FEB 20, 2025 | FEATURES | By Caroline Moffitt
The large red brick building on the corner of Tejon Street and E. Platte Avenue looks like something out of a black-and-white movie. Large bay windows, multiple patios and porches give it an elegance that seems out of place among the more modern downtown city blocks.
A large wooden door and stained glass windows meet you as you approach the building. A Christmas tree and a portrait of philanthropist Spencer Penrose, recently occupied the reception area just inside. The elegant library includes tables with plush chairs and cozy couches. The room is full of artwork and bronze sculptures depicting different Western scenes.
Near a side door on Tejon is a small bronze plaque that reads “Members Only.”
Who are the members? Men Only.
The El Paso Club bills itself as the second-oldest private men’s club west of Chicago and has occupied this corner since 1890.
That a club barring women from full membership still exists 148 years later, in modern-day Colorado, a progressive state known for reproductive health rights and a majority-female legislature, baffles Jacqueline Armendariz Unzueta, a local activist and resident.
Armendariz Unzueta learned about the El Paso Club in 2022 after walking past the stately Victorian home in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs. As an El Paso County, Texas native, she was curious about what kind of club it was. Her curiosity grew when she learned it was a men’s-only social club.
She sent an email to the then-general manager, asking for more information. Instead, she got nothing: no response to her questions about the membership process or dues.
“Really I sent an email because I wanted them to tell me I wasn’t allowed in their club in the 21st century,” Armendariz Unzueta said. “It was something unbelievable, so I had to test it for myself.”
The club was founded in 1877 by Marshall Sprague and other prominent Colorado Springs business owners as a place where they could go to drink, gamble and socialize with other elites. Over the years, it hosted prominent names like Oscar Wilde, Nikola Tesla and Ulysses S. Grant.
Richard Skorman, a Colorado College alum, owner of Poor Richard’s Bookstore downtown and former city council president, said he hasn’t heard much about the club in many years but remembers local businessmen and government officials would go there to take long lunch breaks.
Jeff Hanley, a Colorado Springs resident and Colorado College alumni remembers the El Paso Club as a place where the city’s lawyers, doctors, dentists and government officials would go to “take long lunches, drink too much and then go back to work.”
He reminisced about the smell of alcohol on his childhood dentist’s breath as he was working on his teeth after the dentist had been at the El Paso Club for lunch.
“This is where men escaped from their wives,” Hanley said. “They’d go and they’d play poker.”
The club provides members with lunch and dinner services as well as member-only events throughout the year.
“Our membership could dine anywhere they like, but they love the intimacy of our club, they love the history of the club,” General Manager Adan Garay said in an interview with The Catalyst in December.
In recent years, the trend of private clubs has been to accept female members into their ranks. Clubs such as Links on the Upper East Side of New York City and the Garrick Club in London which were historically men-only for over 100 years, have now integrated.
Members of The El Paso Club attempted to make this change in 2011 by voting to allow women to become members to boost decreasing membership. Almost 70% of members voted against it. Fourteen years have passed and the topic has not been brought to a vote again, according to Garay. Membership has fallen more, and the club is becoming less known and relevant to Colorado Springs residents.
“If they voted to allow women tomorrow, I would at least be paying more attention, and I’d want to know more,” Armendariz Unzueta said.
At the time of the vote in 2011, The Gazette reported that the club had around 300 regular members.
Now the club has roughly 200 regular members, Garay said.
“It’s kind of an under-the-radar club, because you know that it doesn’t have a ton of members but it’s still alive and kicking,” newly elected club president Tom Hallenbeck said.
The club has three categories for membership: regular, junior and widow/spouse. Of these categories, only widow/spouse can apply to women, and only after their husband has died.
Though the club does not allow women to be regular members, they do host many events that are attended by both men and women in the community, Garay said. Events like lunches for business owners in the Springs are open to non-members, and the Broadmoor Garden Club, a women’s invitation-only organization, has hosted gatherings at the El Paso Club.
Garay, who has managed the club for two years, said “We have an open door for everyone.” But only men can be full members.
Hallenbeck said that though the topic of allowing women to join hasn’t been brought to a vote, the topic is discussed by members occasionally. He said the club hasn’t seen much interest from women in the community.
“It’s always a subject of discussion because membership of any organization — it has to be continuously evolving,” he said.
Hallenbeck did note a change in the status of club members. In the past, the club was made up of the Colorado Springs elite: the ranchers, judges, government officials and the Spencer Penrose and Charles Tutts of society.
Now he notes the club is made up of “regular working people.” Many members are lawyers, insurance agents, and local business owners.
That change doesn’t seem to include allowing women to be full-time members anytime soon.