• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

T O W N O F T E L L U R I D E __________________ RE-SURVEY OF HISTORIC STRUCTURES Funded in Part by State Historic Fund Grant Project No. 2010-M2-021 Prepared For: Town of Telluride Planning and Building Department Planning Division Rebekah Hall 113 W. Columbia Avenue Telluride, CO 81435 Prepared By: Carl McWilliams and Karen McWilliams Cultural Resource Historians 1607 Dogwood Ct. Fort Collins, CO 80525 (970) 493-5270 [email protected] October 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction 1 Figure 1: Project Area Map 3 2.0 The Project Area 2 Table 1: Notable Commercial Buildings 11 3.0 Historic Narrative 4 by Year Built Native Occupation and European Exploration Table 2: Primary Buildings by Historic 4 47 of the San Juan Region Function / Use Table 3: Primary Buildings by Current The Early Mining Frontier 5 48 Function / Use Table 4: Primary Building by Architectural Early Transportation in the San Miguel Valley 9 49 Style / Type The Founding of Telluride and Early Table 5: Properties Evaluated as 10 50 Commercial Development Individually NRHP Eligible Table 6: Comprehensive Primary & Community/Institutional Buildings in Telluride 11 65 Secondary Building Survey Log Telluride’s Residential Development 12 Finn Town, Swede-Finn Town and Catholic Hill 13 The Upper Northwest Side 13 Photo Pages Bird’s Eye Images of Telluride and the East Pacific Avenue and the Red Light District 15 21 Upper San Miguel Valley Labor Issues and the Western Federation of 28 Scenes of Colorado Avenue 22 Miners Telluride in Transition: The Decline of the 29 Transportation Related Images 23 Mining Era Community / Institutional Buildings in Joseph T. Zoline and the Telluride Ski Resort 31 24 Telluride Telluride in Transition: The 1970s 32 Telluride Commercial Buildings 25 Telluride Into the Twenty-First Century 34 Telluride Residences 26 Bibliography 35 Telluride’s Red Light District 27 4.0 Research Design and Methods 38 5.0 Results 46 6.0 Recommendations 52 Town of Telluride Re-Survey of Historic Structures Cultural Resource Historians Page 1 Town of Telluride Re-Survey of Historic Structures 1.0 INTRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Telluride Re-Survey of Historic Structures project involved the The activity that is the subject of this material has intensive-level surveys of 315 been financed in part with Federal funds from properties located primarily within the National Historic Preservation Act, the Telluride National Historic Landmark District. The project was administered by the National Park Service, conducted in two separate United States Department of the Interior, and by phases, with phase one the History Colorado / State Historical Fund. completed between April 2007 However, the contents and opinions do not and June 2008, and with phase necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U. two completed between October S. Department of the Interior or History Colorado, 2010 and January 2012. Phase one was funded solely by the nor does the mention of trade names or Town of Telluride, while phase two commercial products constitute an endorsement was funded by the Town of or recommendation by the Department of the Telluride and by a State Historic Interior or History Colorado. Fund (SHF) grant received by the Town of Telluride from History This program receives Federal funds from the Colorado (formerly the Colorado National Park Service; regulations of the United Historical Society). The SHF Project States Department of the Interior strictly prohibit number is 10-M2-021. Both phases were completed by Cultural unlawful discrimination in departmental Resource Historians (CRH), of Fort Federally-assisted programs on the basis of race, Collins, Colorado, under contract color, national origin, age, or handicap. Any to the Town of Telluride. CRH person who believes he or she has been principals, Carl McWilliams and discriminated against in any program, activity, or Karen McWilliams, planned and completed the project’s primary facility operated by a recipient of Federal tasks. They were assisted by assistance should write to: Director, Equal Richard Collier, who was Opportunity Program, U. S. Department of the responsible for much of the Interior, National Park Service, 1849 C Street N. photography, and by Timothy W., Washington, D.C. Wilder, who developed an “Archinventory” database for the survey. Mike Davenport and Robert Mather managed the project on behalf of the Town of Telluride. The following sections describe the project area, provide an overview of Telluride’s historical development, and present the research design, methodology, results, and recommendations, resulting from the project. These sections are followed by comprehensive survey logs which present the survey’s findings for each property’s primary buildings and historic secondary buildings and structures. Three hundred and fifteen Colorado Cultural Resource Survey Architectural Inventory Forms, with black-and-white photographs, sketch maps, and location maps, accompany this Cultural Resource Historians Page 2 Town of Telluride Re-Survey