An 1880s Victorian Mansion in the Colorado Rockies: The Estemere Estate at Palmer Lake

by Edwards, Daniel

  Dale tried to call Dan Fraley, the caretaker, but he was not home, so Dale had us follow him to Estemere. He showed us around and I was immediately infatuated with the place. As we entered the Dining Room, it was dominated by a huge solid oak dining table with 12 matching chairs. Kim had wanted a large dining table for several years and I had not been able to find a suitable antique table for her—but here it was!

  After looking around, I asked Dale if he knew the asking price. Dale said that he had been considering buying it himself and thought that Jim Peterson, the owner, would take $600,000. I was quite surprised at this “low” price since there were six buildings on 6.5 acres. Did it include the furniture? Yes!

  The next day we met Dan and he told us more about the place and gave us the Pitts’ booklet on the history of Estemere. We read it thoroughly that day on the plane to Tulsa to visit my mom.

  Dan had invited us to spend a weekend at Estemere, so Kim and I came back twice for visits before we made an offer. On the second visit my close friend, Steve Moore from Austin, Texas, came along. He advised us against buying Estemere due to its condition. Perhaps we should have listened to him!

  We offered Jim Peterson $650,000; he said his accountant told him he needed $700,000 to break even; we agreed to that price. We closed on Estemere on 05 January 1998.

  Photo by Steve Moore, 1997.

  The Dining Table that started it all.

  Estemere Then and Now

  Estamere 1893 and Estemere 2004.

  Restoring Estemere as the “Crown Jewel” of Palmer Lake

  The Grounds

  The flyer for the “Rocky Mountain Association” described Estemere as:

  A 6-acre estate of beautiful terraced lawns and towering trees, nestled in the lap of Sun Dance Mountain…. Being protected by mountains gives an ideal climate for both summer and winter. The drive suggests a cool, quiet retreat. Trails lead to nearby canyons, lakes, fishing, Ice Caves and Elephant Rock.

  In June 1925, the Town Council set watering hours for gardens and lawns in Palmer Lake; Estemere could water from 8 to 10 a.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m. Nozzles or sprays had to be used.

  In June 1934, the Town Council approved a motion that the 2-inch water pipe at Estemere was to be reduced to 1/2 inch pipe.

  In September 1948, water commissioner George Siehl was instructed by the Town Council to "fix the leaks at Estemere and the Depot and no more alibis." [Note: some Palmer Lake old-timers worked according to their own schedule: when they wanted to and when it was not deer hunting season!]

  Many of the trees were elm, which have since succumbed to Dutch elm disease and were removed. Kim planted along the driveway a dozen or so 10 foot tall ash and “Dutch elm disease resistant” elms. She also planted two dwarf pear trees and a dwarf sour cherry tree. Numerous volunteer California poppies come up in the yard every year, along with a few hollyhocks. Hundreds of old lilac bushes, planted by unknown gardeners, adorn the property. Three or four old apple trees struggle to produce their sour apples each year. Around 2004, we installed an underground sprinkler system to water the grounds inside the rock wall during the summer.

  Every fall a small herd of deer (10-15) frequent the grounds and munch on the apples. They like to lounge in the “circle” during the heat of the day. In 2011, black bears broke the limbs off one of the apple trees and left large piles of bear scat—consisting of half-digested apples—around the yard. A couple of years ago a pair of foxes had a litter of four kits under the front porch of Estemere. Watching them play was great fun. As they grew older, they left their “toys”—tennis shoes, leather gloves, small balls, and numerous newspapers—on the lawn. Not as much fun were the skunks that lived under the porch for a while! Nor the raccoons.

  When we purchased Estemere, there were 13 “Coleman Lantern Mantle” type natural-gas pole lamps that operated 24 hours per day. It cost about $8 per month per mantle to operate these lights, or about $100/month for gas. We immediately turned off the gas to these lights. As a part of the re-wiring of Estemere, we added 11 electric pole lamps and ran electricity to the old gas lamps, which we converted to electricity. Three- and five-watt Compact-Fluorescent-Lights (CFLs) were installed in the pole lamps and photocells were added to turn the lights on and off automatically. There are now about 25 CFL lights on at night to allow one to avoid the black bears (or vise-versa), at a total cost of less than $10 per month for electricity.

