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McAllister House Museum
The McAllister House Museum was
originally the home of Major Henry McAllister, who had come to
Colorado Springs to work for the founder, General William Palmer,
who had known Henry when they were both fighting in the Union and
both had been Quakers. McAllister constructed his Downing Gothic
house in 1873-1874, just after the town was established, with George
Summers doing the design work, after leaving Philadelphia to come to
the west and start a grand new life. The eastern architecture was
using the Queen Anne and Gothic venues to design homes and the
fashion had traveled west with many of the architects that came here
to find a better life. Inside the house, there are marble fireplaces
that were brought here from Philadelphia, with thick almost two feet
walls, a charming children's room and Victorian furniture. After
exacting research, the state has returned this marvelous home and
its contents to its wonderful condition. Henry was born in 1836, in
Brandywine, New Castle County, Delaware, to Henry McAllister Sr.,
who was a first generation American. His mother, Hannah Askew, was
the daughter of a family that had been in this country since
colonial times and who were members of the Religious Society of
Friends, also known as Quakers. The family moved to Darby, Delaware
County, Pennsylvania by 1840, close to Philadelphia, and Henry Jr.
was soon joined by two sisters that would grow up and remain in the
city of brotherly love, always faithful to the Quaker ideals of
faith. When Henry finished his schooling at the Darby Friends
School, he tried his hand at merchandising, but enlisted when the
Civil War broke out. Quakers were the first abolitionists in the
country and numerous people in the liberal branch of the faith
wanted to fight to help free the slaves. While in the service, he
would come under the command of General William Jackson Palmer, a
Quaker born in 1836, in Kent County, Delaware, and like Henry Jr.
had moved to Philadelphia as a young man. While serving, Henry
was in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry and soon rose to the rank
of major, showing himself to be an apt leader, both brave and
resourceful. Items from his service period are still found in the
house/museum. In 1866, he married Elizabeth Cooper, the daughter of
an important Darby Quaker, and he had the promise of a great job as
the Secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association working for
influential Quaker Joseph Wharton, but he soon changed his mind and
moved west to work for his old commander, General Palmer. Elizabeth
soon showed what a good wife and mother she was to their three
children and the community began to know her as kind and caring.
Their children became successful in their own right, with Henry Jr
the third, going to Swarthmore College and coming back to Colorado
Springs to be a well known lawyer. Mary McAllister went east to
college as well and taught Greek and Latin at the Colorado Springs
High School, eventually marrying George Taylor. The youngest child,
Matilda, graduated from Colorado College and became a local school
teacher, and after Henry passed on went to live with Mary and
George.
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