New Life for the Leadville Freight Depot

[Kurt Maechner]

Not too long ago on this forum, someone shared that the former C&S Leadville freight depot was being renovated and repurposed.  I found out a bit more information after finding the website for the new event space simply named "Freight."  

I put up a post with info garnered from the "Freight" site along with some photos and a great video they produced showing some of the restoration process.
Enjoy,
Kurt

[South Park]

  I enjoyed a walk-thru of the place last September.  A young woman with a "representitive"
air about her, was very gracious and helpful in showing the wifeperson and myself around,
explaining various aspects of the renovation.  The crew had found a sizable amount of 19th
century "junk" (treasures) during the work process, including many Leadville-marked bottles.
The Union Pacific lettered gurney found stashed on the ceiling of the office was really neat.

  What I was most interested in was the original-build insulator and pin they found:



  I have one in my collection, said to have been taken off the building in the 40's.  Interesting
to confirm that the two are exactly the same mold product and of the same glass color.  



These four "bullets" were all bought new by the Denver, South Park, & Pacific, being found (L-to-R)
along mainline between Denver and Waterton, Quartz, Leadville depot, and Parlins Ranch area.

[Ken Martin]

Six years ago the DSP&P Hist. Soc. got to see the inside of the freight house.
Here are a couple of pics from then.

Ken Martin

[Kurt Maechner]

From the looks of the photo from six years ago, it seems the structure of the building looked quite good (at least to my untrained eye).  The new owners' narrative suggests that it was structurally close to collapse.  I wonder if they were dramatizing it, or was it worse that it appeared.

[South Park]

  I am a general contractor.  First licensed in 1984.  Been in the trades since
1977.  I got the same overly dramatic tale of imminent collapse from our
"tour guide".  I was more interested in what historical stuff they found, saved,
and general attitude about preserving history than I was about arguing about
the "near miss" they had with having a kindling pile.

  The freight house was in amazingly good shape for a minimally maintained
135-year-old shed.  

  That said, there is a lot of arguing room between keeping an ancient, oversize
lumber shed nice and making it meet the criteria of computer-centric engineers
and code inspectors who are utterly clueless about historic building practices.
Had a can of gasoline been found in a corner of this wood structure, I am sure
some dolt could interpret that as the building nearly burned to the ground.

  When I was there, the crew was "chasing demons" in the very worn and abused
monster floor planks for filling gaps to keep the Leadville winters out of a building
that had previously never had a reason to.  Just the simple use change presented
the renovation team with an endless list of challenges like that, compounded by
the need/desire to keep the character of the building.  The two often represent
polar opposites of outcome - preserve the history, it remains primitive and "rough
living".  Make it code compliant, and it usually destroys the history.

  The way they integrated the steel interior structure was certainly a novel way to
minimize the modernization appearance.

[Fritz 52]

Kurt: I went over and saw that video. I must admit that it is an amazing structure with so much to offer. I'm glad it's been given a 3rd life like this. Simple yet so much room. And those trusses that span the structure seems to have stood the test of time And the snow load very well.
Thanks for the post.
Fred Cotterell.
S. Alabama