Re: Silverton Railway Sign Question

The building was built in two sections. The front two rooms were built for the Silverton Railroad in 1890 and the rear portion added in 1896 for Silverton Northern office space. The land was always owned by the D&RG with Otto Mears, and later James Pitcher, only owning the building.

After the SN folded the building continued to be owned by the Pitcher family until 1949 when it was sold to Lester Steward who was an assayer at the Mayflower (Shenandoah-Dives) Mill. He bought the lab equipment from the Sunnyside Mill when it was torn down that year. Steward then moved to Durango in 1959 and bought the Root & Norton assay lab while selling the ticket office building to his brother Willard. In the 1970’s the D&RGW wanted the land back and Willard Steward started to tear the ticket office down. Fritz Klinke convinced him to donate it to the San Juan County Historical Society instead, who then got the land under it donated by the D&RGW. The current owner bought Les Steward’s Root & Norton lab in 1979 and moved it to Silverton, leased the ticket office and subsequently did the first restoration of it. Later the Historical Society sold the building to a friend of the current owner who then later sold it to the current owner.

I can't explain why the building doesn't appear on either the Silverton RR ICC valuation maps or the 1904 or 1906 Silverton Northern ICC maps. Maybe the ICC didn't consider it to have any value worth noting since these railroads did not own the land it sat on?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2020 09:49PM by Justin Kerns.