The History and Residents of 116 West Lake Avenue in Woodland Park

By Steve Plutt, July 7, 2025

116 W. Lake Ave. currently consists of lots seven through twelve in Block 14B of Woodland Park’s Lake Addition. This addition was first established as Block 14 on March 8, 1890 by the Woodland Park Town and Improvement Company, William J. Foster, President. It was re-platted on June 17, 1899 and that re-plat was what created Block 14B.  According to the Teller County Assessor’s Office, this home was built in the year 1899.

In the year of 1900 through 1905, Teller County was the possessor of this property and all other lots in Block 14 and 14B, as none of the taxes were paid. 

So it was on November 19, 1901, that the county put some of the lots on the auction block. At that sale, Julia A. Brown paid the back taxes on Lots 12 and 13 in Block 14B that had been delinquent since 1896.  According to law, at least three years had to elapse for ownership, but it wasn’t until 5 years later, on November 26, 1906, that Brown became the legal owner of those lots for a total of $14.78 .

Julia (Porter) Brown, was born in Pulaski, New York in 1845 to Alvaro and Amanda Porter. She married Linus Brown in 1865 and were parents to seven children while living in Oswego, NY.

By 1900, the family was living out in Manitou Park, neighbors with the Lacys, Moores and the Templetons, all area pioneers. 

Staying with the Brown family, on October 14, 1913, Teller County sold at auction to Julia’s daughter, Lizzie (Brown) Browning, Lot 7 and 8 in Block 14B for the grand total of $2.96.  Mother Julia Brown kept Lot 9 and 10 for 12 years and then sold them to her niece, Miss Carrie Cotter. And then, for whatever reason, six months later, Carrie, who was married and lived in Syracuse, New York, deeded those same lots back to Julia in August of 1921. 

Today, the Browning name will be recognized by some current Woodland Park residents as early pioneers of our community. Lizzie was the bride of Frank Browning and the daughter-in-law of the Reverand William and Henrietta Browning.

Four years after Rev. William died, Henrietta married Daniel Steffa, who was also a pioneer founder of Woodland Park and was instrumental in its development.

Apparently, according to Teller County tax records, the taxes on Lot 7 and 8 were unpaid for several years after Lizzie died in 1918. 

On December 2, 1909, Lot 9 and 10 of Block 14B were auctioned off and the lots and home were purchased by Mr. Leo Bryant, and three months later, Leo’s mother Alteria bought the adjoining Lot 11 from Teller County.

Alteria and Leo also owned several other lots with cabins in Woodland Park which generated income as rentals in the summertime.

Alteria “Allie” (Prosser) Bryant was born on September 10, 1845 in New York state. While living in Denver, she was the assistant director of the Metaphysical School of Denver and was associated with the National Divine Science Congress. She also served on the executive board of the “Civic Club of Denver” in 1898.

As far back as 1893, Alteria was a suffragette in Colorado. She was very involved with Women's Suffrage and the fight for the passage of the 19th Amendment to our Constitution.  She was also an active member of the Colorado branch of the “Woman’s Club Movement in America.” 

In the year 1900, Alteria enrolled in the Bahá’í Faith and helped establish the Bahá’í community in Denver, which was the first town in Colorado to have a such a group.  Mrs. A. M. Bryant received a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá  in 1903.

From that point on, she dropped her nickname “Allie” and went strictly by “Mrs. A. M. Bryant.“ 

A letter she wrote to the Bahai Publishing Society in 1908, begins “Dear Servants of God: My summer sojourn at Woodland Park, Colorado, will soon end.”  This certainly confirms that before she bought Lot 11 in the year 1910, she was already spending her summers here. 

Woodland Park summer resident Alteria Bryant was also the mother to a very famous daughter and a very well-known son.

By her first marriage to Mr. Deuteronomy J. "Duty" Saunders, they were the parents of Samantha Minerva Saunders. Samantha was born on February 7, 1868 in Albion, Wisconsin.  At 16 years old, she married Mr. Floyd Burdick.

During World War I, the Burdicks were both long time officers with the Salvation Army. The couple gained fame when then 49-year-old Samantha and 53-year-old Floyd were among the first Salvationists to sail to France.  The couple spent 18 months on the battlefield, caring and baking for our “Doughboys.”  Samantha was cited for bravery and was the only woman in the army to receive the Croix De Guerre .

“Ma” Burdick died on January 24, 1937 in Houston, Texas.

Leo Bryant  and his wife Jennie were summertime residents at 116 W. Lake Avenue for several years too.

Leo was born on December 3, 1877, also in Albion, Wisconsin, to Alteria and her second husband, Delmar DeForest Bryant.

