Chamberlin Observatory in Denver’s Observatory Park was established through Humphrey B. Chamberlin’s 1888 gift of fifty thousand dollars to the University of Denver, creating a major scientific facility when large refracting telescopes still dominated astronomy. Designed by Robert S. Roeschlaub and planned for astronomical work by Professor Herbert Alonzo Howe, the Romanesque red sandstone building was modeled after Goodsell Observatory. Its central instrument, a twenty-inch refracting telescope with a lens by Alvan Clark and Sons and a mount by George Nicholas Saegmuller, achieved first light in 1894. It survives as an important example of the brief great-refractor era and now serves mainly public education and outreach.

Denver, Colorado · USA