Hello Everyone,
On November 2, 1885, Spencer “Speck” Penrose became the fourth surviving son of a wealthy, sixth-generation American family. The first American Penrose had been a partner with William Penn in 1700. Dr. Penrose, Spence’s father, could trace his ancestry to William Biddle, proprietor of the province of New Jersey, while his mother was a descendent of Lord Baltimore who founded Maryland.
The Penrose boys learned from tutors and private schools. But, while his brothers learned easily, Spencer just plodded along. He made few friendships though he did become close to Charles Tutt, who would later become his business partner in Colorado.
Away from the firmness of parental rule, the Penrose boys enjoyed attending Harvard. Spencer needed tutors throughout his college years and eventually graduated with a degree in engineering... next to the bottom of his class. He studied boxing at a gym near the campus and became very good with his fists. His biggest feat at Harvard: downing a gallon of beer in 37 seconds.
After graduation, Spencer was unable to settle down to a successful career unlike his older brothers. Dick became a noted geologist. Boies would end up as U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and Tal became a physician. Early in 1888, this black sheep of the family was staked $2000 by his father to head out West.
After trying several jobs in New Mexico, including work at an orchard, his brother Dick and Charles Tutt, encouraged him to come to Colorado Springs. He arrived with $100 in his pocket and the disapproval of his father, who was convinced his son would never amount to anything.
On December 10, 1892, Tutt met Spencer at the Colorado Springs railroad depot. That evening they headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Country Club for a drink. Spencer promptly decked the star polo player, who had hit a much smaller club member, and was promptly tossed out. All within less than three hours after his arrival in town.
Before Spencer arrived, Tutt had operated a real estate office in Colorado Springs with a branch in Pueblo. He wanted to open another in Cripple Creek and offered Spencer half interest in that office in exchange for $500, providing Spencer would manage it. Despite a series of ups and downs, the business went well selling property, gold mines, and mining stock.
Tutt had a claim in the C.O.D. mine located near Poverty Gulch in Cripple Creek. He advised Penrose, two days after the real estate offer, that he could have1/16th interest in the mine for $10,000. Spencer asked his brother, Boies, now a Pennsylvania senator, for the money. Boies sent him $150 and told him to come home.
By July 1893, Tutt and Penrose had raised enough money, and operations started at the C.O.D. mine. Then the partners decided on another venture - building a sampling works in Cripple Creek. The sampler was a processing plant where ore could be purchased from miners at a rate per ton, depending on the assay samples’ valuation. They quickly received financing from Colorado Springs bankers, and drew up plans to construct the Cripple Creek Sampling & Ore Company.
Penrose continued his playboy life as the leader of the Socialites - all young, prosperous, Eastern college grads, who were always ready to party and drink heavily. Spencer was chosen because of his bully-like personality and ability with his fists. His horse Rabbit could be found nightly hitched at the tie rail in front of dance halls, including the Topic Dance Hall which he and Tutt owned. Traffic in prostitution was heavy there, and Rabbit cultivated a taste for lump sugar soaked in gin.
One day the C.O.D. started filling with water. Spencer immediately contacted his geologist brother, Dick, who suggested pumping the water out. The partners’ problem was lack of money. They leased the mine for $20,000 to Joe Troy and Pete Burke who sank a new shaft and found one of the district’s best defined gold veins. Under the lease’s terms, Penrose and Tutt shared in the profits. By the end of 1893, Troy and Burke asked the partners to buy back the lease, and they agreed. The mine was later sold to a French syndicate for which Tutt and Penrose received $240,000. The French deepened the shaft and eventually went broke trying to dry out the C.O.D.
In 1896, Tutt, Penrose, and a new partner, Charlie MacNeill, formed the Colorado-Philadelphia Reduction Company. They located this processing mill in Colorado City, a locale later incorporated into Colorado Springs. To bring gold to this mill, they built the Cripple Creek Short Line Railroad.
In March of 1896, Spencer moved to Colorado Springs just before two fires, a month later, that decimated Cripple Creek including destroying the Topic Dance Hall and most of the property Penrose and Tutt owned. Cripple Creek quickly rebuilt and by 1900, business in Cripple Creek was booming - including 75 saloons.
The partners didn’t stop with one reduction company. In 1901, they formed the United States Reduction and Refining Company. With the thirteen million dollars they raised, they blanketed the Cripple Creek Mining District with mills.
