What we know
Three-story hotel clad in iron ('Hotel Park' in 1895, 'Park Hotel' in 1900), with the post office next door at 120 Front in a one-story building shared with a confectionery on both maps; in 1895 a printing office stood at 123 and a doctor's office at 122, both vacant by 1900 (S-0147). The Park Hotel and the post office burned on Feb. 27, 1904; Francis W. Bell was postmaster and clerk of the Presbyterian church, and the church's records burned with them (Lavelett, S-0011, p. 79). Her 1894 photo shows the Walker building on Second followed by the Monument and Park hotels (p. 66).
Where it was
121 Front Street (the post office at 120), south of Second, on the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Monument, sheet 1, Nov. 1895 and Oct. 1900 (Library of Congress, S-0147); placed by fitting the sheet to today's Front, Washington and Jefferson street crossings at 1st and 3rd streets (six points, each within about 15 feet of the fit). Good to about a hundred feet.
Sources
- S-0011: Lucille Lavelett, Through the Years at Monument, Colorado: The Story of Monument, Colorado, 5th printing (Palmer Lake: Palmer Lake Historical Society, 2004); first published Colorado Springs: Valliant Press, 1975
- S-0147: Sanborn-Perris Map Co., Monument, El Paso County, Col., fire-insurance maps, sheet 1, November 1895 and October 1900 (Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps collection)
Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.