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TWIN HOUSES

William W. Cantril came to the Cherry Creek area in 1859, and settled on what later would come to be known as the Allison Ranch, located North of Franktown. He built and maintained a saw mill on this property using trees felled from nearby land. He built the first Court House for Douglas County, using lumber cut from his property. He donated this building when finished, to Douglas County to be used as a court house. It was originally constructed at the junction of Colo. Highway 83, and County Road 14, but later moved to Franktown and California Ranch, where it stood next to the main hotel building. At least one historical reference suggests that when Castle Rock was declared the county seat in 1874, the old court house was moved over to Castle Rock. This was not the case. Subsequent study of County Commissioner board minutes, has reveled that the second County Court House was built on site, and the old one was put on auction. Probably this confusion existed, because William W. Cantril also built this second courthouse.

Around 1890 F. H. Allison replaced Cantril on the saw mill site, Cantril having moved on to Castle Rock. Allison constructed one of the best water works on the creek using tubing which carried water thru ditches to a reservoir which was then used during dry periods to irrigate his crops.

About two years later, the water from a spring on the Allison Ranch was analyzed and it was shown to contain medicinal properties, with out any injurious sulphates. Allison became intrigued with the idea of having a hot spring resort. He contracted for the building of an eight room house for his resort. The name Ponce de Leon Chalybeate Springs was published. The resort was an almost instant success, and another eight room building was added to the property.

According to the Colorado Business Journal F. H. Allison was the proprietor of the health resort into 1897. From 1897 thru 1900 a man named L. G. Smith ran the operation. Not much is known about this man.

William O´Brien and his wife Annie rented the hotel operation about 1900. William farmed, took on various carpenter projects, and raised a small heard of dairy cattle, while Annie operated the hotel, by this time dubbed the Twin Houses, for health seekers, principally from Vermont. The O’Brien’s eventually purchased their own land, 360 acres adjoining the Allison land on the East side, and farmed it until 1919, when they sold out and moved into Parker.

After about a decade of popularity, business fell off, and eventually one of the houses was turned into a barn. It is the structure that is still stands, just south of the intersection of Stroh Road and Highway 83. In 1970 Mrs. Louis Kraglund purchased the other twin house and had it moved about 4 miles North of Parker to her property. It was used as a specialty dress shop for a time, but now is unoccupied.

Information for this brief obtained from; the book Douglas County, by Josephine Lowell Marr, the book Our Heritage by the Douglas County Historical Society, A guide book to historical sites in Parker by F.B. McLaughlin, the book Walk with our Pioneers by Alice M. Thomson, and various articles from the Record Journal.

Updated in January 2009 By Larry T. Smith Location: From Mainstreet and Parker Road, drive North for 4.0 miles. One of the Twin Houses is on the left side of the road next to another group of buildings.

Site created by Alex Hernandez, Alvie Sellmer, & James Vallejos 2009