  The Rock Wall

  In late March 1998, about three months after we purchased Estemere, Dan Fraley called to inform us that a 10-foot (3 m) section of the rock wall in front of Estemere along Glenway Street had collapsed, and portions were bulging, probably due to the heavy rains that saturated the ground during March. He sent some Polaroid photos. Kim contracted with Tri-Star Masonry in Colorado Springs to repair the wall. It was decided to re-point the entire rock wall, as the grout was failing in a number of places. Once again, Mother Nature struck the new owners of Estemere!

  This was not the first time a portion of the rock wall had collapsed:

  Water pouring down gullies north and south of Sundance mountain flooded many basements in town. A section of the rock wall around Estemere gave way, hurling an iron fence on top and the large rocks and dirt into the road.[189]

  The Shed

  The “Shed” was originally a smokehouse, ice house, summer cook-house, and occasionally a shower house for workers. It had to be moved since the new Kitchen would encroach upon the Shed. So, Kim had the Shed moved a few hundred feet southwest to an unused part of the property. Later, we ran electricity to the Shed, added the porch, and re-roofed it.

  The Conservatory

  When we first met Dan Fraley, he mentioned to Kim his concept of adding a Conservatory to the north-west end of the house, adjoining the Kitchen. Kim liked this idea and soon began designing a new kitchen and conservatory. Of course, the conservatory had to fit in with the rest of the house—that is, it had to look 120 years old! She hired Rick Barnes of Barnes Architects in Colorado Springs to do the engineering details based upon her ideas and sketches for the conservatory and kitchen.

  Two views showing the Shed in its original position (on the far left in each photo).

  The Shed in its new location in 1998 and 2009.

  The Conservatory—2008.

  The Carriage House

  The Carriage House dates to at least the time of Estamere II, about 1887 or before, as it can be seen in the early photograph showing Estamere I and II before Estamere I was moved to The Rocklands Hotel.

  The Rocky Mountain Association flyer continued the Rocky Mountain Summer School’s convention of calling the Carriage House “Pioneer Hall,” described as:

  60X80 [feet]. Consists of a large Auditorium with seats for 250 and three large dormitories with beds for 25. Shower house and wash room.

  In 1949, W.C. Blietz reduced the Carriage House by half (see Chapter 7). In 2000, we expanded it back to its original width (but not its original depth). Below would be a three-car garage and above would be an apartment adjoining the old Carriage House loft apartment. Again, we used Eddie Meredith Construction for most of the work on the structure.

  The Carriage House before 1949 and in 2005.

  The Roof

  The roofs of all of the buildings were reaching the end of their protective lifetimes. We had the roofs of all of the buildings replaced with 40-year Certainteed™ Shangles in Cottage Red color. We were getting bids for reroofing the main house for up to $200,000! So, Rob Gilbreath, a local “jack-of-all-(construction)trades,” got a crew of locals together. We had the house scaffolded and started to work removing the old roofing (three to five layers thick, often with original cedar shake shingles as the bottom layer) down to the original sub-roof decking (rough-sawn planks). Several pieces of the Montgomery Ward shipping boxes and advertising tins that Blietz used in his 1949 re-roofing project were salvaged and are now displayed in the Carriage House workshop. We repaired any areas requiring repair, 100% re-decked the roof, a
pplied Grace® Ice & Water Shield® to 100% of the decking, and then applied the shingles.

  Rob Gilbreath on the scaffolding.

  Lots of scaffolding.

  Stripped, new decking, Ice & Water Shield.

  Cardboard from the shipping cartons for the shingles Blietz used to re-roof the house ca. 1949.

  Pieces of advertising signs and carbide cans Blietz used for flashing the roof.

