Evergreen Conference District

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Evergreen Conference District is a seven-acre historic music and retreat center in Evergreen, Colorado, along Highway 74 by Bear Creek. It includes 23 buildings such as the Stone Library, Meeting House, St. Raphael’s, and the Bell Tower. It is the oldest continuously operating music conference center in the United States, open since 1907. The district is owned by the Evergreen Music Conference, the Sisters of St. Mary, and the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 1, 1979.

The land has a long history, used by Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne peoples before Europeans arrived. Traders and trappers passed through by 1821, and prospectors came during the 1858 gold rush. Bergen Park began in 1859 when Thomas Cunningham Bergen built a log cabin. Evergreen formed as a town around 1877 after Amos Post opened a trading post and store on what is now Evergreen’s main street. The name Evergreen came from D. P. Wilmot, who praised the area’s firs, spruces, and pines in the mid-1870s.

Ranchers, loggers, and farmers settled along Bear Creek, and city people started visiting for summers. A log bunkhouse for lumbermen appeared in the 1880s, later turned into a hotel called Sprucedale Resort with eight cottages. The first church meetings were held in the area in 1872. In 1893 Mary Neosho Williams, widow of General Thomas Williams, created a retreat center and hosted Episcopal services in tents. She bought the former Stewart Hotel, which became St. Mark’s in the Wilderness and later Mission of the Transfiguration. Her daughter, Dr. Josepha Williams, donated land and buildings to help create the center. Canon Charles Winfred Douglas, married to Josepha Williams, began summer retreats and music camps in 1897 and led musical events for decades. After Stewart’s death, the Episcopal church bought the resort, and John “Jock” Spence added buildings and remodeling. Donations from the Williams, Douglas, and Bancroft families helped form the district, including a 1923 ranch land donation. Coordinates: 39°38′13″N 105°18′47″W.