By the middle of 1902, the three partners had become very successful. The mill trust hired Daniel Cowan Jackling, who had formerly worked for MacNeill in Cripple Creek. He had left for Utah and discovered a new way to refine the two percent Bingham Canyon copper ore and make it profitable. On June 4, 1903, the three partners, including Tutt, incorporated Utah Copper Company for $500,000 in one dollar shares. MacNeill and Penrose each took 250,000 shares.
Jackling’s process was a success and the Utah Copper stock started soaring. Starting with 5,000 tons of ore a day, the partners doubled their goal and quadrupled their profits. Soon the three partners had launched, at Bingham Canyon, the world’s largest face copper mine. Penrose was a multi millionaire. After 20 years, Utah Copper Company merged with Guggenheim Family Investors and formed Kennecott. Speck, the largest stockholder, made $40 million on the sale.
Penrose continued to enjoy whiskey and the fine things in life. He went to plenty of parties but couldn’t dance and lacked conversational skills so felt ill at ease with the prominent women in Colorado Springs. He was a handsome and prosperous bachelor determined to stay single.
Spencer favored the El Paso Club to the Cheyenne Mountain Club where he had made his unfortunate debut ten years earlier. On January 11, 1901, he and a bachelor friend hosted a clambake at El Paso. One of his guests was Julie McMillan, the daughter of the Detroit mayor, and a recent widow. Penrose barely noticed her.
Five years later, Julie decided to pursue Spencer. She sent help over to make his bed, do his laundry, and cook his meals. She frequently invited him to breakfast at her home and insisted on him escorting her to parties.
In 1906, Spencer decided to take an extended trip abroad as he started feeling trapped. His brother Dick and Philadelphia friend, Dr. R. N. Keeley joined him. Aboard the same cruise ship to Europe, Julie and two of her two friends had decided to travel. Coincidence? When they were in France, Spencer asked Dick to write their father asking permission for Speck to marry Julie. While on the French Riviera, Penrose dropped a letter into Julie’s lap. The letter contained his father’s permission. That was his proposal. They were married April 26, 1906.
In 1908, Penrose became interested in doing something besides mining. He developed fruit orchards about 20 miles south of Colorado Springs. He brought in water for a municipal water system and built a railroad connection with the Denver & Rio Grande. The residents named the town Penrose in his honor.
On December 13, 1908, Dr. Penrose, Spencer’s father died. He had remained disappointed and suspicious of his son throughout his life despite his son’s financial successes. Another loss occurred on January 21, 1909 when his friend and partner Charles Tutt died. Speck took the loss extremely hard and gave his affection to Charles Tutt Jr.
Penrose loved making headlines and turned his attention to his community. In 1912, he built Pikes Peak Highway at a cost of more than a million dollars and gave it to the U.S. government. He established the Pikes Peak Auto Company which provided regional scenic tours. Four years later, Penrose started the two year construction on the Broadmoor Hotel. His partner Charlie MacNeill was co developer.
In 1917, he threw his support behind the home-front war effort. He was asked by the Red Cross to raise $100,00 and raised $217,000 instead, the highest per capita contribution of any American city. He gave hundreds of thousands in contributions to such organizations as the Belgian Relief, YMCA, and others.
Between 1918 when Prohibition passed, and 1933 when it was repealed, Penrose gave hundreds of thousands to organizations fighting against it. He and Julie led a privileged life which included a great deal of travel. He joined clubs all over the country rather than drinking in public. He also built two bookshelves in his library, each leading to secret wine cellars.
He became the Colorado President of the American Liberty League whose purpose was to overthrow Prohibition. A devout Republican, he publicly supported Democrat Al Smith, who was anti-Prohibition, and against Herbert Hoover, a Prohibition supporter. However, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran against Hoover, FDR was the worst of the two evils in Penrose’s mind, so he supported Hoover.
The Penroses became extensive world travelers. On May 27, 1925, Spencer bought an elephant in Ceylon, but it died in Hamburg en route to the U.S. The maharajah of Nagapur, a friend of the Penroses, heard the story and gave Spencer a 45-year old, trained elephant “Empress of India” that Penrose named “Tessie” after the famous Cripple Creek prostitute. With his friends, he rode her around Broadmoor grounds on her back in a Hindu howdah. Tessie was also enlisted as caddy during rounds of golf. Speck loved Tessie and when she died of a heart attack ten years later, he thought of getting her mounted until he learned the costs of taxidermy.
