Palmer Lake Historical Society, Oct. 19 – History of Glen Eyrie presented

By Marlene Brown

The Palmer Lake Historical Society (PLHS) held its monthly meeting Oct. 19 at the Palmer Lake Town Hall. Amy Burch, manager of the bookstore at the Navigators located at Glen Eyrie and co-author of The Glen Eyrie Story, presented the story. The Navigators purchased the property in 1953 and continue to this day to house their headquarters for their worldwide ministry, castle tours, teas, overnight stays, conference center with a café and the bookstore. Many other events are allowed on the property. To book tours and for more information go to gleneyrie.org

**Above**: Amy Burch, manager of the bookstore at Glen Eyrie and co-author of The Glen Eyrie Story, gave a PowerPoint presentation to the Palmer Lake Historical Society on Oct. 19 at the Palmer Lake Town Hall. Photo by Marlene Brown.

Glen Eyrie was the home of William J. Palmer (1836-1909) and his wife “Queen” (1850-94). Palmer purchased the property at the mouth of the canyon in Garden of the Gods and began building Glen Eyrie for his wife in 1871. His vision was to build an English Tudor-style castle in wilds of the West, in the newly opened lands of Colorado. Palmer was a brigadier general in the Union Army, president of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and founder of Colorado Springs. He had dreams of building Colorado Springs as the new Chicago or San Francisco. He founded Colorado College and built the first permanent building on campus that would eventually be downtown Colorado Springs. They had three daughters: Elsie, Dorothy, and Marjory.

As the railroad expanded and transportation to the West became easier, a train ran from Denver to Colorado Springs, opening trade between the two cities. Palmer Lake became a daily water stop. Palmer purchased the land known as the Monument Farms & Lake Property, which later become the Town of Palmer Lake. Palmer Lake was critical to the railroad because the steam engines chugged up to the Palmer Divide and had to take on water to head down. The lake was the only natural water supply available on a year-round basis. Passenger trains would stop for 10 minutes to take on water. (See palmerdividehistory.org/a-brief-history-of-the-palmer-divide-area.)

When Queen Palmer’s health deteriorated, she and the girls moved back East and then back to England, where William visited them many times. At the age of 44, Queen passed away and William brought the girls back to Colorado Springs to live in the 33,000-square-foot castle. There were 17 guest rooms, two dining rooms and 24 fireplaces. The castle sits at the base of Queen’s Canyon and is subject to floods that increased after the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire. Though there was no fire damage to Glen Eyrie, the canyon was stripped of vegetation and over a million dollars of flood mitigation was performed with debris nets and concrete barriers to allow water to flow through the grounds of Glen Eyrie.

After Palmer’s horse-riding accident and his death three years later, his daughters tried to give Glen Eyrie to the city of Colorado Springs, but city officials declined due to cost of maintaining the property. It was sold in 1922, and the property fell into disrepair and was closed. In 1938, oilman George Strake bought the Glen Eyrie property and then remodeled and updated it until the sale to the Navigators in 1953.

For more information on William J. Palmer, you are invited to attend the Palmer Lake Historical Society’s next meeting on Nov. 16, 7-8:30 p.m., for The Life and Times of General William Jackson Palmer presented by Jim Sawatzki, local author, and historian of the Palmer Divide area. The presentation in free and open to the public. The PLHS normally holds its meetings on the third Thursday of the month at the Palmer Lake Town Hall, 42 Valley Crescent St., Palmer Lake. For information about joining PLHS, go to https://palmerdividehistory.org/memberships/

Marlene Brown can be reached at marlenebrown@ocn.me.

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