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The Avalon has been Grand Junction's premiere venue for cultural events for nearly a century.

Thanks to grants, donations, and the support of government agencies, this modern addition is now part of the theater complex.  

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Constructed in 1923 by publisher and local businessman Walter Walker, the Avalon was and remains western Colorado's largest and grandest theater. This three-story venue combines Beaux-Arts and Renaissance architecture, just as the interior has combined the functions of a performance venue, movie house, and civic center over the past century. The glass windows of the building's front facade were covered in brick during a 1947 remodel, but thanks to historic preservation grants and the support of local citizens, those bricks have been removed and the brick and glass facade of the building now appears much as its original designers intended. In recent years, funds have been raised to fully preserve the historic theater and expand the structure to include a modern addition that doubles as a place to hold meetings and other events complete with a roof-top terrace.

Avalon Theatre

Beginning at the RR Depot, walk through historic downtown, and spend time in the museum or a shop.

The Denver &amp; Rio Grande Western (D&amp;RGW) Railroad Depot has anchored the town's railroad stop since 1905. The Italian Renaissance style building constructed of white brick was the design of Henry J. Schlack and was built by the William Simpson Construction Company. The building was decorated with terra cotta ornamentation and covered by a tile roof. Arched, stained glass windows on the second floor gave the building a distinctive look. The D&amp;RGW company began in 1870 with a narrow-gauge rail line heading south from Denver by 1871. The line headed west across the Rocky Mountains to the mining town of Leadville. From Leadville, the line headed further west, over Tennessee Pass, to Grand Junction. The Royal Gorge Route passed through Canon City in 1874, reached Salida and Leadville in 1880, reaching Montrose in 1882. A line was laid north from Montrose through Delta, finally reaching Grand Junction in March 1883. One of the partners in the company, William Bell, began another rail line, the Denver &amp; Rio Grande Western. This line began in the coal-rich areas of Utah and headed west into Colorado. The two lines met in 1883 near Green River, west of Grand Junction. The first station at Grand Junction was a log structure. The D&amp;RG bought a substantial swath of land adjacent to the depot to establish a repair facility and switchyard. The railroad was soon one of the area's largest employers, bringing an influx of new workers, mainly immigrant labor. As the new town grew, a Queen Anne style, 2-story depot was built. A sugar beet boom doubled the town's population in the first years of the twentieth century, and a larger depot was needed for the four rail lines operating out of the town. The masonry structure that became the third train station in Grand Junction was initially named the "Union Passenger Depot." The building was heated by steam from the round house and had electric lights in 1907. The depot was adjacent to a restaurant and a dwelling along the tracks in 1907, with two other restaurants and a saloon within steps of the depot on the adjacent street, E. Pitkin Avenue. The main block of the depot featured a spacious waiting room on the first floor with railroad offices above. The three one-story spaces in the attached wing held a baggage room, the Wells Fargo Express Office, and the Globe Express office. The US Railroad Administration took over the rail line during World War I. The D&amp;RG rail company fell into receivership and was reorganized in 1921. Bankruptcy occurred again in 1935, but by 1947, the line was back in business. The railroads switched from steam engines to diesel in the 1950s. The rails at Grand Junction continued to be busy due to the area's coal, oil and gas development. The DR&amp;G gave up the passenger route in 1983 and it was incorporated into Amtrak. The depot at Grand Junction was no longer being used by Amtrak after 1992, which moved to another nearby building that was deemed safer. The depot has been stabilized by historic preservation efforts to save the vacant structure.

The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Depot has served Grand Junction since 1905. the two-story, white brick structure with terra cotta ornamentation brings a touch of the Italian Renaissance architectural style to the town. The station was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 as part of a multi-property submission, Railroads in Colorado from 1858 to 1948.  The nomination was completed by Colorado State Parks with a grant from the Colorado State Historical Fund. Ironically, also in 1992, Amtrak stopped using the historic depot, opting for another nearby structure. Historic preservation resulted in the vacant depot being stabilized for reuse someday.

Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Depot

Stranges Grocery was built by a local Italian immigrant stonemason, Nunzio Grasso, in 1909 in Little Italy. The building has elements of Romanesque Revival and Italianate styles combined into a local style. The three rounded arches at ground level are the building's most distinctive feature. The rusticated stone building material is rare in surviving buildings in town, and was quarried from the Book Cliffs. Before the building was constructed, a one-story wood frame dwelling occupied the lot at 226 E. Pitkin Avenue, as seen on the 1907 Sanborn map of the town. Many Italians immigrated to America to find work in the 1890s, especially in the booming railroad industry. Not surprisingly, the Little Italy neighborhood that developed in Grand Junction was located a short walk from the railroad depot and rail yards for the Denver &amp; Rio Grande, in the southwest corner of downtown. Many of the Italian immigrants who came to occupy the neighborhood of a couple dozen blocks were from Calabria in southern Italy. Carl Stranges came to the U.S. from Italy in the 1880s when he was in his twenties. He was the first owner and operator of the store he had built by Grasso. The ground floor contains a large room that held the store shopping area and a back room for storage. Upstairs were three small apartments. The 1912 Sanborn map depicts a smaller stone buildnig with a wood frame dwelling to the rear of the store. By 1919, the stone building had been extended toward the rear of the lot, to its current footprint, with wooden porches on the rear; the wood frame dwelling had been removed. The parapet, gable roof, and chimney were added to the structure in 1924. Little Italy became less of an intact ethnic neighborhood after the 1920s. Decreasing discrimination led to Italian-Americans having an easier time finding housing in the town outside of Little Italy; the Great Depression caused many to move away from Grand Junction entirely, looking for work. Carl Strange owned the store for the rest of his life, but retired due to health issues by the 1930s. In the early 1940s, after his death, Carl's niece and her husband inherited the building and kept the business open into the 1950s. By 1963, the grocery business was closed and the building was vacant. In the next several decades, the building went through a number of owners, housing a variety of businesses, including the Marmot Mountain Works, an outdoor clothing store. This store is said to be the last building remaining from Little Italy in the city's West-Side Redevelopment Area. Plans to demolish the building due to road reconstruction were altered to save the building, which sits unoccupied but intact. The current owner uses the building as warehouse space.

The rusticated sandstone building at 226 Pitkin is the only one left unaltered, of four Italian grocery stores from Grand Junction's "Little Italy" in the early twentieth century. Nunzio Grasso, a local stonemason, constructed the building in 1909. The first owner was Carl Stranges, an Italian immigrant. His family operated the business into the 1960s. The vacant building was listed as one of Colorado's Most Endangered Places in 2001. Road reconstruction was altered to preserve the building, and Stranges Grocery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. The building is significant for its architecture, being one of only a few of its type remaining in town, and for its representation of European ethnic heritage and commerce.

Stranges Grocery

The Museum of the West occupies a brick building on the corner of Ute St. and S. 5th St., across the street from Whitman Park, with parking adjacent to the building. The museum displays an historic stagecoach and a 1958 Cessna aircraft. The local uranium mining boom from the 1950s is represented in exhibits. A temporary gallery exhibit in 2020 is titled Famous, Framed and Folk Art: Eclectic Art from the Museum of the West's Collections. Artworks by Harold Bryant, Alfred Nestler and other prominent local artists are on display, along with folk art carved wagon trains. The museum's tower, the Sterling T. Smith Education Tower, offers fantastic, 360-degree views of the area. There are exhibits on local geology, archaeology and historic preservation in the tower, too. The second floor of the building houses the Loyd Files Research Library, currently open by appointment only, Tuesday to Friday, 10a-4p. The library specializes in regional natural and cultural history and contains over 3,000 books in the Mesa County Genealogical Society's collection, historical maps, and other materials gathered by the county's Historical Society and the Quahada Chapter of the Colorado Archeological Society. Onsite research at the library is free, unless there are large-scale or commercial requests for research. The Museum of the West currently charges admission of $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 for children, and $20 for immediate family groups of up to six people. Members get in for free. Special events are sponsored by the museum throughout the year. The second annual Speakeasy event on May 8, 2020 celebrates the roaring 20s, and encourages one and all to dress in period costumes. The Museum of the West and the Loyd Files Research Library are part of a group in the region that form the Museums of Western Colorado. The others are the Cross Orchards Historic Site on the outskirts of Grand Junction and the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita. The mission of the museums is to inspire and connect their community by championing the scientific and cultural heritage of the Colorado Plateau.

