Black Hawk - 100 Years Ago

[Fred H.]

Hey, Chris! Thanks for the clarification on the mill… Color my face crimson! Damn… The photo of the smelter was too faded to read clearly. Should have done more research. AI is getting pretty good at a lot of things, but figuring out faded old signs ain’t in the repertoire yet!





This is from the DPL digital… going to use this after all…

[Fred H.]

I know that these two buildings are from Silver Plume and not Black Hawk, but they’ve got to find a spot on the layout…

[drgwcs]

Fred H. wrote

I know that these two buildings are from Silver Plume and not Black Hawk, but they’ve got to find a spot on the layout…

If it makes you feel better- I have the Old Missouri firehouse from Georgetown hanging out in Idaho Springs........

[drgwcs]

Fred H. wrote

I honestly can’t believe how time just marches on… Time to get this layout finished before I sell the house and move!

I’ve been working on final building designs. Decided that I will build prototype structures (as much as I can) but will have to be a little flexible on their actual position on the layout. These are the ones that for sure have to include:



The original Gilpin Hotel which became the office for the lumber yard I believe.

Interesting that is the first time I have heard the frame building across the street referred to as the office/ original for the Gilpin Hotel. In Sanborn maps it is listed as a residence. I wondered on its function in regards to the lumberyard that was next door as there was a fence between. I kind of wondered if the lumberyard was part of the hay grain business. I did not have room to do the hay grain building in my narrow space so I reluctantly omitted it. As a note the Hay Grain building was moved across the street when the Placer mining pit was dug in the depot/ lumberyard area and shows up in a pic that my Dad took in 1962



It is gone by 1975 (with a bonus pic of the front of the building in question.)

[Fred H.]

Area I'm modeling... Black Hawk from Sanborn 1900.



Close up of the "old Gilpin Hotel" which in 1900 WAS a dwelling...



BUT, in 1886... (Sanborn again.)

[Fred H.]

The Silver Plume Bakery. Wish I could say that this beautiful model was mine, but one of the guys over on the now-defunct Railroad Line Forums was a scratch builder in 1/24 scale. He gave away all of his creations as he aged. Sgt. Bob kindly gave me this one of the bakery (it has a complete interior) and four other models.



This one resembles the Geo. Stroehle & Sons boiler works, but is only about 25% the correct depth.

[Fred H.]

You are absolutely right, Jim, there WAS a fence between the dwelling and the lumber yard.



This enhanced closeup shows it clearly. With the outside entrance to the second floor, I wonder if there were two separate apartments…?

[drgwcs]

Fred H. wrote

You are absolutely right, Jim, there WAS a fence between the dwelling and the lumber yard.



This enhanced closeup shows it clearly. With the outside entrance to the second floor, I wonder if there were two separate apartments…?

It may well be a separate one, knowing that it once was the hotel it might be a leftover. I suspect that the front once had a balcony too.
Mine in HO is shorter especially in the lean to.


It is a kitbash from a Grandt Line saloon kit. The sides were swapped and the front wall became the back wall. The new front wall was scratchbuilt along with the lean to. The old back wall wound up being a flat and I even used the storefront windows.

[Chris Walker]

Fred,

An apology.

I had seen a number of Deadwood images that correlated with the DPL Z-5770, this one in particular.


Steeply sloping street; prior to Brick construction; a large wooden gabled structure at the end; a steeply rising ridge backdrop with a tree in the same place, very similar bowed trunk:
I even put the Sid's Store image into Google Lens, and AI told me it was Deadwood haha! That's the 2nd Ai failure for me now.

Co-incidentally there is a Deadwood 1879 post-fire image that has 3 partially burned out brick buildings that match the structural details as well and gutted wooden structures eitherside.

 

And I could not for the life of me, replicate that end of street scene in Black Hawk, I'm focused on matching those stores on Selak St. until I looked harder at the strata in the rocks above, and from under the old viaduct location, matched it to present day Casinotown.

So here are your Stores, matching signage and details, the photo having been taken under the future C.C. Viaduct.
That external stairway didn't last too long.

