“Swiss Cottage,” at far right center, was Morrison’s largest building and dominated views of the town from 1874 to 1982, when it was demolished.

By Sally L. WhiteOne day in 1883, Joseph

Machebeuf, Vicar Apostolic ofColorado, attended term-closingexercises at Las Vegas College inNew Mexico. After six years inoperation, this Jesuit institutionwas becoming established, havinga seven-year program to take itsresident students through basicinstruction, as well as courses inhumanities, poetry, and rhetoric,and a five-year commercialcourse (sciences andmathematics) that could lead to adegree of Bachelor of Science.Bishop Machebeuf wasimpressed; sufficiently so that heasked Aloysius Gentile, Superiorof the New Mexico Mission, to

send Jesuits to establish a collegein Colorado.

Father Dominic Pantanella, newlydesignated President of Las VegasCollege, immediately undertooktravels to Colorado in the interestsof the proposed new institution. Infact, he was away the majority of hisnineteen months as President of theNew Mexico school. (1)

Bishop Machebeuf had alreadypurchased a hotel in Morrison tobecome the home of this newColorado college. This imposingstructure, built in 1874 by GeorgeMorrison for former ColoradoGovernor John Evans, hadoriginally been known as theEvergreen Hotel, sometimes also asthe “Swiss Cottage,” though, with more than 45 rooms, it was hardly

a cottage. Machebeuf obtained theproperty, then deeded it over tothe Jesuits.“Machebeuf negotiated for the

sum of ten thousand dollars, a neatamount in those days, the purchaseof a Mountain-Hotel and SummerResort, styled ‘Swiss Cottage,’ and another much smaller building formenialservants,” reported Francis Kowald, one of the fathers atMorrison College, in hisreminiscences on those years. (2)The building, he noted, was “still well preserved;” it was just ten years old at the time.

When Father Pantanella returnedfrom Europe in August 1884, hissuperior, Gentile, sent him toDenver to tell Machebeuf there wasno time to prepare the school for

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Reprinted from Historically Jeffco magazine, 2004, Vol. 17, Issue 25, pp 30-34.

opening that fall. But Machebeufwas persistent. On August 10,1884, Pantanella was appointedVice Rector of the new college,while his successor at Las VegasCollege launched a remodeling andexpansion program there.

By mid-September, justfive weeks later, the requiredrenovations at Morrison werecompleted, and a faculty of eightassembled. Fr. Pantanella named hisnew school the College of theSacred Heart, and as such thefacility opened its doors. Thelegendary John Brisben Walker wasan early supporter: his two oldestsons arrived on September 13th.John B. Walker, Jr., was 14 years oldat the time; his brother David only10. (3) Board and tuition for a five-month session cost $120. All 24original students lived at the college,which, as a former hotel, had ampleresidential space. Morrison was toofar from Denver to allow day

students to commute there.“There is something intriguing

about such a gathering of Jesuitsin a small mountain town at thefoot of the Rockies in 1884; it isalso amazing when one reflectsthat this faculty was to expend itsefforts for some twenty-fourstudents,” wrote Regis historian Harold Stansell in 1977 (1). Wehave no record of the frontiertown’s reaction to the collection of educated and cosmopolitanclerics who arrived to maintainthe school and conduct classes inFrench, elocution, painting,penmanship, and diverse otherdisciplines.

And the students? Stansell reportsthat the “horizons of the students were definitely limited,” in thisrustic environment so far fromDenver. Sports and games wereimprovised and hiking andexploring in the foothills under thewatchful eye of the Jesuits werecommon pursuits. Occasional

excitement reached them from thetown, when murders or floodsgenerated distractions. But isolationwas the rule, as the studentsremained at school throughout theyear, without even the usual holidayvacation as relief. One studentinitiated a plan to burn the schooldown, just to provide an “extended holiday.” The attemptwasunsuccessful; the student expelled.

