The Broadmoor Hotel from Cheyenne Mountain Slope, Colorado Springs, c. 1960s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

The Broadmoor Hotel from Cheyenne Mountain Slope, Colorado Springs, c. 1960s — Archive & Atlas

An interpretation of depth — not a measured reconstruction

Depth is precomputed and interpretive — the scene falls back to the flat image where a browser can't render it.

The Broadmoor Hotel from Cheyenne Mountain Slope, Colorado Springs, c. 1960s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1958–1972

AA-2026-454FA8

The Archivist

Ask about this image

Archivist

Step into the scene

Off by default. Turning it on lets the image respond to your cursor with a shallow sense of depth, rebuilt from a depth map computed when the image was catalogued. It is an interpretation for looking, not a measured 3D model — and it falls back to the flat image where the browser can't render it.

On the image

Someone drove up into the scrub-covered slopes above Colorado Springs, found a spot with a clear sightline across the valley, and took this picture to prove the Broadmoor was really there. The hotel's distinctive Italianate tower rises above the tree canopy just as it was designed to — built in 1918 by Spencer Penrose on the theory that Colorado could host the same caliber of guest as Newport or Palm Beach, if only you gave them somewhere suitably grand to stay. By the time this color slide was made, likely in the early-to-mid 1960s judging by the palette and the modest residential rooflines in the foreground, the surrounding landscape had filled in with the kind of quiet postwar development that turns an edge-of-town resort into a neighborhood anchor. The mesa and distant ridgeline that flatten out beyond the hotel are the mesa formations south of the city, lending the whole scene that expansive Front Range quality that made Colorado Springs feel like destiny to every developer who ever looked at it. The photographer was almost certainly a tourist recording the view from a scenic overlook, performing the mid-century ritual of proving that something famous was exactly as advertised.

From the community

Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.

No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.

Visually related — by likeness

Alpine Valley with Lake and Scattered Settlement, Central Europe, 1950s–1960s

1950–1965

Forest and valley landscape, Central European highlands, circa 1970s-1980s

1970–1985

Peninsula State Park Overlook, Door County, Wisconsin, 2002

2002

Mountain Valley Landscape, Mid-20th Century

1940–1970

Bridge Across Wide Water, Mid-20th Century

1950–1965

Boreal Lake with Conifer Forest, Northern Temperate Region, circa 1960s

1955–1975

High Desert Valley with Mountains, Oregon or Eastern Washington, 1955

1955

Yellowstone Lake and Village from Overlook, Wyoming, 1950s

1950–1959

Mountain Valley Town, Pacific Northwest, 1950s

1950–1959

Agricultural Valley View from Elevated Rimrock, American West, Mid-20th Century

1955–1970

Wetland Marsh and Fire Lookout Tower, Door County, Wisconsin, 2002

2002

Aerial View of Peatlands and Forest, Northern Europe, 1950s

1950–1959