Trinidad, Colorado - A Historic Building Survey
Bloom House
Map location #38.
Frank Bloom, the original owner of the lot, built the Bloom House in 1882 for the family's residence. During the late 1930's and part of the 1940's, the home was a rooming house operated by Mrs. Kitty Hemelspach.
Built in the French Victorian style, the mansion with its multitude of details is well described in the pamphlet Bloom House and Baca House, published by the Historical Society of Colorado.
The Bloom's towering mansion, patterned after a mid-western Victorian house they had admired, was built of brick with native Trinidad sandstone used for the trimming. The exterior of the building was influenced by French architecture, then rare in the frontier West of the 1880's. This is particularly exemplified in the metal-covered mansard roof. The cornices and rosettes are made of plaster, and ornamental woodwork marks the porch on three sides of the house.
Recognized for the excellence of the Victorian workmanship and style, the mansion, which now belongs to the State Historical Society of Colorado, is open as a museum.
The photograph was taken in 1963.
