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Harvesting Historical Riches Twister of Fate: Manitou Springs Garage Survives Tornado
The PPAC Garage withstood eighty-seven years of changing tenants and uses prior to its near-destruction. Built as a livery in 1893, it housed carriages that transported luggage between the nearby Denver & Rio Grande Railroad depot and various resort hotels. In 1913, after internal combustion engines replaced horses, owners used it as a garage for the Pikes Peak Auto Company. Later, the City of Manitou Springs acquired the building and used it as a public works storage facility. After the disaster, the city installed temporary supports to shore up damaged sections. In 1992 the neighboring Business of Art Center (BAC) purchased the building and used a limited area for storage. However, deferred repairs and maintenance left it unsafe for occupation. The BAC, a nonprofit group dedicated to helping artists pursue successful careers, sought assistance from the State Historical Fund to restore the PPAC garage in 1998. Restoring the structure would not only facilitate the group's mission by providing more studio, exhibition, and classroom space for artists and the public, but also save a Manitou Springs architectural treasure and preserve a piece of regionally significant transportation history. Motorcars operating out of the stone-faced Richardsonian-style structure drove the region's tourist industry in the early 1900s. Entrepreneur and booster Spencer Penrose capitalized on America's new fascination with automobiles by establishing the Pikes Peak Auto Company in 1912. A few years later, he and several other investors transformed the existing Pikes Peak Wagon Road into "the World's Highest Highway." Attracted by Penrose's publicity machine, tourists kept twenty Pierce Arrow convertibles in constant motion between Manitou Springs and the 14,110-foot summit. Directed by a State Historical Fund-supported Reuse and Rehabilitation Plan, the BAC successfully transformed the former garage into a business incubator for artists. After stabilizing sagging and rotting roof trusses, contractors installed a fire detection system, repaired a damaged skylight, improved site drainage, and repaired stonework on the lower front façade. During the project's final phase, workers reconstructed the garage's tornado-damaged second-floor cornice. Design principles based on the effective use of environmentally friendly, or "green," materials guided preservation work throughout the project. The BAC will wrap up interior finish work this summer. After detracting from Manitou Avenue's otherwise inviting and rehabilitated historic streetscape for the past twenty-two years, the PPAC Garage once again contributes to the area's authentic appeal. On May 30, the city's Historic Preservation Commission recognized that accomplishment by presenting the BAC with the 2001 Preservation Honor Award. Barring another twister or similar disaster, the PPAC Garage will continue to evoke the "Pikes Peak or Bust" slogan that called so many to Colorado's symbolic heart. BY BEN FOGELBERG, Editor, Colorado History
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"Everything
was twistin' around in the sky," Marie Ruppert told reporters
as she surveyed tornado damage in her neighborhood on the afternoon
of June 24, 1979. Hours earlier she spotted funnel clouds over Manitou
Springs. "There was birds and trees and leaves whirlin' 'round
and 'round." At least one tornado touched down on the town's
main commercial boulevard, uprooting trees, destroying cars, and
tearing the roof off the historic Pikes Peak Auto Company garage.
"That was the durndest twister I ever did see," Ruppert
added.