The Castle in Manitou Springs

Manitou Springs was founded by the railway magnate, William Jackson Palmer, and his partner, William Abraham Bell.  They brought the railroad to Colorado Springs.  In post Civil War America of the 1870's and 1880's, a health craze was sweeping the country.  Palmer and Bell thought Manitou Springs, a site nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountain front range, and an area known for hundreds of years for the naturally carbonated springs which flow up through the granite, was a natural site for a town based on attracting people for 'water cures'.  To ensure the town's success, they even built a railroad spur directly into Manitou Springs.  Thus, Manitou Springs, just a scant 10 miles from the heart of Colorado Springs downtown, has always been a tourist town.

With today's medical knowledge, the idea you could recover from tuberculosis or other ailments by drinking carbonated water seems silly.  However, during a time in which medical care was mostly about trying to do no harm to the patient, the fresh mountain air and a water cure certainly couldn't hurt them.  People came by the droves from the time of the town's founding in 1872 until the 1920's.  Some came to find cures for ailments while others came to vacation in a charming town which developed more and more tourist attractions many based on the spectacular scenery of the location.  Middle class people in post civil war America had disposable income to indulge in the vacationing - a new possibility in the 1880's.

One of the people who came to recover his health was a Catholic priest by the name of Jean Baptiste Francolon, a French aristocrat

who followed another aristocratic French Catholic Bishop to New Mexico in 1878.  By the early 1890's Francolon was suffering from a digestive malady which would not go away.  There are unsubstantiated rumors he was being slowly poisoned by his New Mexican parishioners.  In any case, he was transferred by the New Mexican Bishop to Manitou Springs to recover his health.

With the backing of his mother's wealth, he immediately began designing a magnificent home in Manitou Springs.   This became known as Miramont Castle.  It originally contained 14 rooms, numerous open air porches and a conservatory.  
Upon its completion Father Franolon immediately sent for his mother.  She arrived with a gigantic four poster bed which was too large for the bedroom Francolon had designed for her use.  A quick remodel ensued, and his French speaking mother was accommodated.  The castle was completed in 1892 mostly of 'greenstone', a type of granite which today has been quarried out of existence.

The interior woodwork, except for Madame Francolon's bedroom, was of lowly pine, but the carpenters and woodworkers led by the pictured Gillis brothers knew their business.

Grand Staircase of Miramont Castle

Madame Francolon's re-designed bedroom was huge, and her woodwork was fashioned out of oak.

One-half of Madame Francolon's bedroom

Her son's bedroom was much more modest in keeping with his clerical vows. However, he didn't seem to have much of a problem reconciling his clerical vows of poverty by living in a mansion which was certainly extravagant for the small town of Manitou Springs.  As a French aristocrat, he must have viewed his housing in Manitou Springs as barely adequate.  

1890's period Catholic vestaments

During the Francolons' occupancy, there were several open air porches which were used during the summertime.  Interestingly, one of the main porches didn't have a 'rail', but rather the outer perimeter of the porch was set with granite slabs of stone about 4" high, just enough to stub your toe and warn you of the edge of the second story porch.  

Miramont is two connected French words which basically mean 'look at the mountain'.  The eight sided conservatory with the 18' ceiling, which was also glass in Francolon's design, would have been an interior green house to take in the mountain view during the winter months.  

The Miramont Castle View

Father Francolon and his mother only lived in his castle for 8 years.  Her health failed, and he returned with her to France where she died.  He was then sent to New York for his final posting.  Father Francolon left Manitou Springs and his castle behind, but the grounds and building were purchased for $1300 by the Sisters of Mercy, a convent of nursing nuns, who transformed Miramont into a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients.  They enclosed porches, and partioned the large rooms into smaller patient bedrooms.  

To get the patients out into the 'beneficial air' during the summer, they also built 'tuberculosis huts' where patients slept in the summertime.  This is the only one left on the property.  The Sisters ran the sanatorium into the 1920s.  

However, from the 1930's until the restoration of the building began in the 1980's, Miramont dwindled into a shabbier and shabbier structure.  By 1947 it had devolved into small apartments for returning GI's.  There's only one piece of original furniture in the house, and it's a built in bench at the top of the grand staircase on the landing.  

The Manitou Springs Historical Society over the years has diligently returned Miramont Castle to it's 1890's beauty with money and labor provided by the service clubs and citizens of Manitou Springs.  This restoration has taken them decades.  Their accomplishment is impressive when considering the town only has a permanent population of 5,000 people.  Today Miramont is a National Historical Site, a tourist attraction, and a local tea room.  

The furnishings were all mostly forgettable as are so many in restored houses.  In lieu of pieces of furniture and other decorative items original to the house, these types of places are furnished with 'period pieces' which are historically accurate but lack any cohesive decorative scheme.  Miramont definitely falls into this catagory, and to make up for the lack of original furnishings, several rooms are set up as mini-museums.  One such room is the re-created study of the head Judge of the World War II Nuremberg Trials who was from Colorado Springs. Another current exhibit is about firefighters of Manitou Springs.  None of these added much interest to the house itself.  

In this house's defense, in all my tours, I've only seen ONE house which is completely furnished with all original pieces. Most restorations, like Miramont Castle, have to peel away decades of alternative use.  When that happens, all original decorative pieces are long gone, and members of the restoration committee pour over every available period photograph or painting to try and determine what each room originally looked like.   

As always, to see more pictures of the house, click on the link:

https://goo.gl/photos/45f8atpZSJpLrcBC6