They also purchased variety of homes. They maintained an apartment in Paris, bought a chateau in southern France, and kept a houseboat on the Nile. They had a plantation in Hawaii and a home on the west coast. They also had El Pomar, their home in Colorado Springs; the family home in Philadelphia; and the Turkey Creek Ranch near Colorado Springs.
Speck started the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo next to the Broadmoor and purchased the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad in 1925. He bought the Manitou Water Company in 1926 and launched a nationwide campaign touting the benefits of the area’s mineral waters. He also purchased the cabin which housed the Territorial Capitol in Golden, moving it to the Broadmoor as a tourist attraction. He introduced the rodeo to the Broadmoor in 1927. He named the first event after Will Rodgers. Later it was known as the Penrose Stadium Rodeo and now the annual Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo, held every July.
While traveling in France in1927, his left eye injured decades before, became seriously infected necessitating its removal. From that time on, he had a glass eye. At a later date it was revealed that it was made bloodshot to match his right eye.
In 1931, Speck was threatened briefly with cancer. He started wondering what to do with his vast estate and where to plan his final resting place. He hired an architect to build a memorial several hundred feet high, located three miles from the top of Cheyenne Mountain. His friends dissuaded him from calling it the Penrose Memorial. When his good friend, Will Rogers, died he named it The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun.
As for his estate, in December 1937, he incorporated the El Pomar Foundation. Its purpose is to be used exclusively for charitable reasons for the inhabitants of Colorado. The principal and income from its funds remain limited within the state of Colorado. He transferred into it all of his Pike Peak properties and his copper assets. The assets of the foundation were $17 million at his death and have grown to $600 million. The foundation has given away half a billion dollars.
In late 1938, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Spencer “Speck” Penrose died December 7, 1939. His ashes lie under the floor of the chapel at the Shrine.
Julie, after his death, moved to the Broadmoor. She turned her interest away from the zoo and towards Fountain Valley School, the Penrose Hospital, and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. At the current Pioneer Museum exhibit, you can see two chairs dedicated to the Penroses by the Central City Opera House as Julie was their greatest benefactor. She died of cancer January 23, 1956 and is buried at the Shrine with her husband.
EL POMAR - THE PENROSE HOME
In 1916, they purchased a one-story Mediterranean villa built in 1910. The Penroses added a second story for Julie and a third story for Speck, enlarging the home to 30 rooms with many bedrooms and sitting rooms. There were seven bedrooms on the first floor.
Using a dining room table measuring 27 feet, with ten leaves, the Penroses held elegant dinner parties. You can still see that table and two side tables when you tour the home today. Check out the incredible crystal chandelier in this room. It also is original to the home, a copy of one owned by a Baron in Austria which Penrose tried to purchase.
The foyer’s flooring of Belgian Black and Vermont Corona tile was installed in 1916 to match that of the main dining room. You can see an Aeolian organ with 2800 pipes the Penroses had installed in the 1920's. The lace grills in the foyer and salon ceilings hide these pipes allowing the sound to travel to different rooms in the house.
After Spencer’s death, Julie donated the home in 1944 to the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati in recognition of their importance to the community and the care they provided Spencer during his final years. They converted the salon to a chapel. They took out the fireplace mantle in this room. It was returned in the 1990's by an older man who had taken it and kept it in his shop for many years. It has since been reassembled, almost seamlessly, except for one crack. Look here also for the two religious-themed Flemish tapestries dated 1495. These also belonged to the Penroses.
Besides the bookshelves with the secret doors, observe the woodwork in the library. It was hand-carved by a German artist who lived with the Penroses for a year. The law books belonged to Henry McAllister, Jr., Spencer’s attorney and one of El Pomar’s first trustees.
In 1992, El Pomar Foundation purchased the home. They transformed it into an education and conference center. Although tours of the home aren’t mentioned in guidebooks, you can obtain a self-guided one by calling their office and asking to see it. The home’s address is 10 Lake Circle, Colorado Springs and the phone number is (719) 577-7000.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1927, before Dick Penrose’s death in 1931, the Geological Society of America established the Penrose Medal Award, given annually to individuals who make outstanding contributions to the geological sciences. Today it is recognized as the most prestigious award given in the field of earth sciences.
