In 1900, Colorado Springs’s founder General Palmer purchased Rock Ledge Ranch and made it part of the Glen Eyrie Estate, located just north of the Chambers property in the Camp Creek Valley.

He paid the Chambers $17,000 for their 160-acre farm for the purpose of acquiring the water rights tied to the property. Palmer rebuilt and expanded the Chambers’ irrigation system that diverted Camp Creek’s water.

In 1906, General Palmer, invited his sister-in-law, Charlotte, and her husband, William, to move to Colorado Springs from their home in Cape Town, South Africa. Charlotte Sclater had previously lived in Colorado Springs at Glen Eyrie as a young woman, while her half-sister Queen was alive. After General Palmer’s riding accident in 1906, which left him paralyzed, Charlotte Sclater assisted in his care. She was an avid horsewoman and enjoyed lacemaking, candy-making, and photography.

William Sclater was a well-known British ornithologist. During his brief stay in Colorado Springs, Sclater wrote a book on the birds of Colorado, while creating and curating the natural history museum at Colorado College, as well as teaching there as a professor.

In 1907, Palmer commissioned the construction of a country estate, called Orchard House, on the Rock Ledge Ranch property expressly for the Sclaters. The house was designed by architect Thomas MacLaren, who was at the height of his career crafting villas and resort homes for the wealthy new residents of the city.

The Orchard House was a modern country home in the Cape Dutch or South African Colonial style valued at $20,000. The interiors were uncluttered and tastefully decorated in Mission and American Colonial Revival styles. The home had the most modern conveniences such as electricity, plumbing, a whole house heating system, running water, and an electromagnetic call bell system.

Mr. & Mrs. Sclater lived in the home until Palmer’s death in 1909, when they returned to England.