Our Historic Location

 

Rapp/Riverside Building

Trinidad, Colorado

Early legal descriptions detailed the area, on the north and south sides of the "El Rio de Las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio" (also known as the Purgatory River), near the present site of the Commercial Street Bridge, as "River Baca Lands". Don Felipe Baca or his descendants originally owned the property.

Felipe Baca came to Trinidad in the early 1860's and purchased several town lots and ranch land in the area. Across the river, to the north and east of the Commercial Street Bridge, he constructed a fort-like structure, with a central courtyard, which became his home. According to a Warranty Deed dated September 6, 1894, Luis, Felix, and Facundo Baca owned the land on the south side of the river where the future Rapp/Riverside Building was built.

Legends are the stuff that history is made of and that oft-used cliche aptyly describes one such tale concerning the land upon which the building in question is located. In a 1929 interview in the Chronicle-News with a pioneer businessman who arrived in Trinidad in 1871, and was a friend of "Wild Bill" HIckok, David Gottlieb recalled:

Shootings were frequent and hangings occasional. Court was held on the bridge which spanned the arroyo in front of where the Zimmerman store now is. [The store was on the south side of East Main STreet, just east of Commercial Street.] Guilt or innocence was established. If guilty a rope was forthcoming and the victim marched to a spot on what is now North Commercial Street where the Riverside Drug Store is and where three large trees stood. The hangings took place there.

Before the Rapp building existed, prior to 1894, Luis Baca constructed four "cheap sheet-iron structures" which were rented out to locals. There was a saloon, a butcher shop, a shoe shop, and a cigar store. On the morning of October 8, 1894, a rapidly spreading fire consumed the four buildings. On November 1, F.E. Dunlavy purchased the southern part of the property for construction of his new store. Later that month William Mason Rapp, a local architect, purchased the remaining portion of the property that extended north to the river.

Rapp/Riverside Building

Trinidad, Colorado

Early legal descriptions detailed the area, on the north and south sides of the "El Rio de Las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio" (also known as the Purgatory River), near the present site of the Commercial Street Bridge, as "River Baca Lands". Don Felipe Baca or his descendants originally owned the property.

Felipe Baca came to Trinidad in the early 1860's and purchased several town lots and ranch land in the area. Across the river, to the north and east of the Commercial Street Bridge, he constructed a fort-like structure, with a central courtyard, which became his home. According to a Warranty Deed dated September 6, 1894, Luis, Felix, and Facundo Baca owned the land on the south side of the river where the future Rapp/Riverside Building was built.

Legends are the stuff that history is made of and that oft-used cliche aptyly describes one such tale concerning the land upon which the building in question is located. In a 1929 interview in the Chronicle-News with a pioneer businessman who arrived in Trinidad in 1871, and was a friend of "Wild Bill" HIckok, David Gottlieb recalled:

Shootings were frequent and hangings occasional. Court was held on the bridge which spanned the arroyo in front of where the Zimmerman store now is. [The store was on the south side of East Main STreet, just east of Commercial Street.] Guilt or innocence was established. If guilty a rope was forthcoming and the victim marched to a spot on what is now North Commercial Street where the Riverside Drug Store is and where three large trees stood. The hangings took place there.

Before the Rapp building existed, prior to 1894, Luis Baca constructed four "cheap sheet-iron structures" which were rented out to locals. There was a saloon, a butcher shop, a shoe shop, and a cigar store. On the morning of October 8, 1894, a rapidly spreading fire consumed the four buildings. On November 1, F.E. Dunlavy purchased the southern part of the property for construction of his new store. Later that month William Mason Rapp, a local architect, purchased the remaining portion of the property that extended north to the river.

By February 8, 1895, it was reported that Dunlavy and Rapp began construction of their respective buildings. Intially Rapp constructed a one-story, 28-foot wide building next to Dunlavy's store. Completed in August 1895, on September 4, 1895 it opened as the Riverside Drug Store, owned by C.H. Dieter, in combination with Callaway's Cash Shoe Store. Then, because of a general slow down in the country's economy, no additional construction took place on the remainder of the Rapp property.

In early 1899, Rapp designed a building incorporation the existing structure into what we see today. He added a second story to the building containing the drug store and built a two-story building to its north. Combining both buildings, the two first floor storefronts were divided by a doorway that opened to a stairway giving access to the second floor. The building was clad in Trinidad red brick with a dark mortar. The architectural style could be classed as vemacular/commercial with Romanesque window treatments. Indented Greek Crosses punctuate the upper facade on both the east and north sides of the structure. Interestingly, the building has no protruding comice but has an undulating wave-live crest at the top of the structure.

The drug store remained in its original location and the north storefront became the "New Metropolitan Saloon". The second floor was opened as the "New Metropolitan Hotel". George Clerici and Peter Berta originally operated the two new businesses.

In 1896, George Hausman, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 11, 1870 and at the age of 17 came to Trinidad, purchased the Riverside Drug Store from the estate of the late Mr. Dieter. This would be the first of three drug stores that Hausman would eventually own and operate in Trinidad.

Not until 1916, when Colorado passed Temperance into law (the prohibition of the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages) was there a change in a tenant. The New Metropolitan Saloon closed its doors and for a short period of time the Strand Confectionery, managed by William Westerfeld, would occupy the space.

About 1925/26, the Riverside Drug Store moved into the north storefront and Doveton's Inc., a men's clothing store, occupied the drug store's former location. Over the years the hotel changed hands and was renamed the Adelphia Hotel. The drug store continued operations in the north storefront until it permanently closed in April 1990. On August 15, 1993, a fire damaged the sedond floor of the building. At the time of the fire the entire first floor was unoccupied.

Jon Reyes purchased the building in 1998; and after remodeling the space formerly occupied by the drug store he opened the Riverside Salon. The second floor, which is undergoing extensive renovations, will become a bed and breakfast establishement containing a sauna along with other amenities. [These facilities are now open and running.]

[Isaac and William Rapp, the architects who originally designed, owned and had the building/s constructed, came from Carbondale, Illinois. From the 1890's to 1930, the Rapp firm was the premier architectural enterprise in Trinidad. In addition, they designed numerous buildings in south-central Colorado, throughout the State of New Mexico and into the Panhandle of Texas. The Rapp/Riverside Building is the only known commercial structure that the Rapps designed and built for themselves.]

-Ken Fletcher, June 2006