On November 2, 1885, Spencer “Speck” Penrose became the fourth surviving son of a wealthy, sixth-generation American family. The first American Penrose had been a partner with William Penn in 1700. Dr. Penrose, Spence’s father, could trace his ancestry to William Biddle, proprietor of the province of New Jersey, while his mother was a descendent of Lord Baltimore who founded Maryland.
The Penrose boys learned from tutors and private schools. But, while his brothers learned easily, Spencer just plodded along. He made few friendships though he did become close to Charles Tutt, who would later become his business partner in Colorado.
Away from the firmness of parental rule, the Penrose boys enjoyed attending Harvard. Spencer needed tutors throughout his college years and eventually graduated with a degree in engineering... next to the bottom of his class. He studied boxing at a gym near the campus and became very good with his fists. His biggest feat at Harvard: downing a gallon of beer in 37 seconds.
After graduation, Spencer was unable to settle down to a successful career unlike his older brothers. Dick became a noted geologist. Boies would end up as U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and Tal became a physician. Early in 1888, this black sheep of the family was staked $2000 by his father to head out West.
After trying several jobs in New Mexico, including work at an orchard, his brother Dick and Charles Tutt, encouraged him to come to Colorado Springs. He arrived with $100 in his pocket and the disapproval of his father, who was convinced his son would never amount to anything.
On December 10, 1892, Tutt met Spencer at the Colorado Springs railroad depot. That evening they headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Country Club for a drink. Spencer promptly decked the star polo player, who had hit a much smaller club member, and was promptly tossed out. All within less than three hours after his arrival in town.
Before Spencer arrived, Tutt had operated a real estate office in Colorado Springs with a branch in Pueblo. He wanted to open another in Cripple Creek and offered Spencer half interest in that office in exchange for $500, providing Spencer would manage it. Despite a series of ups and downs, the business went well selling property, gold mines, and mining stock.
Tutt had a claim in the C.O.D. mine located near Poverty Gulch in Cripple Creek. He advised Penrose, two days after the real estate offer, that he could have1/16th interest in the mine for $10,000. Spencer asked his brother, Boies, now a Pennsylvania senator, for the money. Boies sent him $150 and told him to come home.
By July 1893, Tutt and Penrose had raised enough money, and operations started at the C.O.D. mine. Then the partners decided on another venture - building a sampling works in Cripple Creek. The sampler was a processing plant where ore could be purchased from miners at a rate per ton, depending on the assay samples’ valuation. They quickly received financing from Colorado Springs bankers, and drew up plans to construct the Cripple Creek Sampling & Ore Company.
Penrose continued his playboy life as the leader of the Socialites - all young, prosperous, Eastern college grads, who were always ready to party and drink heavily. Spencer was chosen because of his bully-like personality and ability with his fists. His horse Rabbit could be found nightly hitched at the tie rail in front of dance halls, including the Topic Dance Hall which he and Tutt owned. Traffic in prostitution was heavy there, and Rabbit cultivated a taste for lump sugar soaked in gin.
One day the C.O.D. started filling with water. Spencer immediately contacted his geologist brother, Dick, who suggested pumping the water out. The partners’ problem was lack of money. They leased the mine for $20,000 to Joe Troy and Pete Burke who sank a new shaft and found one of the district’s best defined gold veins. Under the lease’s terms, Penrose and Tutt shared in the profits. By the end of 1893, Troy and Burke asked the partners to buy back the lease, and they agreed. The mine was later sold to a French syndicate for which Tutt and Penrose received $240,000. The French deepened the shaft and eventually went broke trying to dry out the C.O.D.
In 1896, Tutt, Penrose, and a new partner, Charlie MacNeill, formed the Colorado-Philadelphia Reduction Company. They located this processing mill in Colorado City, a locale later incorporated into Colorado Springs. To bring gold to this mill, they built the Cripple Creek Short Line Railroad.
In March of 1896, Spencer moved to Colorado Springs just before two fires, a month later, that decimated Cripple Creek including destroying the Topic Dance Hall and most of the property Penrose and Tutt owned. Cripple Creek quickly rebuilt and by 1900, business in Cripple Creek was booming - including 75 saloons.
The partners didn’t stop with one reduction company. In 1901, they formed the United States Reduction and Refining Company. With the thirteen million dollars they raised, they blanketed the Cripple Creek Mining District with mills.