  When Blietz re-roofed Estemere in 1949, he removed three of the original wooden finials that were on the roof. We installed three new copper finials to the restore the original look.

  New finials to replace the finials removed by Blietz.

  Some of the decorative cedar shingles on the tower were deteriorating, so we decided to replace them. The original shingles were six inches (15 cm) wide; modern decorative shingles are five inches wide (12.5 cm). To make six inch wide shingles would be cost prohibitive, so it was decided to replace all of the shingles on the tower with five inch shingles.

  The “Observatory” roof was re-decked with bender-ply sub-roofing and two layers of Grace were applied. Instead of using asphalt shingles we opted for Rheinzink® metal shingles. Rheinzink is 99% zinc and 1% copper and titanium. It should last 100+ years. There were about six layers of asphalt shingles on the observatory roof—Roger calculated the weight of these shingles to be around 3000 pounds (1365 kg).

  The Tower—before and after. Sean Gilbreath on the scaffold.

  Six layers of shingles; the stripped observatory roof.

  New bender-ply decking and Ice & Water Shield.

  Nearly done. Thousands of interlocking pieces.

  The Master Bathroom

  In 2004, we decided to modernize the Master Bathroom. We wanted walk-in his and her closets, a nice shower, and a laundry room. [We had been doing laundry in the Carriage House.] Also, since the old furnace was just inside the bathroom door from the master bedroom, we wanted it moved for noise considerations. And, we wanted to install an on-demand water heater. All this meant enlarging the bathroom and adding a basement utility room below.

  Because the old bathroom dated only from the 1960s—it had probably been remodeled after the 1965 flood—we did not feel obligated to maintain any authenticity, since nothing was “authentic” 1880s anyway. We used Eddie Meredith Construction for most of the work.

  Since the Master Bathroom is adjacent to the Master Bathroom, we decided to replace the siding on the master bedroom so that we could add insulation to the outside walls. In the process, we found the drywall on the east wall was dated 1966, indicating that the Leonards had replaced some of the drywall in the master bedroom after the 1965 flood.

  The “old” and “new” Master Bathroom.

  Pavestone®

  Just as caulking and putting up the final trim work gives new construction that “finishing touch,” adding Pavestone® pavers to the driveway and courtyards gave Estemere that final touch that makes it look as though it is “finished.” In 2004, we hired Continental Hardscape to install the pavers. It took six men six weeks to complete the project.

  Installing Pavestone pavers.

  The finished back patio.

  The Cherubs

  The cherubs are original to Estemere—they can be seen in the 1893 photo of Estemere. [E.H. Rollins surely would not have spent money to install them after Thompson left, bankrupt, in 1890.]

  Local water-color artist Joe Bohler has painted at Estemere multiple times. Of course, Estemere’s cherubs were often subjects of his paintings. Joe recalls seeing identical cherubs in a park in Italy.

  In many of the old photos one can see that one of the cherubs occasionally disappears. Sometime in the past the braze attaching one of the cherubs to its basin broke. Someone tried to re-braze it with a torch but only melted part of the foot. In 1998, the cherub was held in place with a piece of bailing wire. Over the ensuing years, the foot and leg of the cherub began to split open at the seams, and the second one was beginning to show its age, as well. No one locally had any good suggestions as to how to repair the cherubs. Roger found a fellow online in New York who said he could repair them—for $5,000 each plus expenses to travel to Palmer Lake. Roger finally decided that the best “restoration” was to have the cherubs cast in bronze. In 2007, he contacted Art Castings of Colorado in Fort Collins, and subsequently delivered one of the cherubs to them. They made a mold from it and cast two beautiful new bronze cherubs. We chose a patina that closely matched the 100-year-old patina on the original cherubs.

  The original cherubs weigh about 15 pounds each—the bronze cherubs weigh about 50 pounds each. To prevent damage to the basin from the increased weight, Art Castings made a stainless steel structure to fit inside the cherubs’ bases to support the heavier bronze cherubs. The bronze cherubs cost about $4,000 each and should last many lifetimes.

