This painting on our mural shows one of the buildings that has housed our local newspaper, the Colorado Springs Gazette. It started out as a weekly publication called the Out West and, like most things in Colorado Springs, it began with General Palmer.
One of the first things that Palmer wanted to provide for his town and the people living in it was a newspaper. He hired an Englishman named J. Elsom Liller to edit the paper. Mr. Liller and his wife lived for a time behind the offices in the two-story Out West building located on the corner of Tejon and Colorado Ave, then called Huerfano Street. Mr. Liller wrote the stories and set the type for printing. Mrs. Liller gathered local news for the paper even though most of the articles in the four-page newspaper dealt with European news to please the many people from England living in Colorado Springs. The first issue came out on March 23, 1872, and by January of the following year the Out West became the Colorado Springs Weekly Gazette.
Mr. and Mrs. Liller worked hard for the newspaper and the town. Mrs. Liller taught school for a time. The Out West building was used as an extra classroom when the need arose. Mr. Liller tried to promote the ideals that General Palmer had set for the town. Sometimes these were unpopular and that affected Liller’s health. In 1875, he died after a brief illness. The community valued his contributions to Colorado Springs; a school was named for him nine years after his death.
The paper continued to be published, but it wasn’t until Benjamin Steele was the editor that the Gazette became a daily newspaper in 1878. Like Mr. Liller, Benjamin Steele was highly regarded by his fellow citizens and a school was named in his honor. While the Liller school is no longer in existence, Steele school was rebuilt and is still in use on North Weber Street.
In 1896, General Palmer sold the paper. Over the years there have been many different owners, including for a time Spencer Penrose. As the town grew, so did the paper. By the turn of the twentieth century, the size had increased and included a sport and fashion sections and four pages of ‘funnies’. The Gazette merged with rival newspaper the Evening Telegraph and became known as the Gazette Telegraph. It changed from an afternoon paper to a morning one. The newspaper offices moved from the smaller Tejon Street site, to one on Pikes Peak Ave. and then to the current plant on Prospect Street. Once again, its name became the Colorado Springs Gazette and now it can be read in its entirety on the Internet.
For over one hundred and thirty years, the Colorado Springs Gazette has remained an important part of our city. It all started in that little building on Tejon Street.
Sources:
Davant, Jeanne, Wellsprings. Gazette Enterprises, Colorado Springs, CO, 2001
Finley, Judith Reid, Time Capsule 1900: Colorado Springs a Century Ago. Pastwords Publications, Colorado Springs, CO, 1998
Foster, Dora, Then…The Best of Pikes Peak Region Yesterdays., Getto and Berkeland, Colorado Springs, CO 1964
Loe, Nancy E., Life in the Altitudes. Windsor Publications, Woodland Hills, CA, 1983
Ormes, Manly D. and Eleanor R., The Book of Colorado Springs. Dentan Printing Co., Colorado Springs, CO 1933
Sprague, Marshall, One Hundred Plus. Colorado Springs Centennial, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO, 1971
Sprague, Marshall, Newport in the Rockies. Sage Books, Denver, CO, 1961
Painted by:
Written by: Darcy Mazel