- [Scott] Julie Penrose shows what the work of one person can do to leave an indelible mark on the cultural landscape of a region.

- [Kyle] Whether it's El Pomar Foundation, or The Broadmoor Hotel, the Fine Arts Center, or Central City Opera, she truly modeled the way.

- [Cynthia] El Pomar is Julie and Spencer Penrose's legacy.

It's a love letter to the city.

- [Kyle] Their philanthropy essentially changed the face of Colorado Springs.

It's also served to change the lives of thousands of individuals.

[uplifting music] - [Reynelda] As strong and enduring as the Rocky Mountains they stood beside, as visionary as the views of the Grand Plains they looked across, The women inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame are trailblazers whose work has improved and enriched our lives.

They are teachers, scientists, ranchers, leaders in business, education, religion, and the arts, women who have been recognized for their many contributions to our state, our country, and the world.

I'm Reynelda Muse, and these are the stories of Great Colorado women.

[uplifting music fades] - [Kyle] Julie Penrose is someone who was caring, compassionate, and dedicated to her community.

- She was a forward-thinking philanthropist who grew up in a family that had a tradition of civic engagement, and she brought those traditions with her to Colorado Springs.

She utilized her privilege to improve the lives of people around her.

- Julie was a force of nature.

She had enormous power and she used it wisely.

Her determination paved the way for women.

- [Sarah] And she did so at a time when women weren't necessarily expected or permitted to do so in the ways that she did.

She had significant leadership roles as director of boards for organizations like Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Central City Opera.

- Julie had great aspirations for Colorado and for what she believed that it could become.

Julie Penrose's commitment to Central City Opera and to other artistic organizations pioneered a cultural renaissance, if you will, that set the stage for the expansion and development of the arts throughout the American West.

- And she wanted to make sure that people had that opportunity to see beautiful art, to hear beautiful music, to go to school.

- [R. Thayer] Spencer and Julie Penrose had a culture of philanthropy of giving and building the non-profit infrastructure in the Pikes Peak region and the state of Colorado.

In doing that, perhaps their ultimate legacy is the creation of El Pomar Foundation, because then they created an entity that could support the kind of organization they had supported during their lifetimes.

- [Kyle] They built The Broadmoor Hotel, which is the longest running five star, five diamond resort in the world.

Very few individuals can create institutions and organizations and legacies that last for over a hundred years and beyond.

Their vision was really exceptional.

[uplifting music fades] - Julie was born August 12th, 1870 in Detroit, Michigan, to Alexander Lewis and Elizabeth Ingersoll.

- [R. Thayer] ] She came from a very prominent family.

Julie's upbringing was one of high society and privilege.

- She really lived kind of the life of luxury in Detroit.

She had a number of brothers and sisters and was exposed to a lot of art, architecture, French culture.

- [R. Thayer] It was her father who taught her the importance of civic engagement, the appreciation for the arts.

- He was the Democratic mayor of Detroit, and he also contributed land so that the first art museum in Detroit could be built.

So she grew up observing her father's commitment to improving the community.

She was educated in Boston and had the opportunity to spend a year traveling through Europe at the age of 17.

She experienced opera for the first time in Europe while she traveled, and that sparked a lifelong passion for that particular art form.

[operatic singing] When she returned home, she married the literal boy next door, who was Jim McMillan.

He was the son of US Senator James McMillan.

- [Cynthia] They had two children.

Her first daughter was born about a year after they were married, and then she had a son shortly thereafter.

- [Sarah] They lived a wonderful life together in Detroit for nearly a decade.

- [R. Thayer] Jim McMillan served in the Spanish American war and unfortunately contract to tuberculosis, so the family looked all over the country where he could go for treatment.

The McMillan family moved to Colorado Springs.

- [Cynthia] It was warm.

It was a great environment where they felt if you had tuberculosis, this was a great place to live.

You could sit outside, you could have that sunshine 300 days of the year - They came here so her husband could get healthy.

Unfortunately, he did not.

And in 1902, she lost both her husband and her son within a months time.

- [Sarah] Their son, Jimmy, he died when he was just 10 years old and Julie was by his side.

Just a month later, her husband also succumbed to his illness in 1902 and just a short month after that, Julie's father-in-law also died.

So at the young age of 30, Julie had lost a child, a husband, and a father-in-Law.

- So what cohesive family of four, is suddenly a mother/daughter, trying to figure out their direction.

- [Sarah] She returned to Detroit to bury her son and her husband.

- She was probably at a juncture of, what do I do now?

Do I go back to Colorado Springs or do I stay where I have family?

I have in-laws, I have relatives, and she chose to stay in Colorado Springs.

- Julie and her friend Edith, both of these women were recently widowed, had spent a few years a bit withdrawn from society.

