Vacant 1909 School Building in CO Abandoned in 2008

Calkins School - Cortez High School, Cortez Colorado

Date added: November 28, 2024

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Colorado
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Cortez High School was the only public school (kindergarten - 12^th grade) serving the city of Cortez from 1909 to 1949. It continued to function as an elementary and middle school until 1968. Over this sixty-year period (1909-1968) every public school student in Cortez attended the school. The construction of the school in three phases (1909, 1924, 1935) reflects the growing population of the community, as well as targeted periods of public investment in education in Montezuma County.

The physical evolution of Cortez High School from its initial construction in 1909 through two expansions in 1924 and 1935 demonstrates the state of education in Colorado as the building evolved from a ward school to a Progressive Era school. The Cortez High School replaced an overcrowded facility and accommodated students from around Montezuma County as a national trend toward school consolidation encouraged the construction of larger, graded schools to educate pupils from a bigger region. Cortez High School's initial iteration in 1909 took the form of a ward school. Ward schools were a Late Victorian form typified by masonry construction, hipped roofs with bell towers, and tall narrow windows. They generally housed several classrooms on multiple floors, allowing pupils to be divided by grade. Classrooms had windows on two walls to provide ample light and ventilation. As the Progressive Movement took hold nationally and as enrollment increased locally, two additions modernized Cortez High School. Additional graded classrooms housed a variety of specialized subjects (sciences, manual arts, home economics, etc.). The school also offered athletic facilities (gymnasium and football field) and performing arts facilities.

Cortez High School was the sole high school in Cortez from 1909 to 1949 and also served as Cortez's elementary and middle school until 1968. Beginning in 1887, a small frame building housed the first school classes in one room in Cortez until the Montezuma County School opened in 1890. This school served all children in Montezuma County and was overcrowded even in its earliest years, forcing students to attend classes in various buildings, including private homes and businesses, dispersed around the county. By 1903, an irrigation ditch system in Montezuma County was complete, and a reliable water source resulted in population growth for Cortez. In 1906, the Colorado state legislature passed a compulsory school attendance law. Newspaper articles from 1906 and 1907 described the "crowded condition" of existing school facilities that were "wholly inadequate even for present needs" notwithstanding anticipated future population growth. As the population of Cortez rose from 125 in 1900 to 565 by 1910, the need for a new school was readily apparent. The school board began to accept bids for construction of the new school in the summer of 1909. In 1909, Cortez High School opened for the new school year on September 7^th with enrollment of 150 pupils of all ages. Built for $14,000, the school included six classrooms (two per floor), the existing west entrance and stair hall, and such modern amenities as a call bell system, fire alarms, telephones, and electric lamps. The original school had a pyramidal roof with a bell tower projecting above the entrance. Contemporary newspapers boasted that the new Cortez High School was the "finest school building in the entire southwest, with all conveniences, appliances, and comforts." Already at opening, the school was crowded. Newspaper accounts from the first school year note that already "all rooms are crowded" and that "another room may have to be added" to the brand new facility.

Cortez High School was not the only new educational building in Montezuma County at the time. The end of the first decade of the twentieth century marked a period of significant investment in education in Montezuma County. Because the compulsory attendance law of 1906 was only applicable for students living within one mile of a school, multiple schools were required to educate all of the students in the county. Also in 1909, a high school opened in the town of Mancos (Mancos High School) just eighteen miles from Cortez, and the previous year, a school serving grades one through eight opened in the town of Lebanon (presently an unincorporated part of Dolores) (Lebanon School), eight miles north of Cortez. Mancos High School is very similar in appearance to the 1924 iteration of Cortez High School. The two-story hipped-roof sandstone school has a central bell tower and entrance. Mancos High School may also be the work of the Baxstroms, who built Cortez High School. As in Cortez, until the construction of Mancos High School, students were educated in a small frame building. When Mancos High School opened, students from nearby one-room schools consolidated in the new facility. Mancos, though presently smaller than Cortez, was comparable in size during this time. Lebanon School, on the other hand, is very different from both Cortez High School and Mancos High School. The wood-sided building is Classical Revival in style with a pediment over the entry portico and prominent bell tower. Lebanon was a smaller community than Cortez or Mancos. The new school only taught grades one through eight.

The modern Cortez High School functioned well from the beginning; however, as the population continued to grow and the state developed new educational requirements, the need for expansion was soon apparent. Fundraising for a gymnasium began in 1919, and the gymnasium/auditorium building opened in 1922 southwest of the school building. This large, rectangular frame building housed a basketball court and a stage. Soon thereafter, in 1924, the first addition to Cortez High School opened. The $8,000 addition included five classrooms and one assembly room, which connected to the 1909 block using a central corridor. The addition made the school symmetrical with a centered primary entrance and bell tower. The first Cortez High School yearbook, entitled Sleeping Ute after the nearby landmark mountain, was published in 1926. It bragged that "during the last few years, the Cortez High School has been improved and built up greatly in many ways. The building has been enlarged and improved, the equipment increased, a gymnasium built, and more teachers added."

