|
|
|
|
|
The name 'Ramona' echoes throughout Colorado Springs. It was the name of the best selling novel of 1884 showing the plight of the Indians, by local writer Helen Hunt Jackson. While the name appears in a number of places in the Pikes Peak Region, this building in Colorado City was named ''Ramona" From the time it was built after 1891 the name has been affixed to the front of the classic Victorian brick building.
Nothing could be more in contrast to the lively drinking place next door, than 'La Baguette' the French bakery in the Ramona Building.
In the 1980s, an American with an improbable last name of Turnipseed, who had studied French cooking in Europe took the opportunity to invest in a period architecture building in Old Colorado City. He chose the Ramona building. And named his French bakery and restaurant 'La Baguette.'
Swiftly the popularity of La Baguette's French Onion Soup, breads and pastries spread. Pretty soon the Class of Colorado Springs dropped in for lunch in the part of town which hitherto had been shunned as a run down blue collar neighborhood. It succeeded well enough that Earl opened a second one in downtown Colorado Springs.
Colorado City Historian Dave Hughes once remarked that "The day Colorado City 'made it' with the Colorado Springs 'establishmet' since the revitalization effort started in 1976, was when, on a Saturday morning, I observed Thayer Tutt of El Pomar followed by several from the Broadmoor - wealthiest - district set, come in to have their onion soup. And outside in a newspaper rack was the first copies of the Wall Street Journal ever seen west of the Interstate."
| Research |
| Home | Go Back | Feedback |