Saturday, September 29, 2018

Day 93 of 117 on our “Go West, Young Man” Two Lane Adventure – Thursday 9/27/18


We took a tour of 3rd Street, which is home to many historical churches and homes of Durango. These homes are just a few examples of Durango's earliest and finest architecture. The character of these homes are as beautiful as the character of the people who built them and lived in them and formed the town, and the people who reside in them and care for them. Home. It's a simple word that conjures abundant and conflicting emotions. Home is an escape and a haunting, a refuge and a vacancy. Homes hold hidden spaces and host family dinners, sometimes too crowded. They contain the breathlessness of leaving, and the anticipation of returning.

On this shaded avenue stands Durango's historic St. Mark's Episcopal Church. St. Mark’s is as old as Durango. It is older, in a sense. As early as 1877, the founder, the storied Episcopal missionary C. Montgomery “Parson” Hogue, rode a San Juan Mountain circuit on horseback. In 1880, Parson Hogue held the new town’s first worship service the day after Christmas at the Delmonico Hotel. Fearless and persuasive, Hogue regularly visited Durango’s saloons and gambling houses, wearing cassock and six-shooter, to preach to the rough townsfolk. When the parson passed the plate, they dug deep, and these monies helped build St. Mark’s, Durango’s first church. In the summer of 1881, St. Mark’s opened its doors. St. Mark’s also doubled as the town’s first public school. Yet by 1883, when the bishop in Denver elevated St. Mark’s from mission to parish, the restless Parson Hogue had moved on to Silverton.

Just ten years later, the first recorded interest in Christian Science in Durango was noted. The list of people attending informal meetings included twenty two names. By December 1900 public services were being held and on January 6, 1901 the Durango Christian Science Society was formed.  The Society established a Sunday School and held all its services at 300 Newman Block. In 1905 Wednesday evening meetings were established and a Reading Room was opened to the public in 1906.  In January 1907 a Board of Directors was appointed and 15 charter members signed the bylaws, formally establishing the new Church organization.  Among those were the Mayor and his wife, a newspaperman, teachers, a banker, musician and store owners. In 1921 the present site on Third Avenue was purchased and construction began in the fall of 1922. The edifice was dedicated in 1924. At that time Durango was a bustling mining and ranching town of 6,000.

The Dwyer homestead originally consisted of 160 acres and a log cabin located south of Animas City on Junction Creek, including where the fairgrounds sit today. The brick home now standing at 2535 W 2nd Ave became the Dwyer residence in 1888, after his retirement. Placed on Durango's Registry of Historic Places in 1997, this landmark still boasts its original stained glass windows and gable ornaments. The illustrious Robert Dwyer served as Durango's first marshal, and later as La Plata County Sheriff. Dwyer is well-known for his role in taking down the Stockton Gang which was terrorizing Durango in the early 1880s.

Built in the Dutch Colonial Revival style in 1906 by Scottish stone mason David Ramsey. The gambrel roof is the distinguishing feature of the Dutch Colonial Revival.  Primarily a residential style, it was popular in Colorado between 1900 and 1925. This home became known as the Clark-Hatfield residence from its first owners. In 1926, it sold to Fred & Marguerite Clark. It is said that Hatfield was going to be a district attorney in town.

This Durango icon is now the home of Hood Mortuary, but it was once the residence of Ernest Amy and his bride, Isabelle. When Hood Mortuary first opened in 1902, it was on East Ninth Street next to what now is The Red Snapper. It moved to the Amy Mansion in 1932. Amy managed the San Juan and New York Smelter, a regional smelting center for ores coming out of the San Juan mines. He built the house in 1888 as a Shingle Style mansion to suit his wife's east coast upbringing. The smelters transformed the gold and silver ore from the nearby mines in the San Juans.

Known as the Perkins House, this residence was constructed in 1892 for Adair and Margaret Wilson. Adair Wilson was elected to the Colorado Senate in 1886, and also served as chief justice of the state court of appeals in 1897. The home, however, takes its name from Durango mayor Clayton Perkins who also resided here.

Built in 1912, this home belonged to George "Smoothie" West, a Colorado state senator. The American Foursquare structure also pays tribute to several other architectural styles, most notably the half-timbering of a Tudor. Half-timbering is a way of constructing wood frame structures with the structural timbers exposed.

This home is a Vernacular style home that's reminiscent of the American Foursquare. Vernacular architecture is an architectural style that is designed based on local needs, availability of construction materials and reflecting local traditions. At least originally, vernacular architecture did not use formally-schooled architects, but relied on the design skills and tradition of local builders. Built in 1912 for Robert Sloan, an associate of General William Jackson Palmer, co-founder of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway, and co-owner of Graden Mercantile, this home became known as the Sloan-Ayers home after Robert's daughter Mary Sloan-Ayers.

This is one of the few distinctly Mission Revival style homes in Durango. The defining characteristics include roof parapets and simple stucco or plaster siding. The Harry Jackson house, is a fine example. Built in 1929 for Harry Jackson, a local merchant, the home's stucco siding, roof parapets, arcaded entry porch, and flat roof are characteristic elements of the Mission home.

The Camp House is a fine example of a Folk Victorian. Next to the Craftsman Bungalow, this is the style most often associated today with being a historic home. It was built in 1883 for AP Camp, the founder of Bank of Durango, now First National Bank. The home maintains many of its original elements, both inside and out. The Folk Victorian is a simpler style of Victorian construction verses the Queen Anne, while still maintaining the decorative trim elements.

On the National Register of Historic Places in La Plata County, this brick Queen Anne sits on the corner so it’s splendor can be seen from two sides. The Queen Anne style represented the culmination of the picturesque, or romantic movement of the 19th century. It was built in 1898 by grocer Walter Weightman, the home contains classic Queen Anne brickwork, oculus windows, gable trim, and spindle designs on the porch. Several sources refer to the home as the Fields Home, named after a sheep man who owned it.

Tomorrow is our day to move. It has been a great few days to relax in an awesome town!

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