These awards leverage $481,419 in matching funding provided by grant applicants and their community partners to exceed over $1.3 million in total funds for these projects. Research shows that statewide every $1 million spent on historic preservation in Colorado creates 14 new jobs, increases household incomes by nearly $640,000 and stimulates another $1 million in spending. With nearly $9 million awarded over the last year, the SHF plays an important role in strengthening Colorado.

In addition to providing economic benefits to communities, SHF awards also help enhance environmental sustainability, foster community pride and resilience, and protect priceless cultural resources. Further, SHF provides help to local communities to leverage their investments and make projects possible.

History Colorado’s efforts to better align the grantmaking process with its inclusivity-championing Grounding Virtues led to the creation of  a new section of the SHF grant application in 2021. It asks applicants to discuss how their prospective grant project would involve and benefit Colorado’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. 

History Colorado encouraged new projects from BIPOC communities by lowering cash-match requirements. As such, this reduced or eliminated additional fundraising burdens for those seeking grants enabling small or more marginalized groups to get started on projects. In this grant round, History Colorado was able to award $144,963 to projects that directly support BIPOC community vitality.

“Our grant awards this past year are demonstrating that History Colorado’s State Historical Fund has become more accessible and inclusive than ever to help all Coloradans save the places they love,” said History Colorado Executive Director and State Historic Preservation Officer Dawn DiPrince. “We have loved seeing how these preservation dollars are proving to be transformational investments in communities across Colorado.”

Highlights from this grant round include:

The Granite Hotel and Stage Stop;  $45,720, Chaffee County — Located along the US Highway 24 route to Leadville, the Granite Hotel and Stage Stop was constructed in Granite in 1867. The Granite Hotel and Stage Stop was one of the first commercial buildings in the area and served miners who were traveling to Granite and Leadville. The building initially served as a stage stop and later as “The Commercial Hotel.” Today, the property is owned by Huckleberry River Ranch, LLC, who applied in partnership with Colorado Preservation, Inc. for a grant to produce construction documents. This is an important first step in the larger plan to rehabilitate the building back to its previous purpose as a short-term rental for visitors to the area. The long-term objectives of the project are to: promote the outdoors and mountain tourism to BIPOC communities; contribute to the preservation of the historic town of Granite; and, promote heritage tourism to revitalize the local economy. 

Exon Mercantile Building; $22,286, Montezuma County —  The Town of Dolores is located in Montezuma County, in the southwest corner of Colorado. In 1896 William Exon started a small meat market, one of Dolores’s first businesses. The business grew and expanded and the Exon Building was constructed between 1906–1907 to house the Exon and Rush Meat Market and Mercantile. In 1967, the business shut down and the building was sold. Since then, it’s been home to: a newspaper; two antique stores; and, more recently a bike shop. For this grant round, the property owners have teamed up with the Town of Dolores to apply for a grant to fund various repairs to the building that were identified in a 1999 "Historic Structure Assessment.” These repairs include restoration of the masonry,  foundation and storefront. This work will preserve a beautiful and well-loved historic building that reinforces Dolores’ sense of place in the past and the present.

The Colorado Chautauqua; $37,350, Boulder County — Built in 1898, the Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder is a National Historic Landmark. It was originally constructed to house a summer training program and lecture series for Sunday school teachers as part of the “Chautauqua Movement.” Over the years, various structures were erected on the land by the Colorado Chautauqua Association, including 98 cottages, a dining hall, an academic hall, and several houses. Approximately 120 structures still stand today, and are part of the Chautauqua Historic District. With the rising concern about the wildfire risk in the area, the vulnerability of the all-wood framed buildings of the Colorado Chautauqua has become an issue. This is in part to the site’s proximity to wildland forest and grassland and recent Boulder County wildfires and the need for more knowledge on protecting historic structures from fire. The Colorado Chautauqua Association has applied for a grant to fund “Phase Two” of their “Wildfire Mitigation Plan.” In this phase of the project, the grant will fund studies, on a forensic level, about specific historic wood-framed building protection mechanisms and materials. Findings will be turned into a report to address the situation. Although the initial report will be custom tailored to the Chautauqua’s unique needs, the final report will include findings that can be applied to any historic building or site that is threatened by wildfires, in Colorado and beyond.

Mesa Verde National Park; $50,000, Montezuma County — Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado is one of the world’s most significant ancestral sites, with remarkably well-preserved cliff dwellings that were home to the Ancestral Pueblo people for more than 700 years starting in the year 550 of the Common Era. In the late 1200s, the Ancestral Pueblo people migrated from the area, but it remains a significant link between the past and present way of life, especially for the 26 Tribes and Pueblos with cultural, ancestral, or geographic affiliation with Mesa Verde National Park. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Mesa Verde to be the first national park to “preserve the works of man.” Though best known for its 600 well-preserved cliff dwellings, Mesa Verde protects nearly 5,000 known ancestral sites, including pueblos, kivas, and cliff dwellings, as well as over three million cultural items from extraordinary ceramics and baskets to sandals and other ethnographic materials. This grant will continue the work started by a previous SHF grant to complete post-production on a new interpretive film for Mesa Verde National Park. The film will provide an overview of the park that shares its significance primarily from the perspectives of tribal community members. The film also includes historic, archeological, and ancestral sites, cultural items, and creates an understanding of the importance of preserving this piece of history.

Dearfield; $37,350, Weld County — The 320-acre settlement of Dearfield in Weld County was founded by Oliver Toussaint Jackson, an African American entrepreneur who sought to create a place that would be welcoming to Black Americans who sought to create their own opportunities through land ownership. Dearfield was a bustling settlement, attracting Black settlers from other parts of Colorado and as far as Minneapolis. From 1910 to 1921, the settlers turned Dearfield into an enterprise worth upwards of $750,000. The Dust Bowl and severe economic conditions of the 1920s decimated the town and by 1940 only Jackson and eleven other settlers remained. Today, only three structures from the Dearfield period remain. This grant will provide funds to develop construction documents for the interior restoration of these structures to create a museum complex with walk-through exhibits and additional space. The additional space will be used for research, education, meetings and other various purposes. This use of the site  will provide a significant benefit for Colorado and our nation, reminding people of the social and economic adversities African-American citizens endured and, in the case of Dearfield, sought to overcome through hard work, perseverance and entrepreneurship. 

Since 1991, historic preservation projects in Colorado have created over 27,000 jobs and generated a total of nearly $3.9 billion in direct and indirect economic impacts, adding almost $3 billion to Colorado’s Gross Domestic Product. In October, History Colorado estimates it will award at least a half million more dollars in its next mini-grant round targeted at smaller statewide preservation projects. History Colorado will also allocate significant funds to a round of grants issued to large historical preservation projects. 

Individuals and organizations are encouraged to: view important dates and guidelines for the next round; learn how to submit a Letter of Intent; and, apply for grants before the October 1 deadline by visiting historycolorado.org/state-historical-fund. A full list of projects funded through this round as well as other projects previously funded by the SHF can be found on this web page.

About History Colorado
History Colorado is a division of the Colorado Department of Higher Education and a 501(c)3 non-profit that has served more than 75,000 students and 500,000 people in Colorado each year. It is a 143-year-old institution that operates Colorado’s oldest museum, ten additional museums and historic sites, a free public research center, the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, and the History Colorado State Historical Fund (SHF), which is the nation’s largest preservation program of its kind. Projects across all 64 counties of Colorado have been funded since the grant program’s inception in 1992.

History Colorado’s mission is to create a better future for Colorado by inspiring wonder in our past. We serve as the state’s memory, preserving and sharing the places, stories, and material culture of Colorado through educational programs, historic preservation grants, collecting, outreach to Colorado communities, the History Colorado Center and Stephen H. Hart Research Center in Denver, and nine other museums and historic attractions statewide. History Colorado is one of only six Smithsonian Affiliates in Colorado. Visit HistoryColorado.org, or call 303-HISTORY, for more information.

History Colorado is a division of the Colorado Department of Higher Education and a 501(c)3 non-profit that has served more than 75,000 students and 500,000 people in Colorado each year. It is a 143-year-old institution that operates Colorado’s oldest museum, ten additional museums and historic sites, a free public research center, the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, and the History Colorado State Historical Fund (SHF), which is the nation’s largest preservation program of its kind. Projects across all 64 counties of Colorado have been funded since the grant program’s inception in 1992.

History Colorado’s mission is to create a better future for Colorado by inspiring wonder in our past. We serve as the state’s memory, preserving and sharing the places, stories, and material culture of Colorado through educational programs, historic preservation grants, collecting, outreach to Colorado communities, the History Colorado Center and Stephen H. Hart Research Center in Denver, and nine other museums and historic attractions statewide. History Colorado is one of only six Smithsonian Affiliates in Colorado. Visit HistoryColorado.org, or call 303-HISTORY, for more information.