But Edith had informed Julie that she did not intend to remain tragic her entire life and decided to pursue marriage again.

And Julie ultimately decided to do the same, and she set her sights on Spencer Penrose.

- [Kyle] Spencer Penrose came from Philadelphia and came out here to Colorado in 1892.

He ended up meeting up with a childhood friend of his Charlie Tutt.

The two of them invested in the COD mine in Cripple Creek, the Cash On Delivery Mine, it hit pay dirt.

And from there, the two invested in other opportunities.

- In 1903, Tutt and Penrose formed a company called the Utah Copper Company.

That's probably where Spencer Penrose got 99% of his wealth, was copper mining.

Spencer Penrose was receiving a easily a million dollars a year in dividends from his investment in Utah Copper.

So he was probably one of Colorado's most eligible bachelors.

- When Spencer Penrose met Julie, he met his match.

Julie was well educated, she was smart, very refined.

When she would walk into a room, conversation would stop.

She had an enormous presence.

Spencer was pretty rowdy, and he met Julie and she truly tamed him.

- And it really created a kind of an impression on him, of what it would be like if he had someone else in his life.

- [Sarah] Julie and Spec were married in April of 1906 at a church in England, and given that they were already abroad, decided to spend their honeymoon traveling throughout Europe.

- Spencer and Julie's travels, whether it be in Europe or Egypt or the Orient, had really exposed 'em to some fantastic hotels.

- They truly appreciated the grandeur of the resorts in Europe, and they want to bring that back to Colorado and Colorado Springs in particular.

- In 1916, Spencer had the idea to build a hotel in Colorado Springs.

He had inquired about purchasing the Antlers Hotel, which had been built by General William Jackson Palmer, who was deceased at the time.

- They wanted $200,000.

He offered $85,000.

They couldn't come to terms, so Spencer Penrose wrote the estate a letter saying, I will build the finest hotel Colorado's ever seen at Broadmoor.

Well, it turns out the location of Broadmoor Hotel, there was already a casino built there called The Broadmoor.

- [Cynthia] It was prohibition during that timeframe, and the city of Colorado Springs did not allow alcohol or saloons or bars.

This was ideal right here, because it was outside of city limits.

- [R. Thayer] So Penrose buys The Broadmoor Casino and starts building The Broadmoor Hotel in 1916.

Whatever they did, they did it well, they did it thoroughly, and they did it right.

Both of them realized, how are they gonna attract wealthy folks from the East Coast to Colorado?

And their thought was, let's reproduce what they expect to receive in New York and Philadelphia and Chicago here in Colorado Springs, - And not merely mimic anything that's been done in the east, but also to create something that was new and unique to this region.

- [R. Thayer] So they hired the architect firm of Warren and Wetmore to design The Broadmoor.

They hired the landscape architecture firm of Frederick Law Olmsted.

They had just finished Central Park in New York City, so they hired the finest people they could to build their Broadmoor hotel and modeled it after a Spanish style resort, which was unique in this country at the time.

Julie was the one who inspired Mr. Penrose to create the hotel with the elegance that it has today.

- Working with artisans, interior decorators, filling the resort with artwork.

It was Julie who concerned herself at the interiors of the hotel.

- [R. Thayer] She wanted the rooms to be of the highest finish, the furniture to be the highest quality, because they wanted the people from the East coast to feel comfortable here.

She knew about the ceilings of Grand Central Station and the artisans who painted those ceilings.

So she told Spencer that he needed to hire those artisans.

So actually three of those people who painted the ceiling, at Grand Central Station, were out here for six months painting the ceilings of The Broadmoor Hotel.

[bright peaceful music] - [Cynthia] There's artwork in that hotel that is absolutely stunning, but even the choice of China's the choice of silver, the things that they were exposed to by going to nice hotels and nice restaurants, I think that's really Julie's fingerprint in the hotel.

None of that has changed.

It has retained a hundred percent of that, what she put in it.

- [Nechie] Spencer really focused on the business and Julie provided the soul and the spirit.

- [Kyle] She loved animals, and you can often see photos of her with her dogs and, and that legacy is actually honored through The Broadmoor to this day.

If you bring your your dog to the Broadmoor, it's part of the Pity Pat Club, because that was the name of one of her dogs at the time.

- The Broadmoor really brought tourism to Colorado Springs and not just as the hotel.

- [Sarah] Mr. Penrose was interested in economic development.

He wanted to create a network of attractions to encourage people to visit Colorado Springs and stay at The Broadmoor.

And through his very successful and iconic business adventures, such as creating the highway up to the summit of Pikes Peak, starting the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, he was able to create economic vitality here.

- [R. Thayer] Spencer Penrose's greatest strength was making money, building Colorado Springs and the infrastructure, but it was Julie who brought a heart to it, help people who were disadvantaged.

