Working to preserve history

South Platte Hotel placed on endangered places list

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A dilapidated historic building near Bu alo Creek may get new life now that it is on Colorado’s Most Endangered Places list.

e South Platte Hotel, which was built in 1913, is in the North Fork Historic District and the only building remaining of the South Platte community. e property has been owned by Denver Water since 1987, and the building was slated for demolition.

e Most Endangered Places list is created each year by Colorado Preservation Inc., and the organization announced on Feb. 9 additions to the list, which included the South Platte Hotel.

Last August, the Je erson County Historic Commission received a letter from Denver Water stating that the building would be demolished, which made John Steinle, a local historian, spring into action.

“We have talked about that building for a long time, what might be done and how it could be saved,” Steinle said. “ e letter put us into emergency mode. What (the letter) did was galvanize us, and we contacted a lot of local organizations to get them mobilized and aware of the situation.”

Among the organizations interested in preserving the building are the Evergreen Mountain Area Historical Society, the Conifer Historical Society, the Pine Elk Creek Improvement Association and Je erson County Open Space.

Steinle hopes the organizations can meet with Denver Water ocials and put their heads together to come up with a plan.

“Our next step is to contact the decisionmakers at Denver Water and have a discussion of what they are amenable to do,” Steinle said. “Hopeful we can work with them in the near future and keep them from tearing it down and gure out what to do with it.”

Colorado Preservation Inc. will facilitate and assist the local organizations with nding a solution to keep the building, said Endangered Places Director Katie Peterson, who noted that it takes local community initiative to preserve historic sites. She said since the hotel was so close to the Colorado Trail and the South Platte River, options should be available to keep the building.

According to Jose Salas, a Denver Water spokesman, Denver Water bought the hotel building because it would be within the area underwater with the proposed Two Forks Reservoir, which ultimately was never built.

“With no waterworks purposes for Denver Water to warrant the expenditure of ratepayer funding for building repairs, the structure has