An Early View Down Pikes Peak Avenue

By Steven W. Veatch

An early photograph of Pikes Peak Avenue in Colorado Springs, taken by A. J. Harlan in the mid-1890s, has survived over 12 decades. Pikes Peak and Cameron Cone are in the photograph’s background. The muddy street, trolley tracks, and trees draw the viewer’s eye down to where the first Antlers Hotel sits. Pikes Peak and Cameron Cone reflect in a shallow pool of water from a recent rain shower in the center of the photograph’s foreground. 

The photographer, A. J. Harlan, operated a photography studio in Cripple Creek. He roamed around the area and photographed many of the iconic spots of the Pikes Peak region. 

View of Pikes Peak Avenue (Colorado Springs) in the mid-1890s. The Antlers Hotel is at the west end of the street. General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs, built the Antlers in 1883 with Castle Rock Rhyolite. The hotel burned down in 1898 and was rebuilt. Photograph by A.J. Harlan. From the Eugene L. Glew photograph collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum.