Telluride: Folk Victorian Homes
By Stephanie M. Chambers
While in Telluride, the geographical, historical, cultural and technological influences on the evolution of shelter structures becomes clear in its Folk Victorian homes. This quaint village, encircled by a rugged canyon formed by the San Juan mountains, lured many in the early 1800s with its promises of gold. The San Juan mountain range is spectacular. No other range in the continental United States offers as many peaks over 10,000 ft. Today, this quiescent town of 2,000 people gives no hint of the rough-and-tumble industrial history, common to most western mining towns.
Telluride is the county seat and most populated town in San Miguel County in southwestern Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River. The earliest gold mining claim was made in the mountains above Telluride, in 1875, and settlement of what became Telluride followed. The town itself was founded in 1878 as “Columbia”, but due to confusion with a California town of the same name, was renamed Telluride in 1887 for telluride minerals found in other parts of Colorado.
Though there are examples of Romanesque, Italianate, Queen Anne and Gothic Revival, the majority of remaining original homes are Folk Victorian (green house, below, is Victorian with Dutch Revival influences). This style was popular during the late 1800s. Just plain folk could afford these no-fuss “Folk Victorian” homes, using trim work made possible by mass production.
Industrialization and the growth of railroads (in this case, the arrival of the Denver and Rio Grande Southern Railroad) meant that decorative architectural trim could be mass produced and sent to remote corners of the USA. Also, smaller towns could obtain sophisticated woodworking machinery. Builders began to apply machine-made decorative details to simple farmhouses (sometimes called National Style houses).
While fire, ice, wind and water were the ultimate architects of this canyon, American creativity played a major part in shaping this frontier communities’ architectural character. Telluride’s beauty is a well-kept secret. And the ones who know it, are understably reluctant to share.