  The Lion’s Rest

  The sides of the front porch steps where the lions have resided off and on for the past 120 years were beginning to deteriorate rapidly. In 2009, it became necessary to repair the sides, as the concrete fascia was failing. During demolition, we found evidence of at least five previous major repairs to the lion’s rest. We rebuilt the structure with a solid concrete footer, a concrete core, and added solid rhyolite stone fascia and caps to match the old, original rock wall. Then rhyolite fascia and capstones were acquired from a quarry in Castle Rock, Colorado, and sculpted to match the original concrete contour. The new Lion’s Rest should last for centuries.

  The new footer (l). Mike and Dave.

  The finished product.

  The Gazebo

  After 120 years, the Gazebo on the southeast corner of the rock wall along Glenway Street was about to collapse from dry rot. In 2009, we nearly decided to raze it, but at the last minute we decided to rebuild it. Only the roof and the rock foundation were salvageable. During restoration, Kerri Bohler called. (Kerri and Chris Bohler owned the B&E restaurant; in October 2011, they re-opened the Villa Restaurant with their old partner Mike Elliot.) She said her daughter Hanna wanted to get married in the Gazebo: when Hanna was in kindergarten at the Palmer Lake Elementary School, Kerry would walk her home, hand-in-hand. As they would walk past the Gazebo, her daughter would look up at it and say that she wanted to get married “up there” when she grew up. Of course, we agreed—happy that we had not razed the 120-year-old structure. The wedding was beautiful!

  Bill and Ben Boggan; before restoration.

  Kim and Roger Ward

  Roger Wilson Ward was born in Paris, Texas, on 02 December 1944. At that time, Roger’s father, Alvin Lavell Ward, was serving in Guam and Saipan during WWII as a member of the Army Air Corps. His mother, Anna Muriel (Miller) Ward, was living in Antlers, OK, and she always told Roger that she went to Texas for him to be born so he “wouldn’t be a ‘damn Okie.’” Many years later, Roger traveled through Paris, Texas, and suddenly realized that he was really born a Texan because there’s an Army base in Paris—meaning his mother had free medical for his birth. Needless to say, Roger has always been proud to be a “Texan.” In 1967, Roger received his BA in physics from McMurry College in Abilene, Texas, where he learned about quartz crystal technology from his professor, Dr. Virgil Bottom. Roger then received his MS in physics from Purdue University in 1969. Roger was married to Patricia Ann Lambright from 1967-1978.

  In 1969, Roger joined Hewlett Packard Co. as a member of the technical staff. At HP, Roger worked in the quartz crystal R&D department. He left HP in 1975 and joined Litronix, Inc., where he worked on manufacturing processes for quartz tuning forks for digital watches. After Litronix went bankrupt in 1977, Roger moved to Southern California and joined Statek, Inc.—the company that invented photolithographic manufacturing techniques for quartz crystal tuning forks.

  Roger married Kimberley Elaine Lohman in 1979. Kim was born in Compton, California, on 08 April 1957. Kim met Roger while she was working for Statek as a process technician. They soon moved to Loveland, Colorado, where Roger was vice-president of Colorado Cry
stal Corp. Their son, Eric N.D.W. Ward, was born on 20 September 1979. From 1981-1983 they lived in Florida where Roger worked for Motorola, directing a staff of about 17 technicians and engineers in the start-up of a manufacturing group to manufacture quartz devices for a next-generation pocket pager.

  In early 1983, Roger joined Quartztronics, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah, as a partner. Quartztronics developed quartz crystal sensor technology and sold licenses to the technology for various commercial applications. In 1990, Quartzdyne, Inc. was spun off from Quartztronics to manufacture a revolutionary new quartz pressure sensor with primary applications in the down-hole oil and gas field. Quartzdyne was very successful, and in 1998 the partners sold the company to Dover Corp. Roger retired in July 1999.