That's where her strength was.

- I think she really had a tender spot for children and making sure that they were taken care of, and especially boys, because she lost her son at such a young age.

- Well, Julie and Elizabeth Hare got this idea in the late twenties to create a boarding school.

So in 1930, Julie Penrose, Elizabeth Hare, and Charlie Tutt, my grandfather, founded the Fountain Valley School just south of Colorado Springs.

- Julie was known to provide scholarships for the boys who were attending that school, and she often bought musical instruments for the boys as well, so that they could pursue studies in music.

- She did the Colorado Springs Early Day Nursery Center, and then the Boys and Girls Club.

Sometimes Spencer and Julie's philanthropy was very unique.

There was a flood in Monument Valley Park in the 1920s, and it took out a lot of park features and they went to build it back up.

Spencer and Julie felt that there needed to be a swimming pool for kids in Colorado Springs to be able to use, and so they built a bathhouse and a swimming pool that still exists today for the kids of the Pikes Peak region to use, free of charge.

She was central in creating all this infrastructure, to help people who didn't have privilege and success in their lives, but want to be part of Colorado Springs and be part of its success.

- And I think she had a deep desire to create a certain sense of refinement and community and culture that may not have existed before, to kind of have it evolve beyond its industrial roots.

It was important to her that Colorado and the West be recognized as a cultural hub.

- Julie was a great supporter of arts and culture and recognized that there was a real opportunity to bring fine artists and performing artists and musicians to Colorado.

And in 1919, Julie had the vision to create The Broadmoor Art Academy and used her home at 30 W. Dale Street to be the headquarters of that facility.

- Julie fought very hard to host classes for women, which had not been done before.

- [Sarah] Women artists were able to come here and study and train at a time when the arts field was particularly dominated by men.

- As the Broadmoor Art Academy outgrew that location, it was ultimately raised, and then the Fine Arts Center was built there.

Her donation started The Fine Arts Center.

- Still today is one of the most unique, because it houses under one roof performing Arts, a school and a World-class museum.

- She started the Women Education Society at Colorado College, to provide scholarships for women to go to Colorado College.

- And she provided scholarship opportunities for men and women pursuing musical careers in opera through Central City Opera.

- [Scott] Julie Penrose earned the moniker of the First Lady of Opera, west of the Mississippi.

During this time, air conditioning was not a thing, and so all of the houses in New York City closed for the summer, the Opera Houses, Broadway, everything closed.

So all of those performers were looking for work.

They were given the opportunity to come up and perform in Central City, and that was always the tradition from the beginning.

Having that in the mountains in the way that it was conceived, was something that was really special.

And Julie recognized that.

- [Kyle] She stepped in in the early 1930s at a time when Central City Opera was struggling.

- [Scott] The city itself had been going through a serious decline as mining had sort of gone through a bust.

A mining company had come into town and was wanting to pay the city to evacuate, and basically they were just going to turn it into a dump.

The Opera House was in complete disrepair.

So in 1932, they established the Central City Opera House Association, and Julie Penrose became an early member of the board.

This was about preservation, it was about history.

It was about something that was bigger than all of them, and they wanted to make sure that it was here for generations to come.

And they saw the Opera House itself as the key to that.

were it not for Julie Penrose, Central City Opera would not be here today.

She provided resources that laid the foundation for excellence of performance for Central City Opera that still vets out today.

- [Sarah] She was constantly thinking about the future of the organization and what it might be.

And in the 1950s, she led historic preservation initiatives to ensure that 100 years later, the opera would be a thriving organization.

Today, it's the fifth oldest opera company in the United States.

Throughout Julie's life, she experienced great loss, particularly due to family members who succumbed to illness.

Spencer Penrose was afflicted with throat cancer in the 1930s.

They both recognized that Colorado Springs did not have the resources in healthcare that they had experienced in their hometowns of Detroit and Philadelphia, but also abroad.

- So he goes to Paris, France and hired a Dr. Coutard, who was the foremost authority on radiation treatment for cancer in the world, - And he recognized that there was an opportunity to bring that quality of healthcare to Colorado Springs.

One of his final projects was the idea of creating the Penrose Cancer Center at what was then Glockner Hospital, but he died before he was able to realize that vision.

So Julie Penrose made sure that that cancer treatment facility was created at Glockner in 1941.

- [R. Thayer] For the first 30 years of radiation treatment, the center to come to for radiation knowledge was Colorado Springs Glockner Hospital.

- In the 1950s, she made a substantial gift to the hospital, a gift of over $3 million, which at the time was the largest single philanthropic contribution in Colorado state history, and it allowed the hospital to expand in really instrumental ways, and at that point, they renamed it Penrose Hospital.

