Spencer Penrose

SPENCER PENROSE

Spencer Penrose was born in Pennsylvania and came to Colorado in 1892. He bought a gold mine in Cripple Creek and enjoyed hunting and fishing in the mountains. He built the world famous luxurious Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs and established a bank in Cripple Creek. He founded the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the Will Rogers Shrine and later purchased the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

In 1906, Mr. Penrose married Miss Julie McMillan, a widow from Colorado Springs, and they built a mansion later named El Pomar, at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain. He and Julie never had children together, although Mr. Penrose loved Julie’s daughter, Gladys as his own.

Mr. Penrose had heard about the fertile soil and pleasant climate of Penrose and deiced he would invest in the Beaver Park Land and Irrigation Company. He also invested in a dam and reservoir and the Beaver Park and Northern Railroad.

In 1910, Mr. Penrose is shown in an old photograph driving a wagon down the main street in Florence. In 1915, Spencer and Julia Penrose presented the citizens of Penrose with a statue of a little boy.

When Spencer Penrose died in 1939, he left a legacy of buildings and businesses in the Pikes Peak region, including the town that bears his name, Penrose.