of Historic Structures report. The inventory forms provide detailed architectural descriptions, construction histories, historic background narratives, significance and integrity evaluations, and professional field eligibility assessments for every surveyed property. The “Telluride National Historic Landmark District National Register of Historic Places Registration Form” was not updated as part of this project. Therefore, these assessments are not reflected in that report and are not currently part of the National Park Service record for the landmark district. Cultural Resource Historians Page 3 Town of Telluride Re-Survey of Historic Structures 2.0 THE PROJECT AREA The Town of Telluride is located in a picturesque box canyon nestled in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. The county seat of San Miguel County, Telluride lies along the upper reaches of the San Miguel River at an elevation of 8750 feet above sea level. Telluride is well-isolated from other towns and cities due to the rugged mountainous topography. The only paved road into the town is from the west via a spur of West Colorado Avenue (formally Colorado Highway 145). Also known as the “San Juan Skyway” this route leads southwest from Telluride over Lizard Head Pass to Rico, Dolores, and Cortez. Colorado Highway 145 also connects Telluride to the north with the small communities of Sawpit and Placerville, and with another state highway, Colorado 162. From that point, the communities of Norwood, Naturita and Nucla are to the northwest, while the town of Ridgway is located to the east over Dallas Divide. Platted originally in 1878, Telluride’s avenues and streets are parallel with and perpendicular to the San Juan River which defines the town’s southern edge. There are six principal avenues which parallel the river and trend from the west-northwest to the east-southeast. San Juan Avenue is closest to the river, followed by Pacific, Colorado, Columbia, Galena, and Gregory Avenues. Colorado Avenue which extends through the town’s center is Telluride’s main commercial thoroughfare. Streets in Telluride intersect the avenues at right angles trending from the south-southwest to the north- northeast. From west to east, Telluride’s principal streets are named Davis, Townsend, Aspen, Oak, Fir, Pine, Spruce, Willow, Alder, Maple, Hemlock, Pinion, Laurel, and Columbine. The Lone Tree Cemetery lies at northeastern edge of Telluride, while the Telluride Town Park, the venue for famous annual music and film festivals, is adjacent to the river at the southeastern edge of Telluride. Ingram Falls - free flowing in the summer and frozen in the winter - overlooks the town from the head of the box canyon to the east. Bridal Veil Falls are just south of Ingram Falls, but are not quite visible from the center of town, while Needle Rock, an aptly named geologic formation, is visible to the south from elevated vantage points. Principal nearby mountain peaks include Mount Sneffels, Mount Wilson, Wilson Peak, Ajax Peak and Ingram Peak. The 458 intensively surveyed structures are nearly all located within the Telluride National Historic Landmark District, and within three historic subdivisions: the Original Telluride Addition, platted in 1883, the West Telluride Addition, platted in 1891, and the East Telluride Addition, platted in 1898. The survey area comprises approximately one hundred acres located in Section 36 of Township 43 North, Range 9 West, Section 1 of Township 42 North, Range 9 West, and Section 31 of Township 43 North, Range 8 West, of the New Mexico Principal Meridian. “Telluride, Colorado” is the relevant USGS quadrangle map. Cultural Resource Historians Page 4 Town of Telluride Re-Survey of Historic Structures Figure 1: Project Area Map Cultural Resource Historians Page 5 Town of Telluride Re-Survey of Historic Structures 3.0 HISTORIC NARRATIVE Native Occupation and European-American Exploration of the San Juan Region The San Juan Mountains are within lands that are the ancestral home of the Ute people. Traditionally composed of many affiliated nomadic bands, the Utes have resided in what is now western Colorado, eastern Utah, and portions of New Mexico and Wyoming for more than a thousand years. Early contact between Utes and persons of European descent occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Utes obtained horses and trade goods from the Spanish in the mid-1700s, expanding their geographic range while at the same time transforming and disrupting their traditional way of life.1 Unbeknown to native people, in 1762, France ceded to Spain all of Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River, and the lands the Territory 2 comprised then remained under Spain’s control for the next forty years. The Spanish explored lands northwest of Santa Fe, and in the ensuing decades the region’s rivers, mountains, and other natural features were identified with Spanish names. In the early 1760s, Don Juan Maria del Rivera conducted expeditions from Santa Fe through the rugged San Juan Mountains and 3 north to the Gunnison River, in search of precious metals.

Load more

  90

Copy Link