This museum offers a variety of interactive exhibits that trace the history of western Colorado over the past thousand years. The Native American galleries offer pottery and other artifacts from the period before Columbus's arrival to the 19th and 20th centuries. There are also displays that show the evolution of firearms on the frontier and a special room dedicated to the early Spanish explorers. Perhaps the highlight of the museum is a recreation of what Grand Junction looked like a hundred years ago, with full sized buildings from one-room schools to saloons. For those wishing to learn more, the Loyd Files Research Library on the second floor offers rare books, diaries, historic photographs, and other one-of-a-kind items for historians and genealogists. 

Museum of the West

The Melrose Hotel is the sole survivor of twelve historic hotels that once operated in Grand Junction and still is a hotel. The hotel was built in 1908 by James William Ponsford and his two sons. The building was doubled in size in 1911 after it expanded onto an adjacent lot. The hotel boasted running water in every room by the late 1920s. The Ponsford family retained ownership of the hotel until 1993. The Melrose Hotel was one of four hotels on its block - the 300s on the south side of Colorado Avenue - in the 1910s. The larger and better-known St. Regis Hotel occupied the corner and the Melrose was three doors down. The brick building on the adjacent lot served as the Melrose's restaurant in 1912. Don't let the old-timey décor fool you - the Melrose Hotel now offers wi-fi and cable television. The hotel features a shared kitchen and dining room and a spacious sitting area. There is an outdoor patio for grilling. Restored telephone booths grace each floor. Part of the hotel operates as a hostel, with visitors from across the globe staying here. The hotel is just a three-minute walk away from the Museum of the West. Some say the basement of the Melrose Hotel is haunted and that a murder occurred there. The hotel's owner, Joya De Pasquale, invited the ghost hunting team from the television show "Ghost Adventures" to the hotel for a paranormal investigation. The team spent four days checking out the spirits in November of 2018 and the episode aired on the Travel Channel in March 2019. The quintessential ghost, a lady in a white dress, has reportedly been seen by some hanging around the hotel. De Pasquale, who lives on the top floor of the hotel, suspects the late wife of the owner from whom she bought the hotel, twenty years ago, may be the source of some of the mischief, of doors opening by themselves. The previous owner was charged with the murder of his wife and later confessed; only her skull has been found, on a ranch in another county. You can check out the episode (video link below) and decide for yourself what you believe.

The Melrose Hotel is a boutique hotel in downtown Grand Junction currently with 16 rooms. The two-story brick building was constructed in 1908 as a hotel and was expanded onto the adjacent lot in 1911. The history has been marred by a murder in an owner's family in the 1990s that might have occurred in the hotel. While the Melrose Hotel is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is on the City of Grand Junction's Register of Historic Sites, Structures, and Districts. The Melrose is the only one of the twelve historic hotels in town that still operates as a hotel.

The Melrose Hotel

William H. and Allie Neff and Anna Scott financed the construction of the original Grand Hotel and Restaurant which opened in 1895. The west wing of the building was added by new owner Harry Earl Bernett, Sr. in 1906, increasing the number of guest rooms to 28. The hotel's dining room was expanded by the addition, and the business was renamed the New Grand Hotel. Bernett Sr. sold half-interest in the hotel to his son, Jr., in 1920; Sr. died in 1924. Also in 1924, the city's leading radio station KREX broadcast music from live musicians, the Armand de Beque dance band, from the hotel's massive ballroom. Bernett Jr. was friends with the heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, and was said to have been his first manager. In the next decade, the grandeur and free-flowing spirits of the hotel's Oriental Room defied the economic reversal of the Great Depression, but the St. Regis could not overcome the fate of downtown hotels as post-World War II travelers chose economy hotels near interstate highways. A short-lived boom time for the hotel's bar took place in the 1950s with the uranium mining industry working nearby. The first-floor rooms that had been designed for travelling salesmen to demonstrate their wares were remodeled to provide more lounge space. Bernett Jr. died in 1960 and the new owners of the hotel were Amos and Roland Raso and A.W. O'Brien. The bar business turned out to be more of a success than the hotel. The hotel closed in 1985 and was nearly demolished in 1986. The St. Regis Hotel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 for its contribution to local commerce and for its Chicago and Italianate architectural styling. By that time period, the building held an active restaurant. In 2010, a fire nearly destroyed the historic building but thanks to the efforts of the local fire department the damage was minimal. The bar, The Feisty Pint, is one of the ground floor occupants now, a craft beer pub and restaurant.

