International Typographical Union - Union Printers Home

Union Printers Home

In 1889, Colorado Springs, Colorado was chosen as the site of Union Printers Home. George W. Childs, publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger and his philanthropist friend Anthony J. Drexel gave a gift of $10,000 in 1886 to start work toward the Home, thus starting a fund which grew. The 1890 ITU convention in Atlanta approved of the Home.

On May 12, 1892, the Childs-Drexel Home for Union Printers opened on 29 acres (120,000 m2) located on the corner of Pikes Peak Ave. and S.Union Bvld. "A Home for the Aged and Sanatorium for Tuberculars. Maintained by the International Typographical Union for Its Distressed Members." 19th Century printers suffered from tuberculosis, and the clean air of the Rocky Mountains, Pikes Peak area in Colorado was seen as a location to clean the diseased lungs. The home was open only to members of the ITU; members' wives or widows were not admitted. John D. Vaughn served as first Superintendent of the Home while its first member was W.B. Eckert, a retired member and former officer of the Philadelphia #2 local. The 1899 ITU convention at Detroit approved the name Union Printers Home. The home, a hospital and sanatorium, was staffed by its own doctors, nurses and other medical technicians. The lands of the home grew to 260 acres (1.1 km2) to accommodate a dairy, farms, gardens, power plant, and workshops to help make the UPH self-sufficient. In 1944, Dowell Patterson (1899–1968), superintendent of the home, saw that the most modern of medical equipment was furnished to the UPH. In later years, the tubercular sanitoriums were razed. Today the home serves the people of Colorado Springs and El Paso County as a health care facility with assisted living and nursing care. The main building is a State of Colorado historical site.