Supporting History

Hope Communities Rehabs Five Points Landmark

Originally published in Colorado History NOW, May 2006

Hope Communities, a nonprofit provider of affordable housing and career training, has a new home. The twenty-five-year old organization has opened a neighborhood center at 2543 California Street in the historic Mayfair Building. Rehabilitation of the 1889 red-brick landmark was made possible by grants from the State Historical Fund totaling $211,500. In addition to Hope Communities headquarters, the 6,000-square-foot facility has a community room (available for public meetings), a computer training lab, and office space for additional nonprofits.

Before Hope Communities began its rehabilitation project, few people would have identified the Mayfair as anything other than an eyesore. A frequent target for vandals, the vacant residence served as a haven for drug dealers. Its roof was damaged, original doors and windows were deteriorating or missing entirely, the historic front porch had been replaced, and the rear façade was falling down. But a little help from the State Historical Fund and a lot of volunteer work coordinated by Hope Communities changed all that.

The building now serves as a place where people can gather to locate housing, improve their education, resolve a neighborhood issue, find a job, or simply host a meeting. In short, it’s a place where people can improve their lives and neighborhood.

“Hope Communities is thrilled to open this new center in the heart of Five Points,” said Reggie Moore, Associate Director at Hope Communities. “The new neighborhood center anchors Hope firmly within this important community and provides local residents a place to network and build skills that will help them find jobs, learn sound money management principles, viable computer and technology skills, and enjoy community with each other.”

Additional information about the services offered through Hope Communities’ new neighborhood center is available at www.hopecommunities.org.

Hope Communities’ mission is to build diverse, healthy communities through affordable housing, economic opportunity, personal empowerment and spiritual wholeness. The rehabilitated Mayfair Building is the architectural embodiment of that goal.

BY LAURIE DUNKLEE, State Historical Fund Public Relations Officer

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