‘A monolith in the community’

Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center turns 40

by Will Matuska

On Oct. 15 1983, Betty Ball found herself linked arm-in-arm with 17,000 others surrounding the Rocky Flats Plant, a nuclear weapons facility 10 miles south of Boulder.

“I was thrilled to get to be part of the encirclement. It was the first protest on that scale I was ever involved in,” says Ball, who also helped organize food delivery for protestors and sold T-shirts for the event.

“The encirclement” was organized by some of the soon-to-be founders of Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center (RMPJC), a nonprofit organization advocating for “radically progressive personal and social change” rooted in nonviolence. One of the org’s key advocacy efforts is pointed toward nuclear disarmament.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of RMPJC and of the protest.

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“There was an air of excitement [at the protest] that really can’t be explained — it was alive with excitement,” Ball says.

The Rocky Flats Plant was formally shut down in 1992 and has since been deemed an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site and cleaned up after hazardous and radioactive materials contaminated the site.

The encirclement and the establishment of RMPJC was only the beginning of Ball’s life of activism. After organizing in California for 13 years, Ball returned to Boulder and

HOLDING HANDS:

The encirclement brought more than 17,000 peaceful protesters to surround Rocky Flats on Oct. 15, 1983 — some of whom established RMPJC shortly after.

immediately got involved with RMPJC, where she worked for 22 years and is still on the board today. (She retired in 2020.)

Claire O’Brien, administrative director at RMPJC and recent CU Boulder graduate, says Ball’s commitment to the cause is inspiring.

“I think it really speaks to the organization, just that there’s people who have spent their entire lives continuing to support and be a part of the organization,” she says. “I really admire it, and it definitely makes [RMPJC] seem like quite the monolith in the community.”

RMPJC has used the momentum from its inception to spread advocacy efforts in the community, something O’Brien still sees in her outreach events today.

BUILDING MOMENTUM: Members of RMPJC urging Boulder’s City Council to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on Jan. 19.

“Pretty much every time I’m out doing canvassing or tabling, I talk to people who have some personal connection to that encirclement,” O’Brien says.

Although the nuclear arms race is over, the organization still advocates against nuclear weapons today.

On Jan. 19, the organization presented a petition to the Boulder City Council urging them to sign a proclamation in support of the international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

More than 70 municipalities and states have passed resolutions supporting the treaty, including Denver and Longmont; 86 countries have signed the treaty, but none of the nuclear nations have joined, including the U.S.

Ball believes nuclear arms is the greatest threat to our society, saying, “We’re not gonna have to worry about any of those other issues if somebody triggers the bomb.”

To highlight the anniversary and build support for their cause, O’Brien says RMPJC wants to bring activists in the community together “to try to touch on the feelings that were felt 40 years ago [during the encirclement], which was really hope and optimism.” The organization is planning to hold events this summer.

It’s O’Brien’s goal to rebuild that sense of community, support and togetherness despite struggling to get people involved — especially young people.

“Really what I think about the most is trying to get back to that level of community [at the encirclement],” she says. “We’re all so isolated now … and things are pretty separated.”

Ball and O’Brien will turn to the community to continue doing what RMPJC does best: rallying people under a common cause.

“The peace center has gone on for 40 years,” Ball says. “And we need to build now to continue it for another 40.”

In with the old Historic Boulder celebrates 50 years by Will Matuska

What creates community?

To Susan Osborne, it’s buildings.

“I strongly believe that historic preservation has everything to do with making a community feel like a solid, good place,” says Osborne, who’s lived in Boulder since 1964 and worked as a city planner, taught at CU and served on City Council and as mayor. “I think that recalling the past, through the saving of buildings, is part of telling the story about who we were, and how we’ve evolved to the present day.”

Osborne is an active member and a two-time past president of Historic Boulder, a group that has worked to safeguard Boulder’s history by preserving buildings and other physical spaces over the last 50 years.

The organization has been at work in Boulder since March of 1972 — preserving prominent buildings like the Boulder Theater, Glen Huntington Bandshell and the Hotel Boulderado, and hosting historical tours like its Meet the Spirits Cemetery Tour at the Columbia Cemetery, and the Home for the Holidays tour.

In 2022, the organization announced the successful preservation of the Midland Savings Bank/Atrium building, which was designed by the well-known architecture firm Hobart Wagener and Associates and is one of the first mid-century modern structures to achieve landmark status in Boulder.

Executive Director Leonard Segel says Boulder didn’t become one of the most appealing places to live in the country by accident.

“It didn’t just happen. Generations of citizens have envisioned a recipe of innovation, environmentalism, excellence in commerce, enriching culture and higher education,” he says. “In every generation, the physical settings [buildings/neighborhoods] have established a nurturing backdrop that promotes those activities.”

Preserving those properties, Segel says, transmits those values of the past to future generations.

Historic Boulder works to preserve all types of historic sites — from important buildings to smaller pieces of Boulder’s history.

For Dan Corson, longtime member of Historic Boulder and a past president of the organization, it’s the less-obvious buildings that are most important to him — like the one at 1733 Canyon Boulevard called the Woodward-Baird House.

“It’s a working-class house, which would have been right on the railroad tracks, and those are, of course, some of the least desirable in town,” Corson says.

This relic of Boulder’s mining camp days, also known as the Little Grey House, was built around 1870

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and was in “a rough neighborhood with trains running by often and subject to regular floods,” Corson says. It was the home to one of Boulder’s early Black families (Albert and Eliza Stephens’ family) and located in the Little Rectangle area (now known as Goss-Grove).

Shortly after the Little Grey House was purchased by Historic Boulder in 1977, Corson decided to join the organization’s board. His first project was to plant bushes in front of the home.

“I’m very proud to be part of that legacy,” he says.

Osborne says acknowledging Boulder’s history, especially the treatment of Indigenous and Black people, through the preservation of places like the Little Grey House will help the community move forward.

“It’s all part of our history, and I think knowing about it helps us make better decisions in the present,” says Osborne, who was most involved in the restoration of the Vicorian-era Hannah Barker House (800 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder) in 2007. The house was near destruction until Historic Boulder stepped in — starting with upwards of $10,000 to remove the effects of raccoon urine.

Now, the organization is working on restoring and preserving the roof and stucco on the Boulder Theater, which was nearly torn down in the 1980s before Historic Boulder helped broker a deal to safeguard the building and get it landmarked.

Segel says Historic Boulder will continue to “enrich our mortal lives” through historic preservation.

“Heritage properties that are preserved provide lessons to Boulder residents and visitors about the values of life’s lessons, as manifested in building forms,” Segel says. “Their presence is consciously and unconsciously experienced.”

DETAILS: To celebrate its historical and ongoing work, Historic Boulder is hosting a 50th Anniversary Gala on Friday, Feb. 10 at the Hotel Boulderado, 2115 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: historicboulder.org, $150