Lake Gazebo & Gazebo Bridge

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 25, 2025

1. Lake Gazebo & Gazebo Bridge Marker

Touch for directions.

Range

Region.

West.

America,

Mountains,

Hemisphere,

World,

Anglosphere.

Comanchería.

Click or scan to see
this page online

From the Colorado State Register Nomination prepared by Robert H. King, 5/2006:
Built ca. 1888 at a time when the area was being developed as a mountain resort, the gazebo was designed as a scenic attraction. Green Mountain Falls was a popular stop on the Colorado Midland Railway Company’s railroad line that extended from Colorado Springs west through Ute Pass to Cripple Creek and Florissant. During its most successful era at the end of the nineteenth century, the Colorado Midland railroad brought thousands of summer visitors to enjoy the fresh air and scenery of the Ute Pass area. The completion

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 25, 2025

2. Lake Gazebo & Gazebo Bridge Marker

Looking south across Gazebo Lake Park.

of the railroad in 1887 encouraged a number of entrepreneurs to build large hotels and related facilities to entice the many tourists headed to the mountains. In 1888-89, hotels were constructed almost simultaneously in Green Mountain Falls, Cascade and Ute Park (now Chipita Park). The Green Mountain Hotel was “the most formal and formidable,” sited on a rise above a man-made lake with 70 guest rooms, large dining rooms and parlors, and lavish verandas. The hotels are gone, as is the railroad and all its stations. Of the early buildings and structures that appeared in the 1880s and 90s along the shore of the lake at Green Mountain Falls, only two remain. One is the gazebo, still at its original location, and the other is the former Green Mountain Falls Town Improvement Company Land Office which has been moved twice.
The Green Mountain Falls Gazebo with its octagonal frame, pointed roof and elaborate brackets is classic of its period. Although its builder is not known, the gazebo belongs to a category of structures that was quite popular in its time. Gazebos sprang up like mushrooms across America in the 1880s.
Certain properties provide a community with a unique sense of identity, becoming the single feature by which that community is most immediately recognized. Such is the case with the gazebo, easily visible from Ute Pass Avenue, the main road through town. One of the

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 25, 2025

3. Lake Gazebo

few remaining resources from the earliest period of the town’s history, the gazebo is the signature structure for the town of Green Mountain Falls, appearing on postcards, t-shirts and the town logo. While continuing to fill its “contemplative” function, the gazebo is also a popular site for community events, such as the annual Fourth of July fireworks display and summer band concerts. In addition, it is rented for private events, such as weddings and family reunions. It provides a link to the past, while also being a resource for the social life of the town.
The gazebo was constructed on an island originally accessible only by boats from a boathouse on the far side of the lake. At some point a dirt causeway was built out to the island. Local historian Jan Pettit believes that this occurred sometime in the 1920s. Pettit speculates that the boathouse was removed, and the causeway was installed when the town became less of a tourist stop and more of a settled community, around the time the train depot was torn down, ca. 1923. In 1990, an engineering class from the United States Air Force Academy designed and constructed the wooden bridge that replaced the old dirt causeway out to the island. The only work done on the building in recent times has been general upkeep and maintenance by the public works department of the town.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 25, 2025

4. Gazebo Bridge

Excerpt:  The Gazebo stands on a small island in the middle of a man-made lake. Designed as a scenic attraction for visitors arriving by train and a complement to a nearby resort hotel, the gazebo was built in about 1888 when the area was being developed as a summer resort. The gazebo is a good example of a type of structure popular during the late Victorian period.
Variously called belvederes, pavilions, summer houses and garden houses, gazebos sprang up across America in the 1880s decorating public parks and private grounds. Open on all sides, these picturesque constructions offered rest and repose while promoting a feeling of harmony with nature. One of the most frequently photographed structures in the Ute Pass area, it is the signature building for the town. The Gazebo is an easily recognized visual landmark for the town of Green Mountain Falls and a popular site for community and private events.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 25, 2025

5. Gazebo Lake Park, Green Mountain Falls

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 25, 2025

6. Gazebo Lake Park, Green Mountain Falls

Looking northwest across Gazebo Lake. The Gazebo and Gazebo Bridge are visible in the background.

Suspended above Gazebo Lake, "Off The Beaten Path" by Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics, is "an expansive aerial sculpture that engages the natural world as an active collaborator — translating wind and light into an immersive experience of movement, space and stillness."