The “Heart of Trinidad” embodies some of the best examples of Late Victorian commercial architecture in Colorado.  Dating back to 1876, Trinidad quickly became the financial, retail and cultural hub of southern Colorado with the development of nearby coal fields and the arrival of the railroad.

The building is one of 36 Carnegie libraries constructed in Colorado.  Kansas architect John G. Haskell’s Neo-Classical design includes symmetrically balanced windows and a dominant central porch entry.  

This large, mansard roofed Victorian house was built for cattle baron Frank Bloom and his wife Sarah in 1882.  It is now operated as part of the Trinidad History Museum by History Colorado. 

Built in 1870, the interior of this adobe house blends Hispanic folk art with Victorian furnishings.  It is now operated as part of the Trinidad History Museum by History Colorado. 

Oliver E. Aultman commissioned the construction of this house for his family in 1905.  A highly successful commercial photographer, Aultman documented life and culture in southern Colorado from the 1890s to the 1950s.  His portraits reflect the extraordinary ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the area.  His studio was purportedly the oldest established studio in Colorado operated continuously by one man.  

The district is significant for its potential to yield important information regarding prehistoric and historic peoples.

This site with its multiple prehistoric and historic components is one of a few known sites in Colorado that has been identified with such an extended period of occupation—possibly 7,000 years. 

Completed in 1936, the bridge consists of three skewed semicircular arches with multiplates fabricated by the Hardesty Manufacturing Company.  It features rusticated stone facing and grapevined mortar joints, trademarks of Works Progress Administration workmanship in southeastern Colorado.

The 40-acre parcel comprises the site of the Ludlow tent colony and represents the event known as the Ludlow Massacre.  

Built in 1921 and expanded in 1936 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the school exemplifies one-room schools constructed in eastern Las Animas County during the homesteading boom of the 1910s and 1920s.  The school addition and its adjacent WPA-constructed barn, intended to store coal and shelter student’s horses, reflect Depression era New Deal efforts to improve rural education facilities in eastern Las Animas County.  The WPA constructed new schools and barns for several rural school districts and repaired the facilities of many others.  Constructed for a smal