Poetry, pleas and even a lawsuit could not save the Columbian School in Las Animas. Neither could proposals to turn it into a museum, mental hospital or apartments.
To a core group of supporters, the school’s unique Mission-style architecture and connection to Western lore should have been enough to ensure its survival. After all, the school did boast the actor who played Festus, the loyal deputy on television’s “Gunsmoke,” as one of its graduates.
“It was such a unique feature for the state, let alone for the town,” said Mabel Hansen, who was a substitute teacher at the school.
But the bulldozers came anyway, scrapping the school earlier this year to make room for a bigger playground and safer dropoff area for students at the new $4.5 million Las Animas Elementary School.
Across Colorado, older schools like Columbian, many built around the turn of the 20th century, will be lost because they have been neglected far too long, or torn down to make way for a new facility.
“By getting rid of these schools, communities are losing the last link to their past,” said Alyson McGee, spokeswoman for the state’s Historical Fund.
So far, 55 sites from mines to farms in Colorado have been deemed endangered. Many are distinctive schools that can be restored, preservationists say.
Local school officials, however, say the buildings are too costly to renovate; others are in such disrepair that they have become unsafe.
Las Animas school Superintendent Scott Cuckow has no regrets in razing the nearly 100-year-old Columbian School because none of the alternatives made financial sense.
“In my mind and in our school board’s mind, saving it just wasn’t practical,” Cuckow said.
McGee and other historians hope greater awareness of the potential value of older schools and proposed legislation will preserve these schools.
They say the losses have been adding up.
In Hotchkiss, a middle school built in 1925 and designed by Denver architect Temple Buell, was destroyed in 2004. A high school and elementary school in Aguilar, built in 1907, were demolished in 2005.
“Many local communities believe new is better, so old ones go down before a lot of thought goes into what is more economically feasible,” said Patricia Holcomb, adviser to Colorado Preservation Inc.
The nonprofit group lists historic sites as endangered either because of structural problems or their proximity to nearby development. Established in 1998, the list tries to raise awareness of historic buildings.
The Daniels School, east of fast-growing Milliken in Weld County, was built in 1911 and is threatened by encroaching development, preservationists say.
Harold Daniels attended the school and now owns the building. Daniels, 78, said he’s had offers for the property but has passed in hopes of restoring the building.
“A lot of historic things anymore get torn down in the name of progress,” Daniels said. “This time, this place is going to stay.”
The Columbian School was finally brought down in February after a three-year battle. One lawsuit was dismissed by a judge; another is still in play, as proponents of the school seek restitution for the loss.
Ramona DeKray remembers the day she went into the school in 2001 to teach kids about Arbor Day. “When I went into that old building, I could just feel the spirit of the place,” DeKray said.
DeKray wrote a poem dedicated to the school and the people who tried to save it. “Adjusting to ethnic diversity. Recycle me, repair me historically,” she wrote.
Cuckow said kids at Columbian had to walk outside to get to a bathroom, and the building had structural issues. “We had to do some major reworking for computers,” he said. “We also felt the building was just unsafe.”
Historical groups agree some buildings simply cannot be saved, but others have become a viable part of the community, often at an affordable cost.
“There is this myth that rehabilitation is more expensive and older buildings can’t be upgraded for new technology and energy efficiency,” McGee said.
The state’s historical fund has awarded more than $130 million in grants, paid for by taxes on gaming, to each of the state’s 64 counties to help rehabilitate historic buildings and sites.
Since 1993, grants have helped stabilize, repair and restore more than 100 historic schools, McGee said.
Using $525,807 in grants, the 71-year-old Smiley Junior High in Durango was turned into a vibrant community center.
Ault High School, built in 1921 and headed for destruction in the mid-1990s, was redone as a middle school with $800,000 from the fund.
Denver’s oldest school – Dora Moore – got new life with $210,000 in grants that helped the school become energy efficient and technologically wired.
Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada, has sponsored a bill that would establish an advisory board on school-district construction projects. The bill also requires that the preservation and renovation of a school be considered, Windels said.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
This story was corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it misstated the current use of historic Ault High School as a community center. It is now a middle school