Denver Public Library Special Collections X-2018



There was a lesson learned here.

[Fred H.]

No need to apologize, Chris… We’re all just learning here… I’m one of the laziest modelers you will ever meet. A lifetime of doodling around and collecting bits and bobs and not much layout to show for it yet… Now, with relatively inexpensive laser cutters and 3D printers I think I can move pretty smartly and quickly into the actually getting something finished/operating phase. Fortunately, I’ve got a good classmate from MIT — Bernard Kempinski — who is adept at all things model railroad. I’m gonna lean on Bernie for some help in getting this thing going…

[Fred H.]

So, using six historic photographs and ChatGPT I was able to create this image… Not TOO bad, except the window count was wrong!



Got the window count right and then the clock disappeared! And the second floor shutters became brick!



Finally… Phew…



Another interesting angle…

UPDATE: The AI reconstruction of this building was unnecessary. It still exists at 141 Gregory Street. Lots of Google Street views. Here’s my best guess as to how it looked originally (without the signs, etc.)…

[Fred H.]

Been researching this corner building… As best I can tell this was one of the most oddly shaped buildings in Black Hawk… Here are some AI enhanced images that I produced today…  Less than 100% accurate, but interesting nonetheless…



In this AI image the windows are too close to each other…



And in this one too far apart…





Alternates… doors on the Main Street side open/closed…



I have a specific corner of the layout picked out for this one…

Gotta love the detail of those little steps over the drainage ditches along the street…



I’m going to talk my pal Bernie into making me some 3D prints of the “proprietors” and their “kin.”



These boys, too…

[Fred H.]

Back to 141 Gregory…

Some additional enhanced historic photos…





Current street view taken back by AI to the period…



The final AI image isn’t quite right. The window pane arrangement seems off and the arched doorway to the left clearly had double doors, but not too bad…

[Rich Rands]

The roof supports - Are they there to hold the center of the roof from sagging?
Richard Rands

[Fred H.]

Good question, Rich… An interesting detail, isn’t it? Looks like it may support the roof? Keep the walls from spreading? Another interesting detail on the 141 Gregory building is the downspouts that push the rainwater out past the sidewalk into the street… Good for pedestrians but not necessarily for wagon drivers!

[Keith Hayes]

Those appear to be king-post trusses ("king" posts have a single vertical supporting the sloped bits; "queen" posts are two supports, as under a narrow gauge boxcar), which likely support the roof. This is either in lieu of a column, or supplements a column. The rod penetration into the roof is...invisible? Not sure what the roof is, as it seems too early to be a hot-mopped roof.

Some of my favorite photos of Leadville show rather deep ditches on either side of well-crowned streets. I trust these are designed to move snow melt and rain water quickly off the road. The images show many board crossings so as not to get your feet wet.

[Dave Eggleston]

Fred, I know of at least one other instance of exposed roof trusses in the area, a large Central City building at the T intersection of Nevada and Bridge Streets, just south of Main, that had similar exposed trusses, but on a larger scale. It was a fire station for a bit.



This is a detail of DPL x-2533, full image here: https://digital.denverlibrary.org/nodes/view/1123909?keywords=x-2533&type=all&highlights=WyJ4LTI1MzMiLCJ4Il0%3D&lsk=a587e794bc372a2ad5745b89ec0e0e6e

The trusses were covered ultimately, I think during the 1890s.

I'm not sure when they changed building numbers on Gregory in Blackhawk, your building at 141 Gregory was originally numbered 106 and 107 on the Sanborn maps 1900 and earlier. (Source Library of Congress)

[Rich Rands]

Wow, those are some trusses. I would guess that they underbuilt the roof supports inside. Snow caused sagging. Trusses added the needed strength to keep the roof from collapsing. All guesswork, not an engineer.
Richard Rands

[Dave Eggleston]

Nor am I but I think they were part of the original design, not a patch after the fact. I've wondered about snow and the effect on open trusses--perhaps the impact isn't as bad as expected or it was a financial decision. They did ultimately get covered, as seen in this detail from DPL 2596: