Main Avenue edifices are the lasting archetypes of Old Durango.
Though new additions and remodels came for decades afterward and continue today, construction of the initial historic district was more or less a 60-year project from 1880 – when the cost of construction for a commercial building was a mere $5,000 – to 1940.
Over the past 136 years, original design elements of Durango’s early commercial structures have been lost to fires, architectural evolution and modernization booms. But a few storefronts in each block have maintained or mostly preserved their integrity since they were first built and occupied by Durango’s pioneering entrepreneurs.
“Durango isn’t static,” said Andrew Gulliford, a professor of history at Fort Lewis College. “We have 19th-century buildings but also 20th-century remodels. As you start from the railroad depot and go north, you’ll see examples of original architecture, like entryways that slant inward and sort of invite you in. That is a 19th-century idea.”
That design is true of Season’s, at 764 Main Ave., which was built along with its neighbor to the south in 1895 and was occupied by two of the city’s pioneering businessmen, Isaac Lazarus and T.E. Bowman. They operated a clothing store and newsstand/stationary shop, respectively, until Durango Natural Gas Co. moved in at the turn of the century.
The historic integrity of the 700 and 800 blocks was possibly preserved better than any others on Main Avenue, according to local historian Duane Smith.
Where Fired Up now makes pizza, precious metals mined from the San Juans were examined at 741 Main Ave., which housed a string of assay offices from 1898 until the late 1920s. Its brick facade endured minor rehabbing over the years, as did 801 Main Ave., which was once a bank and grocery with offices on the upper levels.
Known as the Newman block, it was named after Colorado businessman and politician Charles Newman. According to historical survey records, he made his fortune opening drugstores in Animas City, Silverton and Chama and locating the Swansea Mine near Rico in the late 1870s before he moved to Durango and took over this block. The first tenant at 801 Main Ave. was Smelter National Bank, which closed in 1897 following a depression.
Banks were a landmark of the 900 block.
Built in 1892 to house the Colorado State Bank, 900 Main Ave. is a standout because of its stone design that revives 11th- and 12th-century French, Spanish and Italian architectural styles. Like Smelter National Bank, Colorado State Bank failed in 1907 and was replaced by Burns National Bank in 1910. Today, it’s occupied by the Irish Embassy.
Across the street, the region’s first bank was established in 1881, just a year after Durango’s founding.
But many buildings on the historic thoroughfare didn’t survive a post-Great Depression stylistic sea change to bring the downtown area into the 20th century.
Built in 1885, one of Durango’s first buildings at 713 Main Ave. was a saloon and boarding house prior to a long history of tenants in the tailoring business, most recently Stuart’s of Durango, which closed this fall. But in the 1930s, its brick facade was covered in stucco and glazed tile as part of the 1930s modernization movement, a prominent point in Durango’s architectural narrative.
“People in the ’30s and ’40s didn’t appreciate the old Victorian style,” Smith said. “In order to attract tourism, business and homeowners, Durango had to look modern. That really spurred the remodeling, especially because of the Great Depression – that did several things. The remodeling created work, and it showed that Durango wasn’t totally knocked out by hard times.”
The city at that time was also transitioning in a big way from a mining hub to a tourist town, particularly after World War II.
But by the 1960s, when remodels were moving downtowns across the country away from their architectural roots, Durango was once again embracing its original Victorian charm, recognizing that authenticity as a tourist attraction, Smith said.
jpace@durangoherald.com
