Help preserve Colorado Springs history

Posted: May 31, 2011 5:22 PM by Stephanie Collins

A small group of people made up of Colorado Springs residents and a City Council member, are trying to save a historical building downtown.

The old steam plant and ice house, built in the early 1900's, is located downtown off W. Vermijo. Part of it was torn down sometime last week, but the current owner agreed to stop demo for a few days to see if the group could come up with another alternative.

City Council member Tim Leigh is part of the group trying to save the building. While he doesn't think that is likely, he says it brings attention to some of the issues facing the city, "You've got several issues, you've got urban renewal, you have historic preservation and this building was just a manifestation, or tip of the iceberg, on pointing out some of those real obvious things we need to address on a city level," said Leigh.

Right now the group's looking for anyone that supports the idea of saving the old building, to help them out, but it wouldn't be cheap. The group estimates that restoring the old building would cost upwards of seven figures.

If you want to help you can contact Tim Leigh through email, Tim@TimLeigh.com.

The local business owner that owns the building is expanding, and said it's in such poor structural condition he didn't see any other logical option to tearing it down.