By the middle of 1902, the three partners had become very successful. The mill trust hired Daniel Cowan Jackling, who had formerly worked for MacNeill in Cripple Creek. He had left for Utah and discovered a new way to refine the two percent Bingham Canyon copper ore and make it profitable. On June 4, 1903, the three partners, including Tutt, incorporated Utah Copper Company for $500,000 in one dollar shares. MacNeill and Penrose each took 250,000 shares.
Jackling’s process was a success and the Utah Copper stock started soaring. Starting with 5,000 tons of ore a day, the partners doubled their goal and quadrupled their profits. Soon the three partners had launched, at Bingham Canyon, the world’s largest face copper mine. Penrose was a multi millionaire. After 20 years, Utah Copper Company merged with Guggenheim Family Investors and formed Kennecott. Speck, the largest stockholder, made $40 million on the sale.
Penrose continued to enjoy whiskey and the fine things in life. He went to plenty of parties but couldn’t dance and lacked conversational skills so felt ill at ease with the prominent women in Colorado Springs. He was a handsome and prosperous bachelor determined to stay single.
Spencer favored the El Paso Club to the Cheyenne Mountain Club where he had made his unfortunate debut ten years earlier. On January 11, 1901, he and a bachelor friend hosted a clambake at El Paso. One of his guests was Julie McMillan, the daughter of the Detroit mayor, and a recent widow. Penrose barely noticed her.
Five years later, Julie decided to pursue Spencer. She sent help over to make his bed, do his laundry, and cook his meals. She frequently invited him to breakfast at her home and insisted on him escorting her to parties.
In 1906, Spencer decided to take an extended trip abroad as he started feeling trapped. His brother Dick and Philadelphia friend, Dr. R. N. Keeley joined him. Aboard the same cruise ship to Europe, Julie and two of her two friends had decided to travel. Coincidence? When they were in France, Spencer asked Dick to write their father asking permission for Speck to marry Julie. While on the French Riviera, Penrose dropped a letter into Julie’s lap. The letter contained his father’s permission. That was his proposal. They were married April 26, 1906.
In 1908, Penrose became interested in doing something besides mining. He developed fruit orchards about 20 miles south of Colorado Springs. He brought in water for a municipal water system and built a railroad connection with the Denver & Rio Grande. The residents named the town Penrose in his honor.
On December 13, 1908, Dr. Penrose, Spencer’s father died. He had remained disappointed and suspicious of his son throughout his life despite his son’s financial successes. Another loss occurred on January 21, 1909 when his friend and partner Charles Tutt died. Speck took the loss extremely hard and gave his affection to Charles Tutt Jr.
Penrose loved making headlines and turned his attention to his community. In 1912, he built Pikes Peak Highway at a cost of more than a million dollars and gave it to the U.S. government. He established the Pikes Peak Auto Company which provided regional scenic tours. Four years later, Penrose started the two year construction on the Broadmoor Hotel. His partner Charlie MacNeill was co developer.
In 1917, he threw his support behind the home-front war effort. He was asked by the Red Cross to raise $100,00 and raised $217,000 instead, the highest per capita contribution of any American city. He gave hundreds of thousands in contributions to such organizations as the Belgian Relief, YMCA, and others.
Between 1918 when Prohibition passed, and 1933 when it was repealed, Penrose gave hundreds of thousands to organizations fighting against it. He and Julie led a privileged life which included a great deal of travel. He joined clubs all over the country rather than drinking in public. He also built two bookshelves in his library, each leading to secret wine cellars.
He became the Colorado President of the American Liberty League whose purpose was to overthrow Prohibition. A devout Republican, he publicly supported Democrat Al Smith, who was anti-Prohibition, and against Herbert Hoover, a Prohibition supporter. However, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran against Hoover, FDR was the worst of the two evils in Penrose’s mind, so he supported Hoover.
The Penroses became extensive world travelers. On May 27, 1925, Spencer bought an elephant in Ceylon, but it died in Hamburg en route to the U.S. The maharajah of Nagapur, a friend of the Penroses, heard the story and gave Spencer a 45-year old, trained elephant “Empress of India” that Penrose named “Tessie” after the famous Cripple Creek prostitute. With his friends, he rode her around Broadmoor grounds on her back in a Hindu howdah. Tessie was also enlisted as caddy during rounds of golf. Speck loved Tessie and when she died of a heart attack ten years later, he thought of getting her mounted until he learned the costs of taxidermy.
