Two Costilla County sites added to Colorado’s Most Endangered Places List

Photo courtesy of Colorado Preservation The Garcia School in Costilla County is part of the Centennial School District and has been added to Colorado’s Most Endangered Places by Colorado Preservation. Toby Melster, superintendent of the Centennial School District told the Valley Courier the new designation will assist the district in seeking grants and other funding for the 100-plus year-old school.

COSTILLA COUNTY— Colorado’s Most Endangered Places, a signature program of Colorado Preservation Inc., which works with communities across the state to save threatened or endangered historic buildings and sites, announced on Feb. 9, that five sites have been added to Colorado’s Most Endangered Places list. Two of the sites are in Costilla County.

“The Most Endangered Places program provides advocacy, awareness and technical assistance to significant historic sites throughout Colorado that are in danger of being lost,” Endangered Places Director Katie Peterson said. “In 25 years, the program has highlighted 135 historic sites throughout the state; 55 sites have been SAVED and only eight have been lost, with 50 actively in progress and 22 still under alert status.”

Colorado’s Most Endangered Places:

Garcia School

Costilla County

Constructed in 1913, the Garcia School was one of 11 adobe schools built in Costilla County in the San Luis Valley before the consolidation of Centennial School District R-1 in 1963. Listed on the State Register of Historic Properties, the building is one of the last structures of Plaza de Los Manzanares, the site of the first European settlement in Colorado.

The Garcia School retains many historical elements but suffers from weather exposure, deterioration, lack of maintenance and funding, and an isolated setting. The Centennial School District has received a Colorado Department of Education grant, and the Connecting Colorado Students Grant (CCSG) in the amount of $3.2 million to build out internet in nearby San Luis and establish a remote learning center at the Garcia School.

CPI will help the school district develop partnerships and access technical assistance to preserve the building and create an accessible location for rural students.

Feminilas Building, Costilla County

Located near San Francisco Creek in the San Luis Valley, the Feminilas Building is the only known structure separately owned and operated by the women’s auxiliary of men’s labor organization, La Sociedad Protección Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos (SPMDTU).

The Feminilas provided aid to the afflicted and bereaved, like the Penitentes, a men’s group associated with the Catholic Church. Constructed around 1920, the small adobe building, complete with vigas and latillas popular in the region, is in poor condition. It suffers from natural weatherization and deterioration and is in danger of collapse.

Juanita Martinez, a resident of San Francisco told the Valley Courier, “I was the last member of the Feminilas, they were an auxiliary to the SPMDTU. They didn’t allow women to join [the men’s group] back in the 1920s. Women always supported, encouraged, and helped the men’s part and decided to form their own group.”

Preservation of the Feminilas Building would help preserve the unique lifeways, language, and culture of the San Luis Valley and the traditional contributions of Hispanic women. CPI will work with the property owners and local stakeholders to stabilize, rehabilitate, and highlight the role of women’s auxiliaries in Colorado history.

One site previously listed on Colorado’s Most Endangered Places was recognized as saved:

R&R Market now known as the San Luis People’s Market

Costilla County

After a successful transition to new ownership and completion of $94,306 in rehabilitation work, the oldest continuously operating business in Colorado, formerly known as the R&R Market and now known as the San Luis People’s Market, has been saved from an uncertain fate. Longtime San Luis Valley resident, Dr. Devon Peña, who founded the Acequia Institute to promote water democracy, resilient agriculture, and environmental justice in the San Luis Valley, has taken on the challenge of operating the market, which has always been much more than just a grocery store.

The Acequia Institute received a $1.5 million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation to help with acquisition of the R&R Market and its re-branding and transition to a new business model that ties the operation into the larger program initiative for Culebra River Acequia (community irrigation ditch) Communities in the Upper Rio Grande bioregion.

Prior owners Felix and Claudia Romero, who operated the market for 52 years and nominated it to Colorado’s Endangered Places in 2019, participated in the rehabilitation of key preservation priorities through the Colorado Main Street Open for Business Grant that was made in 2022.

That grant resulted in storefront glazing, roof coating, repair of the historic character defining entryway/vestibule, exterior lighting, and painting of the façade.

CPI congratulates the new owners and the Town of San Luis and looks forward to celebrating this “Save” of one of Colorado’s oldest historic resources.

For more information on Colorado’s Most Endangered Places and the Saving Places conference, visit www.coloradopreservation.org.


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