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Colorado » The Colorado » La Plata County » Durango » Newman Block

Newman Block

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1892. 801–813 Main Ave. (northwest corner of 8th St.) (NR)

Red sandstone ashlar blocks from Ramsey's Quarry near Dolores give this three-story Romanesque Revival building a masonry monumentality. Pioneer miner, merchant, and state senator Charles Newman dressed up his corner edifice with cast iron storefronts and a pressed metal frieze with bas-relief garlands. Acanthus leaf capitals frame the leaded and frosted glass storefront transom. The Newman Block, home to storefront retail uses and upper-story offices, shares its block with some artful infill. Next door to the north, the Main Mall (1976, Richard D. Walker and Associates), 835 Main, uses fine contemporary brick-work for a facade animated by a dramatic cornice, corbeling, recessed two-story round-arched windows, bays, and a recessed entrance. Walker, a Durango architect, used textured burnt orange and blue-tinged bricks in this modern structure that acknowledges the legacy of Victorian buildings destroyed by fire.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

First National Bank
Burns National Bank
Strater Hotel
Central Hotel
Main Avenue Furnishings (Balthasar Kern Saloon)

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Newman Block", [Durango, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-LP03.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 556-556.

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