History of Ute Pass Library

The Ute Pass Library first began as a small school-based book collection created in 1956 by the Mothers Club of Cascade for the Cascade School, then a single-building district. The Mothers Club organized donations, volunteers, and local support to build a working library collection for local children. When the Cascade School District merged with Manitou Springs in 1959, the library was reorganized under the newly formed Ute Pass Community Association, serving Cascade, Chipita Park, and Green Mountain Falls. That same year it moved into the Green Mountain Falls Town Hall and formally adopted the name Ute Pass Library. 

The process that would ultimately bring the library into Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) began soon after the reorganization. In 1961 and 1962, voters in Colorado Springs and El Paso County approved the measures that created the future regional district, set to launch on January 1, 1964. The plan initially assumed that the Manitou Springs and Security library districts would join, but both declined in 1963. With those partnerships no longer viable, Librarian Margaret Reid turned instead to Ute Pass, already a functioning community library, and to Palmer Lake, where a library was being organized.

The Ute Pass board initially hesitated but agreed to join once they were assured that property-owning summer residents would receive borrowing privileges without fees. Palmer Lake Library continued its preparations but did not open until February 1964. As a result, when the new Library District launched on January 1, Ute Pass Library became the first library operated by PPLD outside the original Colorado Springs city system.

PPLD’s expanded services soon exceeded the limited space available in Green Mountain Falls, and in 1968 the Library moved back to Cascade, occupying rooms above the Cascade Firehouse. In 1975, it returned to the former Cascade School building. The structure, built in 1934 as a one-room schoolhouse, had expanded with the community over the years and continued serving local children until consolidation in 1959. After Ute Pass Elementary opened in 1969, the building briefly housed kindergarten classes before becoming the Library’s permanent home in 1975.

A major expansion in 2005 modernized the facility, and in 2025, PPLD purchased the historic building in 2025.  This secured the long-term future of a Library that helped define PPLD’s identity as a true regional district—marking the moment when Library service first extended beyond Colorado Springs and into the wider communities of El Paso County.