Stansell credits the studentsof Sacred Heart College, onone of their foothills explorationsin the nearby red rocks, with thediscovery of the acoustic propertiesof the natural amphitheatrebetween the two largest sandstonemonoliths. (These two, Ship Rockand Creation Rock, now flank themodern amphitheatre, builtbetween 1936 and 1941. Othersources name J.B. Walker himselfas the origin— and exploiter— ofthis revelation (4), although one

“Swiss Cottage” at the height of its life as a resort hotel, circa 1910-20.(The Town was renamed Mt. Morrison in 1908.) From a 1910 historic postcard.

Photo from U.S. Geological Survey collection.

Aerial view in 1934 shows layout of the grounds around Swiss Cottage, center left of photo.The main business section of Morrison is to the right.

suspects that early inhabitants werewell aware of this natural wonderlong before its historically recordeddiscovery by settlers from theeastern states.) Kowald reports thisimportant discovery in greater detail:“During the first ramblings in the

vicinity of Morrison, the identicalscholastics [two especiallyadventurous students] accidentallydiscovered a grand nature-madeamphitheater. It consisted of anextensive stretch of almost levelground, shut in on three sides byhuge Red-Rocks with high abruptwalls, having the sloping foothills tothe west as a background andaccommodating entrances or exits tothe north and south. Themagnificent space was welladapted for exercising their lungpower in loud-speaking, for whichthey frequent[ly] repeated parts oforatorical speeches, sermons, and

selections of elocutionary contestsand exclamations they could call tomind. It was after some practices ofthis kind, that they lit upon a certainposition which returned an echo,whose last two syllables were verydistinct. … Visits to the Red-Rockson days of prolonged walks becamea frequent pastime among thestudents, as soon as they becameaware of the existence of the“Echo-amphitheatre,” and the amusement was great when theyvied with one another inimprovising sentences, pious,serious and otherwise that wouldquickly re-echo some solemn,cheering, witty ending or someweird frivolous or ridiculous saying.”

This amusement, Kowald says,lasted for weeks, but ultimatelythe “Novelty wore away and the magic power of attraction to the

place began to wane beforeexaminations.” (2, p. 92-93) In all,Kowald seems to take a morecharitable view of Morrison as asetting for the college than Stanselldid later, remarking on its naturalbeauties and fine climate. He alsocites the high quality of the school,as noted in letters from relatives ofstudents, one from a notable,Senator A. A. Salazar (Feb. 17,1885).“My dear Friend: In a visit paid

the other day to some of my youngrelatives who are studying in theJesuit College at Morrison, I hadan opportunity to inspect theworkings of the institution, and Iam surprised to hear that sonotable a place is not as widelyknown as it deserves. … The locality of the College is sonear Denver that it is well known:no better spot could be selectedfor a boarding-school, picturesque

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and unsurpassed for healthiness.” (2, p. 46)

The location at Morrison, withits challenges, was destined to beonly a temporary home for thecollege. By 1885, within a year ofopening, discussions were alreadyunderway to find a morepermanentlocation,and in itsthird year,the dormi-tories werealreadycrowded.WhenPantanellalooked toColoradoSprings,BishopMachebeufagainintervened,insistingthat thecollege staywithin hisown“Episcopal see,” that is,in theDenver area.

In 1887,the college’s catalogue explicitly(and with significant foresight)stated: “The College of the Sacred Heart… is not a new college in any sense but that of location andbuilding. It is the consolidation ofthe Jesuit College of Las Vegas,New Mexico, founded, Nov. 7th,1877, and that of Morrison, Colo.,founded, Sept. 15th, 1884.” Establishing the continuity of thetwo—soon to be three—schoolsites clarified the basis for thecelebration of the 125thanniversary of Sacred HeartCollege, now known as RegisUniversity, in 2003, only 119 years

from the date the Jesuit institutionarrived in Colorado and establishedits first school at Morrison.

In transferring the school fromMorrison to Denver, the Jesuitsagain enlisted the help of their oldfriend, John Brisben Walker. Walkerjust happened to own 1,600

acres in a very auspicious locationon the northwestern outskirts ofthe city. The property was his firstacquisition upon moving to Den-ver in 1879, and he had developeda very successful farm, known asBerkley Farm, where he pioneeredthe growing of alfalfa and demon-strated its value as a cash crop. Hedonated 40 acres to the Jesuits fora new school site, and the reloca-tion began. In typical fashion,Walker stipulated that the Jesuits“erect and maintain a College designed for the education ofyouths and young men,… the building thereof to be not less than297 feet long, no less than

sixty feet in height, and to containat least four floors, the walls ofwhich shall be built of stone.” We can only hope they brought thestone from the stone quarries ofMorrison, active at the time.