Leo studied violin and piano under several of the best masters in New York and Chicago. According to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, he was very talented and was a “pioneer symphony violinist and teacher” in the Los Angeles area and several other places too, where he also led orchestras and taught music.

He met his future spouse, Miss  E. Jennie “Jane” Morgan, when she had a $25 a week job with a troupe of professional actors and musicians working with the traveling Arnold Wolf Stock Company. They were married on February 17, 1901 at the home of the bride's brother in Anaconda, Montana.

Woodland Park summer resident Jennie Morgan was known professionally as Jane Morgan. She was a British-born American actress and singer whose career encompassed concert halls, vaudeville, the legitimate stage, radio, television, and film. She played before audiences for more than 60 years, first as a classical violinist and later as a popular character actress. She played opposite such Hollywood stars as Bob Hope and Jack Benny. She closed out her career playing the gossipy, nosey landlady “Mrs. Davis” on the radio and television versions of Eve Arden’s “Our Miss Brooks” in the 1950s. Miss Morgan died in 1971 at 91 years of age, and as per her wishes, is buried at sea.

So that is the earliest available history of lots 7 though 12. Some of those lots were exchanged back and forth with family members.

In 1921, the Bryants sold Lots 9-12 to Allie A. Griffith, who later bought the adjacent Lot 7 and 8.

Alice Allen “Allie” (Powell) Griffith was born in New Jersey on December 3, 1865, eight months after the American Civil War ended. Her parents were George (1842-1915) and Marietta (1842-1918) Powell. George was a Sergeant in Company A, 37th New Jersey Infantry during the Civil War.

By the year 1880, she and the rest of the Powell family were living in Falls City, Nebraska, where her father, George, was a dry goods merchant.

On March 31, 1886 in Falls City, Allie married traveling salesman, Joseph C. Griffith. 

The Griffith’s were parents to one son, George, born on January 5, 1896.

Joseph died in Colorado Springs of Bright’s Disease  in 1907. His funeral and burial were in a family plot at Liberty, Missouri. After her husband's death, Allie continued living in their beautiful home in Colorado Springs on San Miguel Street.

When Allie died on June 5, 1949, she left her Woodland Park lots to her son, George. In addition, she also left him the 400-acre dude ranch in Manitou Park that she owned.

As already mentioned, Allie’s son George was born in 1896.  Following his graduation from the Colorado Springs High School (now Palmer High School), George enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I where he served in France with the 32nd Division (Red Arrow), 120th Field Artillery, Battery B, obtaining the rank of sergeant. Among the battles fought by the Red Arrow was the Meuse Argonne offensive which led to the armistice which ended the war in 1918.

In 1930, George worked for Henry Johns at the Johns sawmill in Manitou Park. He also boarded at the Johns residence along with area pioneer Clyde Denny. At 34 years of age, he was still single.

In 1934, George married Colorado Springs native, Miss Eleanor Verna Hastings in Raton, New Mexico. Their first home was in Pueblo, Colorado where George begin his career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a Soil Conservationist.

Eleanor was also a graduate of the Colorado Springs High School in 1931. Her college days were at Colorado College and she graduated from the University of Colorado in 1938. Her career was a school teacher with her very first assignment being at the Woodland Park schools. She went on to teach in the Springs at Helen Hunt and Taylor Elementary schools.

After George’s death in 1972,  Eleanor was the legal owner of the Woodland Park lots. When she died in 2014, Lot 7,8,9,10,11 and 12 then belonged to her daughter, Lynne (Griffith) Murray.

Today, the little home at 116 W. Lake Avenue is still owned by the  descendants of Allie Griffith who bought it in 1921. In fact, for over 104 years this home has been in the Griffith/Murray Family.

I personally do not know of any other family within Woodland Park that can make that kind of boast. For that one house to be continuously owned by the same family for over 100 years is quite amazing.

Appearing in the September 9, 1913 issue of The Wichita Beacon of Wichita, Kansas, reporter Edna L. Shaw said of 116 W. Lake Avenue when the Bryants owned it, “The smell of pines was everywhere. The cottage nestled among the pines. It was made of pines. There were just three rooms and a big porch. Long French windows that opened out on the porch let floods of the fresh mountain air into the cottage.”

The writer continued saying; “Their site is on the highest point at Woodland Park and has a grand open view of the North Pike’s Peak Range.”

Author's Note

I would like to thank Mr. Richard Vore who helped me with the history of Mrs. A. M. Bryant.

A very special thanks also to Mr. Eric Murray, the Great-grandson of Allie Griffith and provider of many of the photographs.