4.

  [90] There is considerable confusion about the “Carbide House”—see Chapter 11.

  [91] CSG, 06 May 1934, p. 3 & 10 June 1934, p. 2.

  [92] New York Times, 15 August 1935, p. 4.

  [93] RMN, 01 September 1935, II: 3.

  [94] Ibid.

  [95] CSG, 15 September 1935, II: 4.

  [96] CSG, 27 October 1935, p. 12.

  [97] CSG, 15 March 1936, p. 3.

  [98] CSG, 22 March 1936, II: 1.

  [99] At Estemere, some of the spinning wheels were placed on the verandah (see photos).

  [100] Anna Fisher, “El Conejo Blanco,” Weaver (Concord, NH), Vol. 11 No. 2, 1937, p. 25. Information from this article appeared in an article with two photos in the CSG, 18 July 1937, p. 4.

  [101] From December 1936 through April 1937, the school apparently was not located in Pine Crest, as the description Anna Fisher gives does not seem to fit that location: “There is a pleasant and comfortable house where the girls live and where all meals are prepared. This is on top of a beautiful hill, and at its foot is the weaving room, temporarily available until May.” The school may have been at Pinehurst, near the Orr’s rabbit farm. Fisher, op.cit., p. 25.

  [102] Probably the Billiard Room. Once again the billiard table is gone; Nininger noted its presence in his memoirs—see page 51.

  [103] Fisher, op.cit., p. 27.

  [104] Ibid.

  [105] “Bulletin of the Shuttle-Craft Guild for October, 1937,” p. 2.

  [106] Ibid., pp. 2-4.

  [107] CSG, 05 September 1937, II: 4.

  [108] CSG, 26 June 1938, II: 2.

  [109] CSG, 18 October 1938, p. 8.

  [110] Warranty Deed from The Rocky Mountain Summer School Incorporated to O.M. Adams, et.al. 27 May 1935, Book 914, pp. 200-201, EPCCO.

  [111] Account furnished by email by Mary Jane Adams, 02 June 2007. Much of the information and the photographs on the Adams family at Estemere have been kindly provided by Mary Jane Adams, granddaughter of O.M. Adams, and Frank Adams, son of O.M. Adams.

  [112] CSG, 02 June 1935, II: 4.

  [113] Email from Frank Adams of Carlsbad, CA, 17 September 2008.

  [114] CSG, 01 December 1935, II: 7.

  [115] Certificate of Incorporation, The Rocky Mountain Association, Inc., 08 February 1937, Colorado State Archives.

  [116] Ibid.

  [117] Email from Frank Adams, 01 June 2007.

  [118] CSG, 14 July 1940, II: 5.

  [119] One has to wonder whether this hole was made at one time by Charles Carnahan, whose inerrant aim of his gun in Denver in 1903 spared a man’s life.

  [120] Email from Frank Adams, 17 September 2008.

  [121] Daily Skyline (Pine Crest), 08 August 1942, Archives, Iliff Theological Seminary, Denver, CO.

  [122] Daily Skyline, 04 August 1943.

  [123] “Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Pine Crest Commission, Inc., 17 March 1943, Iliff Archives.

  [124] Daily Skyline, 05 & 06 August 1943. Camp Amache was closed and its last inmates released in October 1945. So it is possible that another group of Japanese-American youth attended Pine Crest and was at Estemere in July 1944.

  [125] Warranty Deed from C.I. Vessey, et.al. to William C. Blietz, et.al., 20 June 1944, Book 1061, pp. 183-84, EPCCO.

  [126] This building later became the B&E Restaurant, now closed.

  [127] Personal conversation with Don, David, and Gail Blietz 15 Aug 2002.

  [128] Warranty Deed from William C. Blietz and Margaret W. Blietz to Helen T. Dees, 02 December 1949, Book 1235, pp. 292-93, EPCCO.

  [129] Personal conversation with Don, David, and Gail Blietz 15 Aug 2002.

  [130] This and the following Blietz photographs provided by Don, David, and Gail Blietz 2002.

  [131] As tattled by Gail Blietz 15 Aug 2002.

  [132] Indenture from Helen T. Dees to Mary S. Rankin, 02 December 1949, Book 1235 pp. 294-96, EPCCO.

  [133] Indenture from Helen T. Dees to B. F. Jody and M. I. Miller, 03 December 1949, Book 1235, pp. 297-299, EPCCO.

  [134] CSG, 21 May 1950, p. 9C

  [135] Deed of Trust between Helen T. Dees and Joe Cucharras, 05 Dec 1951, Book 1321, p. 90, EPCCO.

  [136] Deed of Trust between Helen T. Dees and J.H. Smith, 30 January 1952, Book 1326, p. 479, EPCCO.

  [137] Decree, No. 39,621, El Paso County District Court, 02 June 1952.

  [138] Extension of Deed of Trust, 01 Dec 1952, Book 1356, p. 409.

  [139] “Palmer Lake’s Historic Old Estamere Is Put Up for Sale,” CSG, December 14, 1952, p. 3. A shorter article appeared in the Colorado Springs Free Press on 15 December.

  [140] CSG, 01 December 1952.

  [141] Information courtesy of Wanda Krueger Dees of Lakin, Kansas. Wanda grew up in Palmer Lake and married Helen’s son, Ronny, in 195
7.

  [142] The exact date and published source of this ad have not been determined.

  [143] Deed of Trust from Helen T. Dees to T. Don Berman and Pearl Marie Berman, 21 December 1954, Book 1471, p. 444-446, EPCCO.