Monte Vista (1881, 7,663 feet), originally known as Lariat, prospered after the 1881 arrival of the D&RG and the introduction of irrigated farming. Monte Vista became an important shipping point for live-stock and crops, primarily barley and potatoes. The countryside is filled with cylindrical, corrugated stainless steel barley silos with conical tops, while Monte Vista itself is dominated by the rectangular tower of the Adolph Coors Company's ten-story barley elevator.
Monte Vista's prosperous agrarians and merchants developed one of the San Luis Valley's finest residential neighborhoods. Bounded by Prospect and 4th avenues, between Washington and Dunham streets, this area offers well-maintained examples of various ages and styles of residential construction, ranging from small brick and cast stone cottages to large period revival homes. Many of the commercial buildings, generally designed by the local contractors who constructed them, are of gray rhyolite from a quarry 7 miles south of town.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.