The population of Cortez nearly doubled between 1910 and 1930, reaching 921 residents. Enrollment at Cortez High School was up and more space was needed to accommodate the new students. Following the onset of the Great Depression, New Deal funding became available to support school building. The Works Progress Administration financed the second and final addition to Cortez High School in 1935, which added a second entrance, a second stair, six more classrooms, an administration office, and a football field. On the exterior, the roof was made flat with stepped parapets, and the bell tower was removed. The expansion of Cortez High School is consistent with WPA buildings across the state of Colorado in its use of local materials, flat roof, and Moderne Style-inspired curved interior walls in the offices. These features are typical of schools built by the WPA. Construction of the Norman Johnson Memorial Football Field on the south half of the lot was also completed in 1935. It was considered "one of the finest athletic fields in Southwestern Colorado" and was the only sod field in the region. Numerous athletic fields were built by the WPA during the Great Depression. Norman Johnson Memorial Field is consistent with other WPA-built athletic fields. Both the nearby Mancos High School and the Lebanon School also experienced multiple phases of expansion during this time, reflecting the booming population of Montezuma County during the first half of the twentieth century.

The expanded school served the community well, but the population continued to surge in Cortez, reaching 1,778 residents in 1940 on a rapid upward trend following the discovery of uranium nearby. Begun in 1947 and completed for the 1949 school year, a new high school opened on the west side of town, near the intersection of Main Street (Highway 160) and North Broadway (Highway 491). The new Montezuma County High School assumed the role of the local high school. Cortez High School was renamed Calkins School and continued to function as an elementary and middle school. Dr. Royal William Calkins was a physician for the Ute Indian Agency and is credited with saving hundreds of lives during a flu epidemic in 1918. He later served in the state House of Representatives from 1926 to 1932. It is unclear what changes may have been made to the school to fulfill its new function. Although the high school students attended classes in the new building, sporting events continued to be held on the grounds of Cortez High School. The Cortez High School was modernized in 1953 with updated finishes and modern restroom facilities. In 1968, after years of continued growth in Cortez following the discovery of a nearby oil field in 1954, the school district converted the Cortez High School into administrative offices, adding partitions on the interior to create offices. At this time, elementary and middle school students moved into the former Montezuma County High School, which became Cortez Middle School, and high school students moved into a new facility, Montezuma-Cortez High School at West 7^th and South Chestnut Streets. The school district vacated the Cortez High School building in 2008. Rehabilitation efforts in recent years have removed many non-historic alterations and have stabilized the structure.

Builders: Peter & Harry Baxstrom

Cortez High School is an intact example of the work of the Baxstrom family, a prominent family of masons in Montezuma County who quarried stone from their family quarry. Peter Baxstrom built the 1909 block of Cortez High School and his son Harry Baxstrom completed the 1924 addition and trained WPA workers in masonry construction for the 1935 addition. Peter Baxstrom immigrated to the United States from Sweden before 1870 and worked as a stonemason in Kansas before settling in southwestern Colorado. He arrived to the area in 1884, and opened a quarry just west of Cortez on Hartman Draw. In addition to Cortez High School, Peter Baxstrom constructed several Cortez landmarks, including the original Montezuma Avenue School (1890, extensively altered) and the Montezuma Valley National Bank and Store Building (1908) in downtown Cortez. During the expansion of Cortex High School in 1935, Harry Baxtrom passed these skills and the principles of hand-craftsmanship on to the WPA workers. he trained.

Building Description

Cortez High School stands at the northeast corner of a large lot adjacent to the historic commercial downtown of Cortez, Colorado. The two-story rectangular building has a flat roof and stepped parapets. Local sandstone comprises the exterior walls of the building, which was built in three phases in 1909, 1924 and 1935. The interior features classrooms organized around two stair halls and a double-loaded corridor. Historic finishes include flat plaster walls and ceilings and hardwood tongue-and-groove floors. The remainder of the lot contains an athletic field with bleachers and a locker room on the northern edge and a metal shed building to the west of the athletic field.

Cortez High School anchors the northeast corner of an approximately six-acre lot bordered by East First Street to the north, Ash Street to the east, and alleys to the west and south. Sidewalks line the north and east borders of the property. Most of the lot is open space. Mature spruce, maple, aspen and other coniferous and deciduous trees are scattered across the property with clusters concentrated on the east and west sides of the building.

