COLORADO SPRINGS — The historic El Paso Club in Colorado Springs has played host to presidents and literary greats. Now, the 134-year-old gentlemen’s club is debating a major change — admitting women.
Club members voted for the first time last month whether to admit female members. The Gazette reported the proposal was defeated by nearly 70 percent.
“We can’t decimate a 130-year-old men’s club to let in a few women. It would be the end of the club,” said Randy Kilgore, a prominent insurance agent and longtime member.
But some club members say the club needs to admit women to reinvigorate the 1877 dining and billiards club that has lost a quarter of its members in the past decade and counts fewer than 300 members.
Marvin Strait, an accountant and club member for 30 years, pushed to admit women and said the club risks a “death spiral” if it doesn’t change.
The El Paso Club was founded as an English-style aristocratic club where, according to an announcement in The Gazette at the time, “Congenial spirits from the east” could indulge in “billiard, card and reading rooms for the purposes of social enjoyment among its members.”
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant stopped by for a game of poker in 1880. Humorist Oscar Wilde, dressed in velvet, visited in 1882. Inventor Nikola Tesla feasted there in 1899.
Lindsay Fischer, a local lawyer and member since 1972, said proponents of integrating female members will keep trying.
“If we don’t do it relatively soon, the club is going to be history,” Fischer said.
