Do You Know This Building?
Answers: 1.d) Castle Rock; 2.b) 1904; 3.b) rhyolite The First National Bank of Douglas County is located in the heart of downtown Castle Rock’s commercial core. Constructed in 1904 of brick, the two street elevations are faced with rhyolite from the Santa Fe Quarry west of town. Denver architect George Louis Bettcher designed the building, which displays elements of the Romanesque Revival style, popular in this country during the Late Victorian period. Born in New Jersey, Bettcher came to Denver in 1895 and opened what would become a successful architectural firm designing residential and commercial buildings. His work includes the Denver Turnverein, the Rossonian Hotel, and several homes in the Denver Country Club neighborhood. This was the second home for the bank, which closed in 1933. The building sat vacant for three years until the Masonic Lodge purchased it. The Masons use the first floor for their dining hall and the second floor as the meeting hall. 
More than a dozen buildings in Castle Rock employed rhyolite as their primary exterior material, and only three of these were constructed for commercial use. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the First National Bank of Douglas County is the only one of these that was designed by a prominent architect. Similar to granite in appearance and composition, rhyolite is an igneous rock found in the Castle Rock area. According to geologists, rhyolite resulted from an overflow of lava covering the land between what is now Palmer Lake and Sedalia. The stone’s unique texture and color is the result of the flowing molten lava. Euro-Americans first quarried rhyolite in 1872, and soon railroad spurs were constructed to connect the quarries near Castle Rock to the main lines of the Denver & Rio Grande and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. The attractive hard stone became a popular construction material. While entire facades were constructed of the stone, it was more commonly used in foundations and as decorative trim, such as sills, lintels, and arched entryways. At the peak of production during the boom years of the 1880s and early 1890s, three quarries were cutting, dressing, and shipping stone to Denver and other towns along the Front Range. Like most industries in the state, production decreased after the 1893 Silver Crash. Although its popularity waned, rhyolite continued to be used in the early decades to the 20th century. |