Alas, we learn from Kowald thatthe stone was imported. The walls

were of “light grey, rockymountainlava stone,”possiblyCastle Rockrhyolite, with“Connecticut Red SandStone trim-mings.” (2) Perhaps theoutput of theMorrisonbuildingstone quarrieswas fullycommittedelsewhere.

TheJesuits werenot quitedone withMorrisonand JeffersonCounty,however. They

retained ownership of the property,all of Block 15 on the Morrisonplat, for most of the next 20 years.Stansell reports that the Jesuitsused the facility as a “villa, that is, a place of rest and recreation” for their community. The propertyultimately was purchased by theColorado Resort Co., one of J. B.Walker’s enterprises, to become the“Mt. Morrison Casino,” a major feature of Walker’s schemes for foothills tourism. Stansell recordsthe date of sale as 1909 (withtransfer complete by 1915), butother records in the Regis archives

This close view of the end of the building in 1976 shows details of its construction. Withits structure already declining, it was demolished in 1982 despite efforts to save it.

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indicate the transaction beganseveral years earlier. An agreementdated 1906 outlined the terms andschedule; by November 1907,Walker had already asked for anextension on the first payment.

No longer a seat of higherlearning, Morrison embarked onits active role as a scenicdestination and foothills resortunder the guidance of its newcitizen, J.B. Walker. In the 1960s-70s, the imposing three-story

NOTESRegis: On the Crest of the West is a thoroughhistory of the school in all of its locationsduring its first hundred years. Written by HaroldL. Stansell, S .J., it includes an extensive chapteron the years 1884-1888 when the school wasknown as Sacred Heart College and was housedin the original Evergreen Hotel in Morrison.Regis Educational Corporation, 1977, 238 p.

“A Brief Historical Sketch and Some Reminiscences of Sacred Heart Collegeconducted by the Jesuit Fathers at Morrison,near Denver, Colorado, from October 1884 toJune 1888,” by Francis Kowald, S .J.

building that once housed theJesuits and their students fell intohard times and disrepair; it wasdemolished in 1982.

Today, the Denver campus ofwhat is now Regis Universityretains the stamp of Walker’s earlier ownership. According to JanLoechell, research librarian at theUniversity, descendants of thealfalfa planted by the “Alfalfa King” himself in the 1880s stillthrive in casual or neglected areas

Typewritten manuscript on file at the archives ofRegis University, made available courtesy ofElizabeth Cooke, archivist. Obvious typos in themanuscript have been corrected, as we trust theywould have been were it a completed text.

Genealogical records and other information onthe Walker family were generously provided byMargaret E. (Peggy) Walker, granddaughter ofGerald Walker, the youngest son of John BrisbenWalker and Emily Strother Walker. Peggy also, in1985, compiled a 12-page unpublished historyentitled “John Brisben Walker.”

amid the more formal plantings oncampus. A statue donated in 1890by “the parents of J. Brisben Walker” also still stands in front of Main Hall, providing a continuinglink between the Jesuits and one ofMorrison’s — and JeffersonCounty’s — most visionarycitizens.

ABOUT THE AUTHORSally White is Museums Coordinatorfor the Town of Morrison.

In Jefferson County Colorado: The ColorfulPast of a Great Community (1962), SarahRobbins recounts in detail Walker’s hike with friends in “the 1880s,” during which he realized and exclaimed upon the superb acoustics of thenatural amphitheatre; in 1911 he brought thedistinguished singer, Mary Garden, there toexperience the phenomenon. In History of RedRocks Park (1962), Nolie Mumey recounts theMary Garden tale, but notes that Walker hadbrought another singer, Nellie Melba, “the first to bring music to the Red Rocks,” there earlier in the 1900s.

Regis Main Hall today. Photo by S. L.White,2004.