On January 17th the Colorado Historic Preservation Review Board unanimously approved forwarding the National Register district nomination for the Coronado Lodge/Coronado Motel in Pueblo, Colorado. The 1940s motel is an excellent example of the Pueblo Revival style as applied to a roadside lodging facility. Four of the five principal buildings are constructed of locally produced adobe blocks. The property is also significant in the area of Ethnic Heritage/Black for its listing in the The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, a guidebook identifying facilities hospitable to black guests. The motel was listed in the Green Book from 1957 to 1967 and began welcoming African American guests in 1946.

This former White Spot restaurant in Denver's North Capitol Hill neighborhood was listed in the National Register on November 7th. The 1967 building was designed for the local coffee shop chain by Los Angeles architects Armet and Davis in the eye-catching Googie style . Front Range prepared the nomination in 2009, at which time the property was determined officially eligible. The owner objected to listing then, but has now consented. New photographs replicating the 2009 views were taken by Front Range. 

On February 4, 2019, History Colorado announced that the 2019 Governor's Award for Historic Preservation would be shared by Front Range Research Associates, the Park County Department of Heritage, Tourism and Community Development, Park County Historic Preservation Advisory Commission, Linda Balough (former director of DHTCD), Martorano Consutlants LLC, and Alpine Archaeological Consultants, Inc. for successful completion of a National Register nomination for the Tarryall Rural Historic District. The district includes 28,000 acres and twenty-five historic ranch headquarters along Park County Road 77. The district extends from south of Jefferson on US 285 to near Lake George on US 24. A video presented at the awards ceremony is posted on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6jDTWZQE54

Work on assessing the historical significance of the corridor began in 1995 with a survey by Alpine Archaeology. After becoming director of DHTCD, Linda Balough championed creation of a district to recognize the importance of this high altitude cattle and hay ranching area. Front Range was engaged to conduct historic resource surveys and prepare the National Register nomination. Marilyn Martorano assisted with vegetation analysis and archaeological resources. The National Park Service listed the district in the National Register in November 2017.

The National Park Service in Washington announced that the Gas Creek School has been listed November 26th in the National Register of Historic Places under the Rural School Buildings in Colorado Multiple Property Submission. The 1909 one-room country school, which served children of farm and ranch families of School District Number 20, is located near Nathrop in central Chaffee County, Colorado. Consolidation resulted in its closure in 1958. The project was undertaken for the Greater Arkansas Nature Association and the  Chaffee County Heritage Area Advisory Board under a State Historical Fund grant.

In November 2017 the National Park Service announced the listing in the National Register of the nearly 28,000-acre Tarryall Rural Historic District in Park County in central Colorado. The recognition culminated work that started with a 1996 survey of the road. The high altitude scenic rural district embraces land along Tarryall Creek and Tarryall Road (County Road 77) bounded by the Tarryall Mountains to the north and the Puma Hills to the south. The district extends from south of Jefferson approximately 39 miles to U.S. Highway 24 northwest of Lake George. The nominated area is part of the drainage of meandering Tarryall, Michigan, and Jefferson creeks and a stretch of the South Platte River. In 1862 wagon road was constructed through the area extending from Colorado City on Fountain Creek in the Pikes Peak region to the 1859 mining camps of Tarryall and Hamilton. Pioneer settlers established homesteads along the original road, which became County Road 77.

The area’s outstanding landscape qualities make the lands along the road in fact, if not by formal designation, a scenic byway. Views within the district provide vistas of distant mountain peaks and ranges; forested hillsides of pine, spruce, and aspen; prominent rock outcroppings; the lively waters of Michigan, Jefferson, and Tarryall creeks and the South Platte River; widely separated clusters of ranch headquarters buildings; bottomlands with lush, level hay meadows; herds of grazing beef cattle and bison; and occasional sightings of a resident band of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and other wildlife. The valley alternately narrows and opens within the district. A trip through the valley offers a constantly changing juxtaposition of the natural setting and the legacy of historic human activities as the road descends from 9,350’ elevation on the north to 7,940’ at the south end.

​The district contains still-active historic ranches with more than a dozen buildings and hundreds of acres of land, as well as vacant and weathered buildings reflecting historic habitation of long ago. The district embraces the full range of historic activities along the Tarryall, including twenty-five historic livestock ranch headquarters and several individual buildings associated with the area’s ranching history. Other resources representing the area’s historic development and community life include two one-room schools, three old road segments, three cemeteries, two timber bridges, and buildings associated with the community of Tarryall/Puma City. Marilyn Martorano of Martorano Consultants LLC contributed to the nomination.

Yesterday, the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission found that the proposed Packard's Historic District in northwest Denver met historical and architectural criteria for designation as a Denver Landmark. The unanimous vote supported the 173-building residential area lying northwest of West 32nd Avenue and Lowell Boulevard.  More than two-thirds of the primary buildings were erected prior to 1920. The area includes the 1892 Cox Gargoyle House (below), which is already an individual Denver Landmark. Consideration by Denver City Council is expected in September.  

Last Sunday, June 11th, dozens of property owners and residents gathered at Bryce and Suzy Kelly's ranch southwest of Buena Vista to celebrate the listing of twelve Chaffee County, Colorado, properties in the National Register of Historic Places. Front Range prepared the nominations for the Greater Arkansas Nature Association and the Chaffee County Heritage Area Advisory Board under two State Historical Fund grant projects. The nominated properties included historic ranches, a drive in theater, hotel, livestock auction complex, rodeo grounds constructed by the WPA, and dwellings. Melanie Roth emceed the festivities. History Colorado staff members Erika Warzel and Amy Unger were present, as well as Alison Ramsey of GARNA and Laurie and Tom Simmons of Front Range.