They also purchased variety of homes. They maintained an apartment in Paris, bought a chateau in southern France, and kept a houseboat on the Nile. They had a plantation in Hawaii and a home on the west coast. They also had El Pomar, their home in Colorado Springs; the family home in Philadelphia; and the Turkey Creek Ranch near Colorado Springs.
Speck started the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo next to the Broadmoor and purchased the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad in 1925. He bought the Manitou Water Company in 1926 and launched a nationwide campaign touting the benefits of the area’s mineral waters. He also purchased the cabin which housed the Territorial Capitol in Golden, moving it to the Broadmoor as a tourist attraction. He introduced the rodeo to the Broadmoor in 1927. He named the first event after Will Rodgers. Later it was known as the Penrose Stadium Rodeo and now the annual Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo, held every July.
While traveling in France in1927, his left eye injured decades before, became seriously infected necessitating its removal. From that time on, he had a glass eye. At a later date it was revealed that it was made bloodshot to match his right eye.
In 1931, Speck was threatened briefly with cancer. He started wondering what to do with his vast estate and where to plan his final resting place. He hired an architect to build a memorial several hundred feet high, located three miles from the top of Cheyenne Mountain. His friends dissuaded him from calling it the Penrose Memorial. When his good friend, Will Rogers, died he named it The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun.
As for his estate, in December 1937, he incorporated the El Pomar Foundation. Its purpose is to be used exclusively for charitable reasons for the inhabitants of Colorado. The principal and income from its funds remain limited within the state of Colorado. He transferred into it all of his Pike Peak properties and his copper assets. The assets of the foundation were $17 million at his death and have grown to $600 million. The foundation has given away half a billion dollars.
In late 1938, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Spencer “Speck” Penrose died December 7, 1939. His ashes lie under the floor of the chapel at the Shrine.
Julie, after his death, moved to the Broadmoor. She turned her interest away from the zoo and towards Fountain Valley School, the Penrose Hospital, and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. At the current Pioneer Museum exhibit, you can see two chairs dedicated to the Penroses by the Central City Opera House as Julie was their greatest benefactor. She died of cancer January 23, 1956 and is buried at the Shrine with her husband.
EL POMAR - THE PENROSE HOME
In 1916, they purchased a one-story Mediterranean villa built in 1910. The Penroses added a second story for Julie and a third story for Speck, enlarging the home to 30 rooms with many bedrooms and sitting rooms. There were seven bedrooms on the first floor.
Using a dining room table measuring 27 feet, with ten leaves, the Penroses held elegant dinner parties. You can still see that table and two side tables when you tour the home today. Check out the incredible crystal chandelier in this room. It also is original to the home, a copy of one owned by a Baron in Austria which Penrose tried to purchase.
The foyer’s flooring of Belgian Black and Vermont Corona tile was installed in 1916 to match that of the main dining room. You can see an Aeolian organ with 2800 pipes the Penroses had installed in the 1920's. The lace grills in the foyer and salon ceilings hide these pipes allowing the sound to travel to different rooms in the house.
After Spencer’s death, Julie donated the home in 1944 to the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati in recognition of their importance to the community and the care they provided Spencer during his final years. They converted the salon to a chapel. They took out the fireplace mantle in this room. It was returned in the 1990's by an older man who had taken it and kept it in his shop for many years. It has since been reassembled, almost seamlessly, except for one crack. Look here also for the two religious-themed Flemish tapestries dated 1495. These also belonged to the Penroses.
Besides the bookshelves with the secret doors, observe the woodwork in the library. It was hand-carved by a German artist who lived with the Penroses for a year. The law books belonged to Henry McAllister, Jr., Spencer’s attorney and one of El Pomar’s first trustees.
In 1992, El Pomar Foundation purchased the home. They transformed it into an education and conference center. Although tours of the home aren’t mentioned in guidebooks, you can obtain a self-guided one by calling their office and asking to see it. The home’s address is 10 Lake Circle, Colorado Springs and the phone number is (719) 577-7000.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1927, before Dick Penrose’s death in 1931, the Geological Society of America established the Penrose Medal Award, given annually to individuals who make outstanding contributions to the geological sciences. Today it is recognized as the most prestigious award given in the field of earth sciences.
Spencer Penrose (Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum)
Julie Penrose (Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum)
Spencer Penrose and Charles Tutt Sr. (Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum)
Charles MacNeill (Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum)
Chairs Honoring the Penroses from Central City Opera House (Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum)
El Pomar