Since 2017 the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum has told the area’s history with an interactive alphabetical “Story of Us.” “P” stood for the Poor Farm in the exhibit.
Fittingly, the Poor Farm had been here since the beginning of the city. In 1880 the county commissioners chose a cottage on El Paso Street for a site where the poor could get help with health issues. That location was expanded first in 1881 and then grew to seven rooms in two stories in 1886, expanding right along with the new city’s growing population.
Then came even bigger plans, though residents weren’t happy with a plan to demolish the first site for a larger “County Home” in their neighborhood…