This former hotel was completed in three phrases that reflect the growth of Grand Junction between 1892 when the hotel first opened as the Grand Hotel, and 1924 when the building reached its current size. The building's signature cupola was completed in 1908-the same year that the hotel changed its name to the St. Regis Hotel. The Italianate style of architecture can be seen throughout the exterior of the former hotel, which served as the leading hotel of western Colorado and the social capital of the city of Grand Junction for many decades. The hotel's ballroom and grand dining room hosted many events and celebrities such as boxer Jack Dempsey. The hotel struggled as rail traffic declined and most visitors to the city chose other accommodations. By the 1970s, the hotel had very little business from travelers and most of the building was vacant or occupied by low-income rental units. Thanks to the efforts of local preservationists and several grants, the building was saved from demolition and is now home to restaurants and retail spaces.  

St Regis Hotel

Verner Z. Reed, a millionaire based in Colorado Springs, built the Margery Building in 1906, naming the building for his young daughter. Reed made his fortune in buying and selling gold mining companies or shares, becoming the leading stockbroker for the Cripple Creek Mining District in Colorado. The Reed &amp; Hamlin investment firm that Reed started with an attorney named Clarence C. Hamlin, was based in London. The globe-trotting Reed spent $30,000 to construct the two-story brick Margery Building in Grand Junction. Reed also built the nearby "Reed Building" downtown in 1908 at 362 Main Street, which housed a café and a gambling establishment; it was later known as the J.C. Penney Building. During this era, he and his family lived in various homes in Europe; Reed would visit the states several times per year to check on his investments. He switched to the oil business in the 1910s and he and the family split their time between homes in Paris and Denver. It seems likely that little Margery never saw the building named for her, in a little city on the far side of the Rocky Mountains from Denver, in person. The Margery Building has spaces for five businesses on the ground floor and has been prime business real estate for over 100 years. The spaces have contained hardware stores, barber shops, and many other enterprises. The storefronts are now fitted with plate glass windows and currently house a bridal shop, an outdoor gear shop, a beauty salon, and two clothing boutiques. The upstairs was built with a large ballroom space and several smaller spaces. The ballroom, with its hardwood floors and large windows, has been the location of many community meetings and events. Dance marathons were popular in the ballroom in the 1930s, with the last couple still dancing winning the prize money. The ballroom served as a ballet studio for a time, too. The second floor has shifted to more artistic uses, attracting painters and photographers. The building underwent some modernizations in the 1960s, but the brick detailing was restored in the 1990s. The building joined the listings on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

The Margery Building spans one side of a city block along Main Street in Grand Junction. The vernacular Victorian commercial structure was designed and built in 1905 to 1906 by the architect W.C. Boyer. The owner was a millionaire who named the building for his 13-year-old daughter. This rare surviving local example of the building form still houses downtown businesses. The upstairs holds a ballroom that has been used for everything from dance marathons and ballet lessons to community meetings. The Margery Building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, reflecting Grand Junction's transition from a frontier town to a more permanent small city.

