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Featured Virtual
Exhibit |
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Emerging Elkhorn
A
Foundation Formed
Elkhorn
Avenue, Estes Park's bustling retail district, was born of humble origins.
Famed photographer and resident Fred Clatworthy remembered that when he
first visited Estes Park, early in 1904, “the main street was bordered
principally by cow pastures and barbed wire fences.”
Following
the formation of the Estes Park Townsite Company in 1904, Elkhorn Avenue
emerged as the anchor for the fledgling town. Businesses, private
residences, and municipal services clustered about the rapidly developing
business district. The jumble of rustic and modern buildings lent the
street a unique character that has survived to modern day. |
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“The Corners is a scene
of life and gayety, when at nightfall the stage comes in with mail
and passengers and the whole Park pours forth to meet it.”
Flora Stanley, wife of hotelier F. O. Stanley, 1903
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Make Room
A booming
tourist industry drove the development of downtown Elkhorn Avenue.
Businesses that catered to visitors edged out municipal services; the
firehouse, library and post office had relocated from the main street to the
outskirts of town by the 1940s. Private residences on Elkhorn were
demolished or retrofitted to accommodate new enterprises.
The
establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915 cemented Estes Park’s
position as “Colorado’s Favorite Family Resort.” Because Elkhorn Avenue
caught visitors coming and going to the Park, tourism-minded businesses came
to dominate the downtown landscape.
Hotels
abounded
Experienced businesswoman Harriett Byerly opened a two-story, ten-room
complex called the National Park Hotel on the north side of the street in
1920. A refined alternative to the rustic lodges of the Park, the hotel
offered services “to keep the vacationist in contact with the world of
affairs beyond the mountains.”
The Byerly
family ran the ever-expanding hotel until Ripley’s Believe it or Not
purchased the building to house its museum franchise in 1973. Today it
houses the Park Place Mall. |
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“The Village is also a
series of compromises between the modern and the old . . .
The [Estes] Park people are consciously striving to retain
the best of both periods.
It is this combination of old and new which is
Estes
Park today.”
June Carothers,
Estes
Park
Past and Present, 1951
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Architectural Hodgepodge
The
jury is out. While some historians like Carothers believed the
architectural jumble to be endearing, some considered it a travesty.
Louis Quam, professor of geography at the
University of
Colorado,
wrote: ”It
is unfortunate that no one seemed to realize the advantages of
building an attractive business section, or of establishing some
kind of business code.
Since this was not done,
Estes
Park now has
the appearance of most small towns that develop without a plan
(1949).”
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The Estes Park Urban Renewal Authority, founded in 1982 following the
Lawn Lake Flood, has spruced up Elkhorn Avenue. The goal has been
to transform downtown from “traveler-oriented mediocrity to a showplace
of award-winning functional amenities wrought by tasteful urban design.”
For more information, visit
www.estesnet.com/EPURA.
And so, a new Elkhorn emerges. For more information, please refer to
Estes Park Then & Now by James H. Pickering.
Emerging Elkhorn is no longer on display at the Estes
Park Museum.
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