dr. newman and david talbot by telephone, but we really should thank dr. newman very much and break for lunch. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. americannd long, history tv is featuring colorado springs, colorado, a sunny, dry and mild time it and mineral springs made it popular as a health resort. cableer with our comcast

partners, c-span recently visited many sites exploring colorado springs' rich history. to best understand who spencer penrose the man was, i thought i would read a quote from his obituary. december 15, 1939. than a he was more capitalist, community builder and philanthropist. in my own words, who is spencer penrose? i think of him or in terms of his legacy to the community. of his most obvious

legacies are he build the broaden our hotel in 1918. one of the finest resorts in the world right here at the foot of pike's peak. he created the foundation, being apple orchard in spanish, and that was named after his home. that foundation he started in 1937, two years before his death with 20 $1 million. today it has grown to hide hundred $80 million. over those years, it is given away over $500 million in grants. it is almost 13,000 grants to charities in the state of colorado only. spencer penrose was born in 18 65 in philadelphia, pennsylvania. he was one of seven boys born to richard penrose and sarah boys. the seven boys, four of them lived to adulthood. in four were very prominent

their adulthood. he came from a prominent family in philadelphia. his other three brothers, one followed his father being a doctor. the second one was a u.s. senator for the state of pennsylvania for almost 30 years. the third brother was a well-known geologist who traveled around the world. spencer penrose was the youngest of the brothers. he went to harvard, like all penrose and stated that time. when he graduated, he had no the family business, staying in philadelphia. he traveled out west, starting in texas. he worked at a copper mine in chino, arizona. he ended up in a fruit and vegetable stand, managing it. him, he, fortunate for got contacted by his brother, dick penrose.

brother was in denver and told him about his childhood who was inrles, colorado springs and had been in colorado springs for eight years. and so literally about a month later, spencer penrose arrived in crowell -- colorado springs and that started a lifelong partnership between the two gentlemen. penrose reintroduced spencer to his longtime , that was justd greek -- cng of the reek. perfect timing for penrose to come up to colorado springs, so much so that when he arrived, my great-grandfather had just found a mine called the cash on delivery mine.

the c.o.d. mine was the same gold vein across cripple creek. bob was a gentleman who actually found gold in cripple creek. my great-grandfather sold mr. penrose half interest in the $500 and loanr him the money. our records of the foundation show that spencer penrose starting about 1909, frankly we are starting to build up towards world war i and there is great demand for copper. he was getting dividends himself of a million dollars every year. he started to enjoy the life of newly found wealth in the west. he bought a place in paris. he had a place in hawaii on diamondhead. a vision for bringing

basically the east coast, philadelphia and his friends out to colorado springs, colorado. he could not convince them to come out and see the beauty of the region, so what he thought is what if i brought philadelphia and new york to colorado? invision vision this idea of building a resort. in 1916 he envisioned the so that he could convince his friends to come out. he wanted to have a familiar background for them. architect and had just finished building grand central station in new york. of the artisans who painted the ceiling. he had these two paint the ceilings of the broadmoor hotel. he wanted the grounds to be beautiful and feel like some glorious estate on the east coast. landscape firm who

six years earlier had just finished a nice new park in new york called central park. he wanted to give them the feeling that they were back east , but have it in the setting of the pike's peak region. i gather he had a very dry sense of humor. during prohibition time you tried to bring attention to the fact the prohibition was terrible. he got this idea. one day this elephant showed up. he said it was a gift of the maharaja. yes, he had been to india, and there were pictures and photos of him riding elephants. he said he was a guest. this maharaja gave him this .lephant mr. penrose would paraded around colorado springs, celebrating any kind of event. to his friends he nicknamed it tessie.

tessie was a pink stocking bar ofl in the mining camp cripple creek. was ans out this elephant discarded elephant from a circus in arkansas and he bought it and he promoted it to bring more attention to the pike's peak region. he kept it in the paint barns of his broadmoor garage, where he fixed and repaired cars. but the elephant kept throwing the tires and breaking the cars and hitting people. he even had the elephant try to be a caddy on this golf course, but the superintendent got mad because he kept smashing the greens. he had to find a place for the elephant. he decided to create the cheyenne mountain zoo right above the hotel. the first animal in the zoo was tessie. turned out he also had seals in the lake he billed behind the broadmoor hotel.

unfortunately, the seals would take food from the guests. they became the newest animals in the cheyenne mountain zoo. in 1926 he formed the cheyenne mountain zoo. he endowed it. community-based zoo. this year it was rated number five. penrose was known as a flamboyant character who liked a good drink and loved to entertain people with great parties. he was actually very shy and reserved, so much so that the colorado springs evening gazette used to talk about him all the time about the things going on at the broadmoor. he got so fed up that he told them to stop it. they ignored it. in the late 1920's, he bought

the newspaper and said keep doing what you are doing but you can no longer report on me. he wanted to keep his private life private. i guess you can't do that today. the legacy of spencer penrose starts with a $21 million he to 39. 1937 and i -- 1939. we have a downtown civic center courtesy of him. we have the world arena, the broadmoor world arena courtesy of his money. the visitor center at the air force academy is courtesy of his resources. the legacy of spencer penrose really is a higher quality of life for all the citizens of the pike's peak region and the state of colorado.

throughout the weekend american history tv is featuring colorado springs, colorado. about colorado springs and other stops on the c-span city to our odd c-span.org/local content. >> after the american revolution and before he was elected, the first president of the united states george washington retired from public life. up next, edward larson focuses on washington and how he contributed to western expansion and his efforts to link the east and west through the potomac river.