Carriage Works

ELAINE HALE JONES LIFESTYLES EDITOR 970-249-3444 [email protected]

Focus

B Sunday, September 8, 2002 Montrose Daily Press

DAILY PRESS PHOTO ILLUSTRATION / ERIC DRUMMOND

The Carriage Works building on North Cascade Avenue stands as a reminder Montrose was forged in an era dependent on horse-drawn transportation. Pat Sears rides a 1880s-style buggy driven by Arthur Chaffee of Delta past the historic building.

Standing the test of time Far left, Eldon Swanson of Montrose uses a shovel to tear the last few shingles from the north pitch of the roof on the Carriage Works building. This dry sluicing machine, left, once owned by Charlie Diehl to refine gold could possibly be persevered at the Montrose Historical Museum.

ERIC DRUMMOND SPECIAL TO THE PRESS

MONTROSE — The weathered face of the Carriage Works is a reminder of pioneers who conquered the Western Frontier with wooden wheels forged of iron and sweat. The slouching historic structure at 217 North Cascade Avenue stands at a crossroads. Shovel-wielding men pry wood shingles from its roof in preparation to flatten Montrose’s last original false-front timber-framed building. “People don’t understand what we got over there,” says Bob Moore, who recently purchased the property, which had been family owned since its construction in the late 1800s. “It’s got no foundation under there.” “It wasn’t built with the thought that it was going to stand there for 110 years,” said Marilyn Cox, curator of the Montrose Historical Museum. Time has taken its toll on the structure, teetering at the corner of North Third Street and Cascade Avenue despite a grant from the Colorado Historical Society that stabilized the building and replaced a leaking roof. The grant came after the building was put on the Colorado State Historical Register in 1993. “A strong wind from the southwest would put it right out in the intersection,” says Dave Tousley, a neighbor of the old structure. “It’s got to come down before we can fix it,” says Moore, who also owns Moore Ray Tire & Petroleum Inc., a fullservice gas station and tire shop on North Townsend behind the historic Carriage Works. Moore’s employees dart in and out of the building, cleaning out years of stored relics and dust. With the contents removed workers needed only a few days to strip the new wooden shingles from roof last week. Moore intends to pour a new foundation on the lot and rebuild Carriage Works with the original pine. “If it comes down, it comes back up,” Moore says. “The more help I get, the better it will be.”

Wagon wheels If rebuilt, the two-story structure will have another chapter to add to its history, which began with its construction around 1895. The structure was originally built to house the blacksmith busiSEE CARRIAGE WORKS, PAGE B4

DAILY PRESS PHOTOS / ERIC DRUMMOND

Above, a document requesting carriage wheels from the Paddock Hawley Iron Corp. in St. Louis dates the structure shortly before Feb. 4, 1896. Bob Moore, right, puts up his dukes up while wearing boxing gloves signed by former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, who trained and spared in the Carriage Works. Moore says because the structure was built without a foundation, 'We've got to tear it down. It can’t stand there forever without lots of work.’

B4

SUNDAY, SEPT. 8, 2002

MONTROSE DAILY PRESS

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DAILY PRESS / ERIC DRUMMOND

The Carriage Works building takes on a summer evening thunderstorm as lightning colors the sky. Years of storms have taken a toll on the old structure, which stands as a symbol of the Diehl family in Montrose.

DAILY PRESS PHOTOS / ERIC DRUMMOND

Above, a gray sky silhouettes Eldon Swanson as he tosses wood shingles from atop the Carriage Works. At right, the grain of rough-cut pine frames a window on the north façade of the building. Below, an advertisement for the business from a 1904 edition of the Montrose Enterprise.

CARRIEAGE WORKS: Historic building is standing the test of time FROM PAGE B1 ness of “Studebaker Bill” Diehl. William Diehl, along with two of his brothers, came to the new frontier town of Montrose from Pennsylvania in 1881. He operated a blacksmith shop across the street, developing a reputation as a talented horseshoer and prompting a need for the Carriage Works business. The enterprise thrived as Montrose exploded with a demand for brand specific parts and repairs for horse-drawn carriages and stagecoaches traversing the West. Anyone

needing a horse shod, a carriage repaired or a new Studebaker Wagon in Montrose found it at the Carriage Works.

Dempsey’s early digs Studebaker Bill passed the property on to his son, Charlie who, like many young men of turn of the century, took an interest in boxing “That old building used to be a hangout for all the young men in town about 50 years ago,” said Charlie Diehl in the April 16, 1962,

edition of the Montrose Daily Press. “Anybody who wanted a scrap knew he could get one there and a lot of them did.” Jack Dempsey, whom Charlie Diehl described as “one big strapping lad,” sparred from time to time with Charlie and other men. “Dempsey wasn’t the biggest of the bunch,” he said, “but he fought with a sort of controlled fury that soon showed him to be the best fighter of the lot” That controlled fury made Dempsey a legend in the boxing world. His first professional fight happened at the Montrose Moose

Lodge in 1912. He went on to capture the heavyweight championship of the world in 1919, a title he would hold until 1926. “That building is interesting because of Charlie’s relationship with Dempsey,” said daughter Ruth Boulder in a 1975 edition of the Montrose Daily Press. “Charlie always thought he had contributed to forming Jack Dempsey’s style.” Although Charlie Diehl had several offers to purchase for the Carriage Works building before his death in 1966 he refused to sell. “Nobody wanted the old shop,” he said. “They just wanted that choice corner lot.”