The large six-acre site was platted when the original block of the school was constructed in 1909. Concrete sidewalks lead south from First Street to each of the front (north) entrances. Sidewalks abut the north, east, and west building sides. An open gravel parking lot behind the school building is accessed by driveways from Ash Street and Second Street. The school playground originally occupied much of this area. An open field occupies the northwest corner of the lot. Historically, a gymnasium/auditorium building stood in part of this open field southwest of the school building. A sidewalk leads from the northwest corner of the school to the former location of the gymnasium building. The Johnson Memorial Football Field occupies the south half of the lot. The sunken field is surrounded by grass berms on all sides. Metal bleachers and a concrete-block locker room are centered on the north side of the football field. The metal bleachers stand on the location of the original wood bleachers. A chain-link fence surrounds the field. A large non-historic metal shed stands at the western border of the football field in the southwest corner of the lot.

The school has a rectangular footprint measuring roughly 134' x 50' and a flat roof with a stepped parapet. Rough-hewn sandstone ashlar masonry clads the two-story building. Metal coping tops the widely-stepped parapet. The building sides are mostly symmetrical. At first glance, the three building campaigns are not evident from the exterior. The additions were designed to blend with the original block. Close inspection reveals stitched masonry seams on the north building side west of the east entrance, identifying the 1924 addition, and east of the west entrance, identifying the 1935 addition.

Plywood covers most window openings on the east, west, and south building sides, but the windows are exposed on the interior. Most first and second-story windows are historic two-over-two double-hung wood windows with two-light transoms. Basement windows are a combination of historic two-over-two double-hung wood windows, historic four-light wood hopper windows, historic four-light fixed wood windows and three-light steel windows.

The primary facade of Cortez High School faces north toward a small lawn and has five bays defined by two entrances with three walls of windows: one between the entrance bays and one on either side. The two bays of windows on the east and west ends (bays 1 and 5, from left to right) have regularly spaced rows of four historic two-over-two double-hung wood windows with two-light transoms at the first and second stories. Four historic windows fill basement window openings. Bays 2 and 4 contain the arched entries on the first floor and two smaller historic two-light wood hopper windows with two-light wood transoms at the second story. The central bay (between the entrances) repeats the fenestration pattern of the two end bays. Wide concrete stairs with metal pipe handrails lead up to the entrances. Paired, partially-glazed wood doors with flanking glass-block sidelights and wood fanlight transoms fill the doorways. Sandstone voussoirs surround the arched entrances. Concrete stairs parallel to the building descend to a basement entrance beneath the east entrance. Plywood fills the doorway. A concrete ramp parallel to the building descends to a basement entrance beneath the west entrance. A corrugated metal shed roof with metal columns spans Bay 5 at the basement level, covering the ramp.

The symmetrical east building side has two bays topped by a stepped parapet. Three columns of openings pierce each bay. On the first and second stories, two historic two-over-two double-hung wood windows with two-light transoms pierce the outer two columns of each bay. A historic door opening fills the inner column of each bay of each story. The historic wood paneled doors have three recessed panels in the lower half and four-light windows topped by two-light transoms. All doors open to historic metal fire escape balconies. A historic straight stair rises to the first-story balcony, which is centered on the building side. A spiral stair at the south end rises to the second-story balcony. At the basement level, two bays of four-light wood windows flank two historic doorways that are partially below grade. Concrete stairs with concrete cheek walls, perpendicular to the building, descend to the doorways. Slab doors fill the openings.

The rear (south) building side is mostly symmetrical with five bays and a stepped parapet that is lower in the center and steps up toward the east and west ends. Bays 1, 3, and 5 contain four historic two-over-two double-hung wood windows on the first and second stories and a four-light wood window at the basement level. Bay 2 has historic door openings on the west side of the first and second stories. The partially-glazed wood doors and two-part transoms in the openings appear to be not original. Steep metal fire escape stairs project from the second-story doorway. An S-shaped metal ramp ascends to the first story west of the entrance and L-shaped metal stairs project straight from the entrance. Both have metal pipe rails. The second-story stairs are visible in historic photographs from 1941 and may be original to the 1935 addition. The east side of Bay 2 has a historic two-over-two wood window with a two-part transom that is narrower than other historic windows on the second story and a short historic two-light window with a two-part transom in the first story. A non-original brick chimney projects from the south building side between Bays 2 and 3. The first-story window opening on the west end of Bay 3 has been partially infilled with stone to make a small, square window. Bay 4 has two historic two-over-two double-hung wood windows on the first and second stories and a four-light wood window at the basement level.

