Wheeler Bank is a historic building located on Manitou Avenue in

Manitou Springs, Colorado Manitou Springs is a home rule municipality located at the foot of Pikes Peak in western El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded for its natural mineral springs. The downtown area continues to be of interest to travelers, ...

built by Jerome B. Wheeler. It is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Over the course of its history, the building has been a financial institution, auditorium and retail business.

Building

Built in 1888 for Jerome B. Wheeler, a Colorado mining baron and financier, the building was Manitou Springs's first bank. The building is a combination of Romanesque Revival and

Italian Villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas ...

architectural styles. The first floor shows two different facades. For the 717 Manitou Avenue address, there are heavy arches, with a half-circle leaded glass window at the top of each arch. The facade for the other half of the building, with the 719 Manitou Avenue address, is a recessed storefront. Between the two is an entry to the stairway to the second and third floors. The second- and third-floor facades are symmetrical across the two halves of the building, with windows set in a 3-1-3 pattern across both floors. The interior of the third floor spans both buildings and was originally an opera house; it has since been converted to an apartment. The red brick exterior, as of 2013, was painted a cream-buff color with red trim.

Jerome B. Wheeler

Jerome B. Wheeler operated a bank in one half of the first floor. The other first floor business was a dry goods store operated by N.O. Johnson & Son. Offices were located on the second floor and an opera hall, called Wheeler Hall or Opera Hall, was on the third floor. The bank closed during the

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...

. It later reopened and was a bank until 1922. The financial institution became the Bank of Manitou in a new building on Manitou Avenue. Wheeler made several donations to the town of Manitou: * $50,000 towards Manitou Avenue construction * Provided equipment for the volunteer fire company * Donated the Wheeler Clock at Manitou and Canon Avenues * Provided $10,000 for repairs following a "devastating" flood of 1913

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Colorado State Register of Historic Properties Manitou Springs, Colorado National Register of Historic Places in El Paso County, Colorado

Building

Jerome B. Wheeler

See also

References