Preservation Hits the Pavement

September, 2001

While Historic Preservation is generally thought of in terms of restored buildings and structures such as courthouses, railroad depots, or barns, the practice can also apply to linear features such as roads and highways. Though the State Historical Fund steers clear of the re-paving business, the interpretation of roads and highways and the repair of their historic elements are within the focus of the program.

For example, the Colorado Department of Transportation, assisted by a $30,900 State Historical Fund grant award, is developing a statewide historic highways context. When finished, the context should pave the way for future preservation and interpretation by showing how Colorado highways developed. Documented resources include farm-to-market roads, early roads designed by the highway commission, the first transcontinental highways, and the impact of World War II. Examples of various road types and resources that relate directly to the design, construction, use, and maintenance of Colorado's roads will also be identified and documented. This document will prove valuable as the state prepares to move more vehicles over an ever-changing highway landscape.

When the term "Main Street" is mentioned, Colfax Avenue in Denver comes to mind for many people. Often referred to as "Colorado's Main Street," Colfax Avenue, which travels about twenty miles through three cities, is one of the longest main/commercial streets in the United States. Its use as main street, commercial thoroughfare, and U.S. highway has been studied through two Fund-supported grants. As a result, the Colfax streetscape was designated a Colorado State Heritage Corridor and interpretative signs have been placed along its route through Aurora, Denver, and Lakewood. Also, the Fund supported an informative video called Colfax Avenue: Main Street Colorado. Through personal interviews and rare historical images, this video-produced by Havey Productions-explores the diverse elements that contribute to the Colfax experience.

Like traditional building preservation projects, street projects can involve bricks and mortar. In the city of Trinidad can be found six-and-a-half miles of turn-of-the-century brick-paved streets, most of which lay within the Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District. Produced by the now defunct Trinidad Brick and Tile Company, these bricks were laid out in delightfully decorative patterns. Their use for street paving has become an integral part of the city's cultural fabric as is evidenced by the love that city residents now have for an element long removed from other cities of the same era. Time and traffic, though, have taken their toll as the horse and buggy gave way to cars and trucks. Assisted by a State Historical Fund grant, the City of Trinidad conducted an assessment of their brick streets and developed a preservation plan. A subsequent grant will provide funding to carry out these recommendations. Repairs on these streets will insure that the unique sound of rubber tires driving over this historic pavement will continue for years to come.

Many roads were designed to offer automobilists access to the scenic areas found throughout our state. Built between 1912 and 1921, the Serpents Trial automobile road offered motorists the only access into the Colorado National Monument until the construction of Rim Rock Drive in 1937. This hard-packed iron-composition road took advantage of the landscape with an 850-foot gain in elevation and grades rising from twelve to seventeen percent. The road's designers employed several early automobile road features, including ledges that were excavated by blasting and chiseling, simple wooden culverts, and fills and switchbacks. Workers, using an ancient building form to accommodate modern travel, stabilized most of the twenty-one switchbacks with dry-laid stone retaining walls ranging from twelve to 153 feet in length.

The 1911 presidential proclamation that created the Monument stated in part that it showed "extraordinary examples of erosion that are of great scientific interest." Erosion is great for the creation of scenic wonders but not so great for road maintenance. Though converted to pedestrian use, the trail had become unsafe as the walls became unstable, some deteriorating below the grade level. This condition worsened with every rainfall as failing drainage added to the erosion. The Colorado National Monument Association, Inc. secured a State Historical Fund grant to hire an expert in dry-laid stone construction to correct the situation. The project's purpose was two-fold: it repaired the walls while offering an educational opportunity. A master, two instructors, and about thirty volunteers spent two weeks learning from each other while repairing a valuable historic resource in the process. They corrected slumping problems, realigned caps, and filled and leveled the grade. The trail is once again ready to serve hikers in this popular recreational and scenic area.

Roadways have contributed to the history and development of cities and regions throughout the state. Some have changed significantly, some have remained the same and some have reverted back to nature. By helping to save and understand these roadways the State Historical Fund can truly be a useful vehicle on the road to historic preservation.

BY LYLE MILLER, State Historical Fund Technical Advisor