ARAPAHOE COUNTY
Commandant of Cadets Building,
U.S. Air Force Academy
1016 Boston St., Aurora
The Commandant of Cadets Building is the most intact remaining resource associated with the original site of the U.S. Air Force Academy at Lowry Air Force Base from 1955 to 1958. Founding of the academy followed the designation of the U.S. Air Force as a separate branch of the military in 1947 and recognized the importance of air power in the Cold War. The Air Force is the only branch of the military that had an interim site for its service academy. The three-year operation of the Academy at Lowry enabled the Air Force to gain a head start in the commissioning of officers before the permanent facility opened near Colorado Springs. The Lowry building actually dates to World War II. Put up quickly in an effort to rapidly mobilize the nation’s defense in the months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the military never intended these temporary buildings to remain in place for long. Although once plentiful at military bases throughout the region, base closures and demolitions have severely depleted their numbers. This building is a rare surviving example of temporary WWII era military construction. (Photographs 2006 and 1955)
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HOPKINS FARM
4400 E. Quincy Ave., Englewood
The Hopkins House, part of the Hopkins Farm, is an excellent local example of the high style Classic Cottage subtype. The house exhibits the various elements defining the high style variant, such as 1½-story height, multiple dormers, a Palladian style window with classical columns on the facade dormer, Tuscan porch columns, and bay windows on two sides. The farm itself is a rare extant example of a 1930s agricultural complex of a type that has all but disappeared from urban Arapahoe County. Architect Roland Linder designed the complex that consists of a large and a small barn, horse stables, and chicken coop in their original layout.
Though the farm was one of many dairy operations along East Quincy Ave., it is now possibly the last remaining one able to convey this early farming history of the area.(Photographs 2006) |
