Six southeastern Colorado counties will get money from the state for historic preservation. The funding is part of nearly two dozen History Colorado General Grants recently awarded statewide. The funding is aimed at supporting the prosperity of rural communities and diversity across the state, according to a recent press release.
The 1908 Manzanola United Methodist Church is considered the only remaining structural touchstone of a Black homesteader community known as The Dry. It’s located in Otero County about 50 miles southeast of Pueblo. Restoration will start on the building using a $250,000 grant from History Colorado. Another grant of nearly $200,000 coming into Otero County will help rehabilitate the windows and interior of the Plaza Block Building in La Junta.
In Huerfano County, The Museum of Friends in Walsenburg will receive $250,000 to help repair the roof and sandstone walls of the 1910 Dick Building-Ben Franklin Store. Once one of the largest buildings in town, it housed the local JC Penney in 1932. It then went through a number of different owners before the museum moved in in 2007. Current exhibits at the museum focus on the perspectives of local and regional Hispano/Hispanic artists.
Some $85,000 is also going to help fix the masonry at the Saguache Hotel in the San Luis Valley.
Other grants were awarded in El Paso, Chaffee, and Las Animas counties. Earlier this fall History Colorado announced a round of Mini-Grants under $50,000. History Colorado grants totaled some $6.8 million statewide this year.
These are the projects that received History Colorado General Grants in December 2022:
- Silver Plume Mining Claims, Clear Creek - $200,000
- Bennett-Field House, Denver - $230,181
- Manzanola United Methodist Church, Otero - $250,000
- Fitzsimons General Hospital-Main Building, Adams - $250,000
- Smith- Eslick Cottage Court (Store and Office), Grand - $196,505
- Teller Institute-Grand Junction Indian School, Mesa - $250,000
- Chaffee County Courthouse (McGinnis Gymnasium), Chaffee - $250,000
- Colorado Springs Day Nursery, El Paso - $250,000
- Chaffee County Old Courthouse and Jail Building (Buena Vista), Chaffee - $176,329
- Roof and Dick Building-Ben Franklin Store, Huerfano - $250,000
- Holy Trinity Catholic Church (Trinidad), Las Animas - $237,150
- Saguache Hotel, Saguache - $85,553
- Harvey J. Parish House House Museum, Weld - $132,145
- Truxaw & Kruger Grocery- Seldin's Cash Grocery, Weld - $191,357
- Slayton Ranch-Land Utilization Program- Briggsdale Work Center, Weld - $250,000
- Cozens Ranch House- Maryvale, Grand - $67,245
- Fort Lewis College Faculty House #15, La Plata - $149,283
- Plaza Block Building, La Junta - $199,613
- Dana Crawford Preservation Program at UCD -Scholarship, Denver - $168,869
- El Paso County Courthouse-Colorado Pioneers Museum, El Paso - $73,502
- Alpine Tunnel and Palisade Wall, Gunnison - $249,886
- Pantall School-Stevens Elementary School, Logan - $247,964
- Colorado Preservation Inc. Saving Places Conference 2024, Statewide - $151,895
More southeastern Colorado coverage
- This new app hopes to spur tourism through virtual visits of heritage sites—like the Sand Creek Massacre—in southeastern Colorado
- On 80th anniversary, Camp Amache families remembered and honored by Sect. of Interior Deb Haaland
- New History Colorado board member wants to make sure the southeastern part of the state gets some attention
