The Colorado Historical Society has announced that the Garden Park School in rural Fremont County has officially been listed on the Colorado Register of Historic Properties. The property was officially designated in late November in recognition of its contribution to the heritage.
The old school building is located approximately ten miles north of Canon City along Garden Park Road. Lifelong residents and other neighbors in the area championed the cause for the school's historical listing in recent years in an effort to secure grant money to help save the historical one room school.
The 1895 Garden Park School served as the educational center for the children of local ranching families from its opening until consolidation closed the school in 1961. As the only public building on the landscape for miles, it also served as an important place for social gatherings such as dances, Sunday school, and theatre productions.
Architecturally, the school displays the distinctive characteristics of the schoolhouse building type. Exhibiting such elements as a rectangular plan, front gabled roof, tall narrow windows on each side, and a single classroom, the building's use is clearly evident when viewing it from a distance. It was built using local labor and abundant native materials. Those materials included clay from nearby Oil Creek provided the necessary adobe bricks. A stucco application in 1916 and 1917 was a typical treatment for adobe which was susceptible to deterioration.
The Fremont County Commissioners and the Fremont Heritage Commission salute the efforts of Garden Park residents to get this historic schoolhouse listed on the Colorado Register. A grant was secured earlier this fall to perform an assessment as to how to protect the historical value of this building through appropriate repair work.
The old school building is located approximately ten miles north of Canon City along Garden Park Road. Lifelong residents and other neighbors in the area championed the cause for the school's historical listing in recent years in an effort to secure grant money to help save the historical one room school.
The 1895 Garden Park School served as the educational center for the children of local ranching families from its opening until consolidation closed the school in 1961. As the only public building on the landscape for miles, it also served as an important place for social gatherings such as dances, Sunday school, and theatre productions.
Architecturally, the school displays the distinctive characteristics of the schoolhouse building type. Exhibiting such elements as a rectangular plan, front gabled roof, tall narrow windows on each side, and a single classroom, the building's use is clearly evident when viewing it from a distance. It was built using local labor and abundant native materials. Those materials included clay from nearby Oil Creek provided the necessary adobe bricks. A stucco application in 1916 and 1917 was a typical treatment for adobe which was susceptible to deterioration.
The Fremont County Commissioners and the Fremont Heritage Commission salute the efforts of Garden Park residents to get this historic schoolhouse listed on the Colorado Register. A grant was secured earlier this fall to perform an assessment as to how to protect the historical value of this building through appropriate repair work.