First Manitou Bath House (Manitou Springs, Colorado)

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(Outline approximate.)

This was the site of a bath house (the "first" Manitou Bath House), built in 1872 by General Palmer and Dr. Bell's Colorado Springs Company. It offered heated baths using mineral water from the Navajo Spring.

The bath house was initially operated by George J. Hanley, who leased it from the CSC.

In 1876 the CSC leased it to James H. Spencer.

Circa 1878 the CSC leased it to physician Dr. Harriet A. Leonard.

In 1882 the CSC leased the bath house and the surrounding land and springs to a new company founded by Major John Hulbert and General Charles Adams, called the Manitou Mineral Water Bath and Park Company. The following year the MMWBPC built a new, much larger bath house (the "second" Manitou Bath House, located just across Fountain Creek to the east), and converted the old bath house to a small bottling plant.

In 1887 the MMWBPC was absorbed by another new company, the Manitou Mineral Water Company, founded by Jerome Wheeler. The MMWC replaced the old bottling plant/former bath house with the much larger MMWC Bottling Works, which it built on the same site in 1889.

Historic photo:

cdm15981.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15981co...