Listing will aid preservation of 90-year-old building
The Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church, built in 1928 in Tiffany, has been slowly falling into disrepair. On Tuesday, the church was one of five places added to the Colorado Most Endangered Places list.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany was built with adobe and now is covered with stucco. The stucco is weathered, old and cracking, allowing water to seep into the adobes, threatening the church’s walls. On Tuesday, the church was added to the Colorado Most Endangered Places list.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Many original items in the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany remain from 1928, the year the church was built.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Ignacita Olguin-Arias looks around inside of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany. The church, built in 1928, has been nominated for the Colorado Preservation Inc.’s Endangered Places program. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Statues and paintings inside of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church are nearly as old as the church, which was built in 1928 in Tiffany, located about 10 miles southeast of Ignacio. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Written in Latin with a publication date of 1892, this missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Rosary beads hang off the key lock on the front door of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
The Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church was built in 1928 in the once bustling community of Tiffany in southeastern La Plata County. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
An organ inside the church is almost as old as the church itself. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
The Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany was thought to have been built by people from Pagosa Springs. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
An old woodstove was fired up before services in the church. The finish is worn off at the bottom because people would warm their feet on the stove. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Catholic vestments are kept in a trunk at Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A chalice is kept locked in the altar at the Iglesia de San Antonio Church in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Ignacita Olguin-Arias, a church member since she was a child, rings the bell in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
An old woodstove was fired up before services in the church. The finish is worn off at the bottom because people would warm their feet on the stove. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
The Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church was built in the heart of the town of Tiffany in 1928 about 10 southeast of Ignacio. Only a few homes remain in the town that is now unincorporated. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Margaret Muñoz-Lucero stands next to the confessional rooms inside of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Beautiful windows were designed in the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Margaret Muñoz-Lucero, right, and her cousin, Ignacita Olguin-Arias, center, and her sister, Toni Semler, talk about growing up with the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Ignacita Olguin-Arias uncovers the scared stone on the altar of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Catholic vestments are kept in a trunk at the historic church in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
An organ inside of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church is almost as old as the church itself. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Margaret Muñoz-Lucero, left, and her cousin, Ignacita Olguin-Arias, and her sister, Toni Semler, talk about growing up with the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church was built with adobe and now is covered with stucco. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Margaret Muñoz-Lucero, right, and her cousin, Ignacita Olguin-Arias, left, and her sister, Toni Semler, walk outside of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Several glass crosses sit in the back window of the church. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
The Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church was built in the heart of the town of Tiffany in 1928. Only a few homes remain in the town that is now unincorporated. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A chalice is kept locked in the altar at the Iglesia de San Antonio Church in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
The Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church was built in the heart of the town of Tiffany in 1928. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Some items in the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church have been there since 1928, the year the church was built in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Some items in the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church have been there since 1928, the year the church was built in Tiffany. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Margaret Muñoz-Lucero walks down the aisle of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany as she did when she was a child. The church, built in 1928, has been nominated for the Colorado Preservation Inc.’s Endangered Places program. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
The Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church is crumbling on the outside, but the interior is well-preserved. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Margaret Muñoz-Lucero got a delayed Christmas present Tuesday: Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany was one of five places added to the Colorado Most Endangered Places list.
“This has been like a calling for me, to get this church going again,” Muñoz-Lucero said Tuesday in a telephone interview. She was in Denver at a gathering hosted by Colorado Preservation Inc. to announce the 2019 additions to Colorado’s Most Endangered Places.
“I attended as a child. My parents were caretakers,” she said.
The church, built in 1928, is one of the few remaining original buildings built by Hispanic communities in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico who moved north in the early 20th century to create towns on the then-new route of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad.
Margaret Muñoz-Lucero attended Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church as a child. She led an effort to have the church placed on Colorado Preservation Inc.’s Colorado Most Endangered Places list. The church, built in 1926, was one of five places added to the list Tuesday.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Kim Grant, director of Colorado Preservation Inc.’s Endangered Places program, said the church’s exterior is weathered and water is seeping into the original adobes and it has some foundation issues that require the expertise of an engineer and architect.
The interior of the church, however, is in relatively good shape, he said, aided by a series of parishioners dating back to the church’s founding who have served as caretakers.
“The caretakers were able to make limited plaster repairs, but the building has some foundation issues that require the expertise of a structural engineer and additional technical expertise,” Grant said.
By earning a spot on the Most Endangered Places list, Grant said the church gains access to advocacy and publicity to attract preservation funds. It also gains access to technical resources available to Colorado Preservation Inc., to partnership opportunities with nonprofits interested in historic preservation and to fundraising organizations invested in historic preservation.
The help couldn’t have come too soon, Muñoz-Lucero said.
Margaret Muñoz-Lucero, left, and her cousins, Ignacita Olguin-Arias and Toni Semler, talk about their childhood days attending Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church in Tiffany, located about 10 miles southeast of Ignacio.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
“The condition now, outside, I see it deteriorating more and more, year by year,” she said. “The stucco is cracking, more slates on the bell tower blow away. Inside, the stucco is starting to crack, too.”
Muñoz-Lucero, who currently serves as a caretaker, said after Mass everyone gathers at her house for a potluck celebration.
Last year, the church celebrated its 90th birthday, and by its 100th birthday, Muñoz-Lucero said she would like to see the church completely restored to its original state.
Ignacita Olguin-Arias uncovers the scared stone on the altar of the Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Once it is restored, she would like the church to serve as an adoration chapel and to host Mass every three months.
“There’s a bunch of beautiful yellow roses near the church that bloom around the time of St. Anthony’s Feast, if the horse doesn’t eat them,” Muñoz-Lucero said. “A neighbor has a horse, Pearl, that likes to visit the church. When we see her, we chase her away, but every now and then we miss her and she slips by.”
parmijo@durangoherald.com
Most Endangered Places additions
Here are the five places added to the Colorado Most Endangered Places list on Tuesday by Colorado Preservation Inc:
Adobe potato cellars of the San Luis Valley (Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Rio Grande and Saguache counties).
Hose Co. No. 3 Fire Museum (Pueblo County).
Iglesia de San Antonio Catholic Church (La Plata County).
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