- [R. Thayer] Ironically, if anything has the Penrose's name on it today, it was done by the trustees in the honor of the Penrose's, and that was part of their character, as they didn't want their name flashed all Colorado Springs.

They wanted others recognized for their work.

- [Sarah] One of the historic properties that El Pomar Foundation owns and operates in honor of the Penrose's.

Is Penrose's House, which was a home near the Broadmoor that had been built in 1910 by good friends of theirs.

That couple had died.

The house set empty for a few years, so the Penrose's were able to purchase this estate, at a mere $70,000.

So they created these really extraordinary grounds that still exist today.

[uplifting music] - [Nechie] If you tour Penrose's House, and look at the statue that honors Julie and her beloved Gardens here.

There's a rosary in one hand and plans for The Broadmoor.

- [Sarah] When Julie's husband was ill with throat cancer, Glockner Hospital was run by the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, a Catholic organization.

In thanks of their great healthcare that they provided to Spencer, along with comfort, Julie Penrose decided to donate their El Pomar home to the Sisters of Charity so that they could operate the home as a retreat center.

- Her vision was that this could become a place where women could find comfort and a path to faith or strength, and the Sisters used it for Julie's purposes until El Pomar bought it.

- Since 1992, this property has served as a nonprofit conference facility and a facility where some 27,000 people come through here year to have their meetings, to have receptions and enjoy the environment that Julie Penrose envisioned.

- [Sarah] When you look at the organizations that Mrs. Penrose either created or provided significant financial support or leadership direction to, you see organizations that are not just still present and active in the Colorado Springs community today, but are organizations that are thriving and are doing significant work.

- She was one of the founding directors and supporters of the Colorado Springs Symphony.

Organizations like the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

One of the top 10 zoos in America was started by Spencer and Julie Penrose.

- In the 1920s, her husband Spec, had this idea of exhibiting a collection of carriages at the Broadmoor to keep alive this tradition of coaching that both he and Julie grew up with.

So in 1941, Julie Penrose and John Ruttenberg, created what was then called the El Pomar Carriage Museum.

That museum is in operation today.

It's known as Penrose Heritage Museum, and it recently celebrated its 80th anniversary.

- Whether it's fine Arts Center or Fountain Valley School or Central City Opera, she truly modeled the way.

- All these organizations started while Spencer was out making money, and then they came together with the creation of El Pomar Foundation in 1937.

- [Cynthia] El Pomar is Julie and Spencer Penrose's legacy.

It's a love letter to the city.

- Most of the major grants that we have given and the most money have gone to organizations that Julie and Spencer Penrose selected.

- Spencer and Julie Penrose left their money to the people of Colorado, and to the trustees of El Pomar to be good stewards of that for generations to come.

- [Nechie] The Penroses left $21 million to El Pomar Foundation, and today, it's almost a billion dollar organization.

- The trustees of El Pomar and staff are truly dedicated to fidelity of her intent and desires.

We as trustees and staff of El Pomar, can be proud of supporting organizations like that, because we know that our founder, Julie Penrose, funded that organization back in her day.

Thanks to the legacy of our founders, Spencer and Julie Penrose, they helped bring the United States Air Force Academy here in 1954.

In 1977, El Pomar played a critical role in bringing the United States Olympic Committee.

Now the United States Olympic Paralympic Committee, to Colorado Springs.

And so now we as a community get to be known now as Olympic City USA.

- When Spencer passed away, she could have just lived a life of luxury, traveled, and stayed, you know, fairly quiet, but she didn't.

- [R. Thayer] She became the head of the foundation as well as the head of The Broadmoor Hotel, and that's what she did until she passed away, in 1956.

- After Julie donated El Pomar to the Sisters of Charity, she moved into the penthouse suite at The Broadmoor.

By all accounts, Julie loved living at The Broadmoor.

- The restaurant, the tavern at The Broadmoor.

The tavern still exists today.

She had a table.

You'd think her table would be out in the middle of the restaurant, very prominent, where everybody who came in said, "Oh, that's Julie Penrose."

No, when you entered, she had a little nook carved out just to the left of a column, and it was a table for two.

She didn't want people coming up to her and saying, "Oh, hello, Mrs.

Penrose."

I think that got to her personality and just her very nature.

She was a very private lady.

She's quite shy, but at the same time, she ran El Pomar Foundation, The Broadmoor Hotel, and she had an empire to manage.

- [Nechie] Having a strong economy is one thing, but having a strong and loving heart is another.

I think that's her biggest accomplishment is, saying there's more than just money.

Your money has to do some good for people.

- It was really her character of quiet charity and service that I think is her greatest legacy.

- [Kyle] When people can rally around helping people, it changes the tenor of a community, and I think her greatest legacy is creating this environment that focuses on that, which is most important.

- She set the tone for future generations of philanthropy, caring, and community.