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October 29, 2004
Cabin demolition ends era at Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell homes have stood empty since the early 1990s, but for many area residents, the little cottages will always be filled with memories - until now.
As part of a phased plan to develop 37 homesites in the east end of the valley, Idarado Mining Co. set to work Thursday demolishing the nine red-roofed small houses in Liberty Bell and two white clapboard houses further east in an area known as Bridal Veil.
County planning director Mike Rozycki said that Idarado was issued the county permit earlier this week as required to begin the demolition.
"The commissioners auth-orized the demolition of the Liberty Bell and Bridal Veil cottages subject to approvals from the Colorado Depart-ment of Public Health and Environment," Rozycki said. "Those approvals were presented showing no asbestos or hazardous materials."
The destruction of the houses marks, for many, the end of an era. Built initially as a neighborhood for miners in the industry's prime, more recently, numerous Telluride residents dwelled there, attracted to the cozy cabins by cheap rent and a close neighborhood. Those inhabitants were relocated to Lawson Hill in the early 1990s.
Bob Beer, manager of the local Elks Lodge, was one of the last inhabitants of the red-roofed houses at Liberty Bell. Beer called No. 16 home from the mid-1980s until 1993 when he, like many of his Liberty Bell/Pandora neighbors, departed for the fledgling Lawson Hill development west of Telluride.
He remembers an active neighborhood filled with more than 100 local managers, bartenders, and service workers who frequently gathered for potlucks.
"It was wonderful," he said, of Liberty Bell's heyday. "The rent was reasonable, George Cappis was our kindly caretaker, it was within walking distance to town and crawling distance back home."
Just last year, Beer visited old No. 16., one of only nine cottages that along with a turn-of-the-century stone building remained of the former mining neighborhood perched on a sunny bench above the highway just past the cemetery.
Though Liberty Bell hasn't been inhabited for 20 years, scraps of a former life remained; the dark orange carpet Beer recalled from his cottage had been largely burned away, presumably by a squatter's fire.
"It was kind of sad, in a nostalgic way," he said.
Once the cottages are completely leveled and the remains carted to a Montrose County landfill, Idarado will continue to prepare the land for eventual sale.
Last September, the San Miguel Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved Idarado's plan to carve its property into 37 expensive homesites, each with its own septic system and well. The plan was a revised version of the Idarado Legacy Project, which was turned down by Telluride voters in 1991. The revised 2003 scheme included the preservation of more than 2,000 acres of Idarado land in the high country above the Telluride valley.
By: Daily Planet Staff
Posted by Adam at October 29, 2004 09:32 AM