Historic Preservation

The Louisville Historical Museum is a collection of three buildings at the north end of Louisville, Colorado's historic downtown: the Jacoe Store, the Tomeo House, and the Jordinelli House.  Bret Johnson Architecture was commissioned to prepare historic structure assessments for all three structures.

Following up on the historic structure assessment for the Louisville Historical Museum, we designed repairs for the Tomeo House.  The work included repairs to the floor structure and crawl space as well as a historically compatible enclosure for the crawlspace access.

The south end of third floor of Guggenheim Hall was originally an assembly space with exposed trusses.  Subsequent remodeling had concealed that space with 2 layers of suspended ceiling.  When those ceilings began to fail structurally, we worked with the Colorado School of Mines to remove the ceilings and restore the original wood trusses and beadboard paneling.

The Redtail cabins were constructed in the late 1800's and are good examples of frontier log structures in Gilpin County.  They were acquired by the County in 2017 from the family which had owned them since the 1940's.

The historic structure assessment will guide the county's efforts to preserve the cabins.

 The Ladies Aid Hall in Alma, Colorado, is believed to have been built in the 1870’s and was the office for the Fanny Barrett Smelting Works as well as other mining companies. The Ladies Aid Society began using the building in 1917 and the building survived the town fires of 1907 and 1937. The project included structural shoring and a new roof to stabilize the structure until additional funding for restoration can be secured. Construction is currently on hold awaiting funding from the Town of Alma. 

 Bret Johnson Architecture performed Historic Structure Assessments of the Del Norte School District's Junior High School (shown on home page) and Underwood Elementary School (above). Funded by State Historical Fund grants, the assessments were in support of the Master Plan and Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grant application. The master plan did not propose educational uses for the Junior High School, so our assessment included alternative reuse scenarios. 

 A Denver Landmark, South High School occupies a prominent site at the south end of Denver’s Washington Park. Constructed in 1925, the building retains many architecturally significant features including unique allegorical exterior sculpture. As a part of the master planning process, we prepared an assessment of the character-defining elements of the building. 

 Built in 1922, the Fairplay Hotel remains in operation. The Park County Office of Historic Preservation and the owner partnered to commission the historic structure assessment to provide guidelines for future preservation work at the hotel. 

 The Thorn Lake School was built circa 1896 as a one room school for educating  rural children in Gilpin County School District No. 10. It operated as a school until 1931, and then as a volunteer fire department building in and around Rollinsville in the 1960s and 1970s.  Bret Johnson Architecture prepared a historic structure assessment to aid Gilpin County in their future preservation efforts for the school.

The Calhan depot was built in 1906/07 and is of the basic plan and design commonly built by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad in the early 20th century.  The Town of Calhan partnered with the State Historical Fund to commission a historic structure assessment.  

The Ramah Town Hall was originally constructed as the First Presbyterian Church of Ramah. Built in 1916, the building was the first church in Ramah. 

The congregation disbanded in 1935 and the building was deeded to the Town of Ramah. The town offices moved into the

basement at that time. The town offices are still located in the lower level, while the upper level is leased to a Baptist church.  The Town of Ramah commissioned the historic structure assessment funded by the State Historic Fund.