Trinidad Colorado Architecture

At the corner of Main and Commercial Streets stand the McCormick Building
(right) and the old Columbian Hotel, both now occupied by shops.

Trinidad retains its architectural treasures from the early days. The town has over 80 historic buildings designed by only one of its prominent architects—Isaac Hamilton Rapp.

Rapp and his partners contributed such buildings as Temple Aaron, one of Colorado’s oldest synagogues, and the First National Bank building. Later in his career, Rapp created the Santa Fe style, an example of which stands on Trinidad’s municipal golf course.

For a self-guided tour of Trinidad’s downtown architecture, pick up A Walk Through the History of Trinidad by Gerald Stokes. The subtitle of this informative and highly entertaining guide is “An Irreverent and Frankly Gossipy Guide Through the Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District.”

City Hall is a graceful example of Victorian eclecticism. The Greek ionic columns rest atop early Italian Renaissance bases and are flanked by front corner towers of late Italian Renaissance design.
Constructed in 1879, the waterworks is the second oldest building in Trinidad. The alternative to subscribing to owner Delos Chappell’s rate of 5 cents per gallon and 2 cents after 8,000 gallons was buying river water by the bucket from vendors using horse-drawn wagons.
Trinidad’s opera house was the scene of more rowdy good times than opera.
Trinidad's Carnegie Public Library. Locally quarried sandstone was used for many of the town's buildings.
In earlier days, the Elm Street Depot served the Colorado and Southern Railroad.
Frank Edbrooke, who has been described as Denver’s premier nineteenth-century architect, designed downtown’s Toltec Building.
Detail of the First National Bank building.