Posted for Nancy Yearout
RE/MAX Properties of the Summit, Breckenridge, Colorado
nyearout@colorado.net
http://www.realestate-breckenridge.net
Breckenridge will soon add another historic building to its growing arts
district with the pending purchase of Abby Hall, currently home to the Great
Divide Calvary Church.
The town is in the process of acquiring the
121-year-old structure from long-time locals John and Wendy Cooney. It will
likely be used as a dance studio within the arts district, according to a
statement on the purchase.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for the town
to preserve an iconic building,” Breckenridge Mayor John Warner stated in the
release. “It provides a strong link from the arts district to the Riverwalk
Center. We are grateful that John and Wendy have a similar vision of historic
preservation and that it was made available to us.”
Abby Hall,
constructed around 1892 on the north corner of Main Street and Washington Avenue
in Breckenridge's historic downtown core, was originally owned by Dr. B.A.
“Braz” Arbogast and was used as a grocery store and a doctor's office. A local
Masonic Lodge purchased the building in 1905 for $800. A century later, the
Cooneys bought it and it has since become a church.
It is still unclear
how much Breckenridge will pay for the structure, as the deal is not yet final.
“The town has signed an ‘intent to purchase' agreement, so no monies
have been exchanged until closing,” Breckenridge spokeswoman Kim Dykstra-DiLallo
told the Summit Daily in an email.
The town is slated to close on the
building April 1.
It will become part of an evolving arts district
campus in the center of town, which now includes several historic buildings
housing everything from antiques to museums to public art studios where
Breckenridge residents and visitors can take classes or watch visiting artists
work.
Town officials are currently redesigning the arts district to
create the sense of a cohesive campus among the buildings and, ultimately, tie
them in with the Riverwalk Center, located on the opposite side of Main Street
across the Blue River Plaza from the remainder of the district.
Abby
Hall, located on Main Street, is intended to provide a natural connection
between the Riverwalk Center and the other structures — most of which are
situated between Main and Ridge streets along Washington Avenue — and provide a
venue for a needed dance studio in the district.
The Arts District,
commissioned in a 2004 master plan to ensure the adaptive reuse of a number of
historic buildings, was set to be completed in 2025, but town leaders decided
last year to accelerate the development. It is now set to be completed by 2015.
“I love the vision of this functioning as a fully realized arts
district,” Councilman Ben Brewer said of the plan in 2012. “I think it could
become an economic engine for our town.”
More than $2 million is budgeted
for arts district improvements this year. It is unclear whether the cost of Abby
Hall will come out of that money.
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News