The west building side is symmetrical with two bays and a stepped parapet. Three columns of historic blind window openings fill each bay at each story. A historic photo from 1909 shows that the blind window openings on the west building side are original to the 1909 block. Sandstone that matches the walls infills the openings and is slightly inset from the building wall. Sandstone has been removed from the center opening on the first story of Bay 1 and the south opening on the first story of Bay 2. Wood windows that are compatible with the building's historic windows presently fill these openings. The basement has historic windows in Bay 1 and the north two openings in Bay 2. An undersized below-grade doorway, filled with a slab door fills the south opening in Bay 2.

On the interior, eighteen classrooms are organized around two north-south stair halls and one east-west corridor. Six classrooms, two on each floor, are stacked in the west (1909) block. These rooms open to the west stair hall. Six classrooms and one office suite (second floor) are stacked in the east (1935) block. These rooms open to the east stair hall. An east-west corridor spans the central (1924) block, connecting the two stair halls. Two classrooms flank the corridor at each floor, but are not accessible from the corridors.

Finishes throughout the building include plaster walls; tongue-and-groove wood floors on the first and second floors and concrete floors at the basement level; and wood base trim, chair rails, window and door casings, and built-in cabinetry. The historic plaster finish is missing from most ceilings, exposing the wood joists. Millwork details vary by date of construction (1909, 1924, or 1935). In the 1935 block (east), plaster walls have curved window returns. Historic administrative offices with curved walls occupy the north end of the east (1935) stair. Stud walls were erected when the school became administrative offices for the school district in 1968. Some of these partitions remain but are easily removable. Many have been partially demolished.

The two main entrances open into shallow vestibules. Openings with eighteen-light sidelights and an eighteen-light transom divide the vestibules and stair halls. Pairs of doors that filled the openings are no longer extant. Two straight stairs rise from the basement to the first floor and from the first floor to the second floor. The west stair dates from 1909 and the east stair dates from 1935. The identical stairs have wood treads, simple square wood newel posts, and rounded wood handrails. At the basement level, closets are located beneath the stairs. At the first floor, a doorway at the rear of the stairs, beyond plaster-clad pillars and an arched opening, leads to the basement stairs. Between the basement and first floors, turned balusters line the stairs. Between the first and second floors, solid wood paneling lines the railings. A low wall with the same wood paneling surrounds the stair at the second floor. Stair halls have high plaster ceilings. The stair halls are the primary circulation cores of the school. The classrooms, the 1935 offices in the east block, and the 1924 corridors open directly into the stair halls. A corridor with arched doorways at each end runs east-west, spanning the center of the 1924 block, connecting the 1909 and 1935 stair halls on each floor.

An athletic field spans the south end of the property. The grassy field measures approximately 441' x 225'. Two 10' x 20' canopies with metal shed roofs and metal columns dot the north end of the field. The extant metal bleachers replaced the original wood bleachers in 2000.

The large rectangular 52' x 159' metal shed runs along the west border of the football field. This utilitarian storage building has a shallow gable roof. It was likely added around 1970 after the school was converted to administrative offices.

A small roughly 33' by 35' locker room building is centered on the north end of the football field. The concrete block building has a standing seam metal front-gable roof. The exact construction date of this basic building is unknown, but it is not present in photographs from the 1950s.

Two 15' x 9' and one 30' x 18" sets of metal bleachers are centered at the north end of the athletic field. The larger bleachers sit on a concrete pad and have a chain-link railing along the upper edges. The two smaller bleachers sit directly on the ground.

Cortez High School has been altered since its initial construction in 1909. An addition constructed in 1924 mimicked the form and massing of the original building. A second addition constructed in 1935 used the same materials and massing, but altered the building form to reflect the tenets of Works Progress Administration (WPA) Rustic architecture that was popular at the time. These changes replaced the hipped roof and bell tower on the 1909 block with a flat roof and stepped parapets to create a unified, cohesive building form. The building interior was also updated periodically. New classroom doors and restroom facilities were installed in in the 1950s. When the building was converted to administrative offices, partitions were added to subdivide classrooms into smaller offices; the partitions were removed and the historic volume of classroom spaces was restored after 2000.

A football field was created on the south portion of the property in 1935. Historic photographs show a small section of wood bleachers on the north end of the athletic field, near the present metal bleachers. These were removed at an unknown date and the existing bleachers were installed in 2000. The locker room building was constructed around this same time. A playground area with metal slides and swings was located south of the building where the gravel parking area is now. It was demolished sometime after 1940, possibly ca. 1968 when the school was converted to administrative offices. A separate gymnasium building was constructed in 1922, west of the present school building. It was demolished between 1984 and 1993. A large utilitarian metal shed was constructed around 1970, along the west end of the athletic field.