National and State Register

Debs School

Hinsdale County

The Debs School served from 1926 until consolidation in 1951 as the only school in the remote southeast region of Hinsdale County.

View of Debs School with mountains in background.

Debs School

As the only public building in the Upper Piedra region, the school was also a community focal point, hosting a wide variety of activities.  In its size, plan, roof shape, interior configuration, and placement of windows and doors, it displays the general characteristics typical of rural schoolhouses.  Constructed in 1926 of rock-faced ornamental concrete block, it is one of only two ornamental concrete block rural schoolhouses identified in the state.  It is Hinsdale County’s sole surviving one-room schoolhouse.  This property is associated with the Ornamental Concrete Block Buildings in Colorado and Rural School Buildings in Colorado Multiple Property Submissions.