Margery Building

The Aspinall Federal Building was designed to have a U.S. Post Office on the first floor and federal offices and a federal courtroom on the second and third floors. Initial plans called for the original building to be only two stories tall. The plans changed to three stories before construction began. The building was constructed on a concrete foundation with a steel framework. The exterior is clad mainly in Indiana limestone, quarried in Bedford, Indiana; the basement has concrete floors. The basement windows are covered in wrought iron grillwork with wrought iron railings on the window wells. The cornerstone is dated 1915, but wasn't laid until April 1916 due to a freight blockade. The construction began in October 1916 and was completed in March 1918. The contractors were the Dieter and Wenzel Construction Company of Wichita, Kansas. Although the building is the location of the U.S. District Court, it historically did not have its own resident judge. Judge Robert E. Lewis served at Grand Junction until 1922, along with two other federal courts. J. Foster Symes was only 44 years old when he was appointed the judge in 1922, and served until 1950. The first postmaster in 1918 was R.C. Walker. The arcaded main facade's design was replicated in the 1940 addition which lengthened the building 45 feet, to a total of 135 feet. Some windows changed to doors after the addition, and vice versa, to keep the main façade symmetrical. The wide granite steps to the entrance also were rebuilt to match the new entryways. A vestibule was added to the rear façade in 1923 and widened in 1940. A conveyor was built in 1957, connecting the vestibule to a rented building across the alley from the building. When the Post Office moved to a rented nearby building in 1965, the vestibule and conveyor were removed. The lettering on the main façade has changed three times. Originally, it read POST OFFICE, and was later replaced by gilded lettering reading UNITED STATES POST OFFICE AND COURT HOUSE. The lettering was changed once again in 1973, to aluminite that says WAYNE N. ASPINALL FEDERAL BUILDING UNITED STATES COURT HOUSE. A number of alterations have been made to the building's interior. Ceilings were dropped to install HVAC ducts, except within the courtroom, where the barrel-vaulted ceiling is visible. The third-floor courtroom was renovated in the early 1980s. The building received $15 million in federal funds for modernization in 2010. The award-winning project included the addition of photovoltaic panels on the roof, creating enough energy to power the building at peak use, making this the first net-zero building listed in the NRHP (it will create as much building as it uses per year). At ceremonies for the building's 100th year in 2018, contents of the building's original time capsule from within the cornerstone were examined, and a new time capsule was placed with 2018 mementoes.

The Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and Courthouse, also known as the U.S. Post Office in downtown Grand Junction, was constructed from 1916 to 1918. The dimensions of the original building were about 81 feet deep by 89 feet wide along Rood Avenue.  The architect of the Italian Renaissance style structure was James Wetmore. A major addition in 1940 lengthened the building 45 feet but kept the same architectural styling. The U.S. Postal Service vacated the building in 1965 and moved to a nearby building. The building was renamed in 1972 to honor Mr. Aspinall, who served Grand Junction in the U.S. Congress from 1949 to 1973. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

U.S. Post Office, Aspinall Federal Building

Handy Chapel has served the African-American community of Grand Junction since it was completed in 1892 by contractors Hunt &amp; McDonald. While it was being built, the local community held religious services on the lots sold to them in 1883 by the town's founder. The property was sold to the Black citizens of the town and not to any particular congregation. During the early years, the church was the site of services by travelling ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. The local congregation was small and isolated, but has been sustained to the present day. In the 1920s, a Chapel House was built on one of the adjoining lots. A second house is no longer standing and would be offered for housing for those in need. A dwindling population and a legal battle over who actually owned the church took their toll on the structures. The AME Church claimed the chapel as their property and attempted to sell it in the 1980s. While the legal battle was happening, the interior of the chapel was emptied of its pews, organ, pulpit and other furnishings. The locals won the lawsuit, and the chapel's ownership stayed within the community. The church's motto is "Act Like Jesus." During a time when hotels were segregated, the Chapel House offered a place to stay for Black travelers or those down on their luck. The matriarch of the chapel is Josephine Dickey, the great-granddaughter of one of the builders. Handy Chapel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. A local firm, Chamberlin Architects, completed an Historic Structure Assessment on the church and house. By 2011, the Chapel House had been boarded up for years, with a failing roof. The chapel was not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities act and its floors were deteriorating. HistoriCorps adopted the chapel as a project in 2011, and with local volunteers replaced the cedar shingle roof. A larger preservation project took place on Hardy Chapel and the Chapel House from 2012 to 2013. Multiple grants funded the nearly $300,000 it took to save the structures and bring them up to code.

Handy Chapel is the only original church building still standing in Grand Junction. The town founder, George Crawford, deeded lots to African-Americans in 1883 within the original square mile of town for one dollar. It took nine years to raise the nearly $970 needed to build the church on the lots, and it was finally finished in 1892. The church building was placed on the list of Colorado's Most Endangered Places in 2011 by Colorado Preservation, Inc. due to its deteriorating condition. HistoriCorps made Handy Chapel and the adjacent Chapel House one if its restoration projects in 2011. A larger restoration project took place on the church and the house from 2012 to 2013.

Grand Junction Historic Walking Tour

Avalon Theatre

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