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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