Marigreen Pines Estate

Driving up the twists of Waldo Canyon in Ute Pass, a glance to the passenger's side at just the right moment offers a fleeting glimpse of a stone-lined entrance gate with a sign that reads "Private Drive - Holy Cross Novitiate." Hidden beyond is a peaceful religious retreat that once served as the home of one of the families who helped shape this region.

Thomas Cusack (1858-1926) was a self-made man and a millionaire when he arrived in the Pikes Peak region. He was known to his peers as the “Billboard King of Chicago.” Thomas had emigrated from Ireland to New York with his family around 1861. Family tragedy left Tom and his younger brother as orphans six years later. He worked hard, putting himself through college. Trained as a sign painter, he started a sign and carriage painting shop that grew into the largest outdoor advertising company in the nation, with assets in excess of $26 million by 1924. Active in civic life, he served as a U.S. Congressman and on Chicago’s Board of Education.

Thomas Cusack

Cusack visited the Pikes Peak region in the 1880s and summered at Montcalme (Miramont Castle) for many years. In 1890, his wife Ella Ross died in childbirth. He remarried five years later a woman named Mary Greene and brought her to Colorado for their honeymoon. Mary fell in love with a small house on the hill near Cascade and Thomas promptly bought it for his young bride. They named the little house Ellinor Cottage in honor of Tom’s lost first child. The cottage was used as a summer home and a welcome escape from the heat of Chicago. As the family grew, additions were made to the cottage. Thomas made plans to construct a larger home on the hill above the cottage.

Mary Greene Cusack. Marigreen Pines is Named for Her

Tragedy struck once again; Mary Greene Cusack died in July 1922 after a struggle with cancer. Tom finished the house and named it Marigreen Pines in her memory.

The Marigreen Pines estate was personally designed by Thomas Cusack and featured European furnishings and Italian craftsmanship.

His children and grandchildren enjoyed the home as a fulfillment of Tom’s life-long dream. The little ones would sleep peacefully in the old house (Ellinor Cottage) while the elders dined and entertained in the big house. Life went on for the Cusack family as they enjoyed their elegant summer quarters. Thomas died of pneumonia at his Chicago home in 1926. Members of the Cusack family continued to live at Marigreen Pines until 1978.

At that time, Anne Cusack Johnson and her family donated the estate to the Congregation of the Holy Cross. It is best known for Notre Dame University in Indiana and several Cusack men attended college there. With Anne’s donation came the stipulation that the Ute Pass Historical Society be allowed to give public tours of her former home every three years.

Today, the Marigreen Pines Estate spreads over 200 acres of richly wooded hills near the junction of French and Fountain Creeks in Cascade. Holy Cross novices considering priesthood reside at the estate for "a year of prayer, silence, reflection, and discernment."