Brief by Central Staff
Preservation – March 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Homelake Veterans’ Center, featured in the November 2004 edition of Colorado Central, is one of the state’s “most endangered places,” according to a list issued in February by Colorado Preservation, Inc.
Dating back to 1889, when it was opened as a “peaceful place for aging and displaced Civil War veterans,” the Center suffers from “lack of maintenance and a high water table,” causing the closure of the chapel; the post office may soon follow.
It is financed by user fees and Medicare, with additional state funding for facilities – and maintenance has suffered with the state’s budget pinch. Center officials are working with the federal Veterans’ Administration to provide 65% of the money needed to keep the Center running, “but even if they acquire funds from this source, a critical shortfall remains.”
Other sites on the 2005 endangered place list are the historic towns along the east side of the I-70 corridor, threatened by highway expansion; Hangar 61 at the old Stapleton Airport site; remnants of a POW camp near Greeley; and a railroad pumphouse in Kit Carson.
Colorado Preservation is a statewide non-profit established in 1984 “to promote and advance historic preservation and preservation of Colorado’s historic structures, sites, and landscapes.” For more information about the organization, and its lists for this year and past years, go to www.coloradopreservation.org.
