Bell House
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Briarhurst Manor (Bell House)
1888, Frederick J. Sterner. 404 Manitou Ave. (U.S. 24) (NR)
Queen Anne Style massing and Tudor Revival elements characterize this English country house built of rough-faced Peach Blow sandstone and trimmed with fancy bargeboards with arched cutouts and half-timbered gable ends. The multigabled slate roof wears a roof comb and stone mythological creatures. A multitude of chimney pots serve eleven fireplaces copied from originals in English castles. Sterner, an Englishman who moved to Denver in 1880 and practiced there until he moved to New York in 1909, was patronized by Colorado Springs Anglophiles, among them Manitou Springs co-founder William Bell. The son of a London society doctor, Bell recruited D&RG investors among his father's patients. He attracted so many immigrants that the Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs area was dubbed “Little London.” After Bell and his wife had returned permanently to their much larger manor in England in 1920, Briarhurst was converted to a restaurant by chef Sigfried Krauss and his wife, who respected the ornament and plan of the original house.
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