Manitou Mineral Water Company Bottling Plant

Manitou Mineral Water Company Bottling Plant. Manitou Mineral Water Park and Bath Company Bath House. , Manitou Mineral Water Company, In July 1887, Jerome Wheeler, a banking and mining millionaire, formed the Manitou Mineral Water Company and then purchased the Manitou Mineral Water Park and Bath Company. The organization planned a new, much expanded bottling plant and a park complex including the Bath House as well as the Manitou, Shoshone, and Navajo Springs. These goals were met by 1890 when about a million bottles of Manitou Table Water and Ginger Champagne were produced. , The bottling plant, located between Fountain Creek and Manitou Avenue to the south of this site, was 30,000 square feet and three stories high with walk-out basement to the north. The first two floors were red sandstone and the third was wood frame; a stone tower with copper cupola marked the southeast corner., The company was successful until the 1893 Silver Panic forced Wheeler to sell. By 1915, financial difficulties included the loss of affordable bottles, bad business decisions, and a ruinous lawsuit. In the late 1920's, Broadmoor Hotel owner Spencer Penrose and his partner, the New York hotelier Thomas D. Green, bought the company with an interest in forming a wholesale liquor business, hoping to give the Broadmoor head start after Prohibition. Following World War II, the plant stood unused and was eventually torn down. , In 1954, the El Pomar Foundation constructed a large garage structure on the site, with plans to build up to three floors of affordable housing above. The housing never materialized and General Motors purchased the building for use as a vehicle testing facility shortly after its construction. The testing facility operated until June 2002. , In 2003, the City of Manitou Springs approved plans for commercial and residential development of the property., Manitou Mineral Water Park and Bath Company Bath House , Built in 1872, the original Bath House was a low frame building above Fountain Creek's south bank on Manitou Avenue between the Navajo and Shoshone Springs. , In 1882, Major John Hulbert, a partner in the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway, and General Charles Adams, former Indian Agent and U.S. diplomat, formed the Manitou Mineral Water Park and Bath Company. They replaced the decrepit building across the creek with a state-of-the-art Queen Anne style bath house and a plant for heating cold spring water. , The new structure, painted bottle green with reddish-brown trim, was located on this site between Fountain Creek and Cañon Avenue. At the front of the Bath House were a physician's room ladies and gentlemen's parlors, manager office, director's room, and attendants' chambers In the back were 20 rooms with cast iron bathtubs, 32 dressing closets, and a 30'x 30' plunge pool., The popularity of public bathing was partly due to the lack of bathing facilities in public accommodations. Ten thousand baths were taken that first summer, each costing approximately 50 cents. Although the pool had separate hours for ladies and gentlemen, the Denver papers reported: "It isn't fashionable to bathe at Manitou, without your corsets.", As spa popularity waned, the Manitou Mineral Water Company purchased the building and tried deepening the plunge pool and adding a diving board. Nevertheless, the Bath House couldn't compete with more modern facilities and was torn down after World War I. This property is now used as a public parking lot.