Industrial Utopia: The History and Architecture of South Pueblo

Thomas, Adam; DeHerrera, Jeffrey; HISTORITECTURE, LLC; Yost, Cheri

"South Pueblo was a place born of vision, of ambition, and of benevolence. It marked an intersection between the romantic mythology of the American West and limitless—often ruthless—industrial capitalism. For centuries the natives of this land climbed its windswept promontories and arid bluffs to witness the Arkansas River escape the distant, granite spires of the Rocky Mountains and emerge eastward onto the impossible vastness of the Great Plains. Here was a frontline of European conquest, where the King of Spain greedily guarded his empire against French incursion, though no monarch would ever step foot on its soil or ever know it as more than arbitrary lines on vague maps. Some Europeans passed through armed with gunpowder, others armed with the Word of God, turning their theology into geography: Sangre de Cristo — Blood of Christ. Empires rise and fall, and thus revolutionaries claimed this land, first the Mexicans and then the Americans. Yet natives and missionaries, kings and revolutionaries could not have imagined what would finally conquer them all and turn these mesas into a metropolis: steel... The town platted as South Pueblo originally consisted of three different regions south of the Arkansas River, each shaped by its topography and later the geometry of its streets (figure i.1). Nearest the river in the flat terrain of the river bottom is Union Avenue, or today’s downtown Pueblo. Above the Arkansas River sit the Blocks, historically known as Corona Park. Here curvilinear streets meander along the bluffs, which visually and physically separate it from downtown. Finally, across the main thoroughfare of Abriendo Avenue sits the flat topography and rigid geometry of Mesa Junction. Though the Union Avenue area has flooded many times, neither the Mesa Junction nor the Corona Park area has suffered the same fate, due to their high elevation. At the time of South Pueblo’s platting, the Arkansas River was free to roam; today it is bound in concrete and moved to the southwest. The original river channel hosts the Riverwalk. Therefore the river today divides the Union Avenue area from the Mesa Junction and Blocks neighborhoods. It is this divide too that defines the content of this historic context. Much has been written of the Union Avenue area in Pueblo; this historic district is also well-documented in photographs. As such, the City requested that this study focus on the present-day South Pueblo neighborhood, not the town of South Pueblo. As such, only the buildings and houses southwest of the current Arkansas River channel are included (Mesa Junction and the Blocks). These two neighborhoods host a variety of architecture and landscape architecture that have shaped the character of the city and the citizens themselves." Project funding was provided in part by a 2010 Historic Preservation Fund grant to the City of Pueblo (project number CO-10-022) administered by the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office (grant number 08-10-21912) administered by the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Pueblo, Colorado is a Certified Local Government.

Industrial Utopia: The History and Architecture of South Pueblo

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