Exerpts
from the Buena Vista walking tour–
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Residents
decided to incorporate Buena
Vista Oct. 28, 1879. Judge Julius Hughes signed incorporation papers
the following day. The push
to incorporate Buena Vista came when
Major W.M. Kasson and others helped form the Buena Vista Town
Company. They petitioned for incorporation
to the county seat, then in Granite, after they had 45 qualified
voters and 150 residents. With the sale of lots from the
company, the center of town was reserved for a park (McPhelemy)
and
irrigation ditches were run to lots.
The first settlers in this area in 1864 called their town Cottonwood.
Later it was changed to Mahonville for the Mahon family.
The naming of Buena Vista is credited to a woman, Alsina Deerheimer.
The name is Spanish for good view. Early residents were farmers,
ranchers and miners.
The first inhabitants came by covered wagon or horseback. Later,
a stage was established. The roads were narrow and very rough.
The main road into the area was from South Park, via Chubbs
Gulch and
later Trout Creek Pass. The other main road came up from Cañon
City and went on to Leadville.
By 1880, there were two railroads into town: the Denver South
Park and Pacific from Denver via Trout Creek Pass and the Denver
and
Rio Grande, coming from Cañon City through the Royal
Gorge. In 1887 the Colorado Midland, which came out of Colorado
Springs,
was
established.
331 E. Main is a false front building built in 1879.
This building
was a saloon at one time, where dancing girls were forcibly evicted
by city officials.
The
Chet Loback home, 115 S. Colorado Ave., private, is thought to
be the first school in Buena Vista.
The two-story portion was the school. The teacher lived upstairs,
which he reached by outside stairs. The downstairs was the school.
In an 1881 history of Buena Vista, the school is described as being “graded” and
held in rented rooms.
Bongo
Billy’s Roasting; Nelson Fleming, CPA; Double Header
Beauty Salon; Pacific West Securities; John Cogswell; attorney and
other businesses are housed at 411 E. Main.
The largest single structure on Main Street, except for the courthouse,
this building once held the Orpheum Theater upstairs and the Lincoln
Garage downstairs.
The large auditorium has been used as an opera house, a theater and
a basketball gym. The Buena Vista High School basketball team practiced
and played here until McGinnis Gym was built in 1935.
Ray Slane owned and operated a garage here in the 1930s and 1940s.
The building, on the state Register of Historic Buildings, is owned
by John Cogswell. There are plans to renovate this structure. Court
Street was the main highway into Buena Vista until Highway
24 was built in 1937. This was called the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean
Highway. “Skinny” Pyle operated a Texaco station at the
corner of Court & Main.
The site is now occupied by Grant Heilman’s photography studio.
The former Texaco station building is now located west of the “Wedge” building.
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