Focus

ELAINE HALE JONES

LIFESTYLES EDITOR

970-249-3444
B
Sunday,
September 8, 2002
elainej@montrosepress.com Montrose Daily Press

DAILY PRESS PHOTO ILLUSTRATION / ERIC DRUMMOND

The Carriage Works building on North Cascade Avenue stands as a reminder Montrose was forged in an era dependent on horse-drawn transportation. Pat Sears rides a
1880s-style buggy driven by Arthur Chaffee of Delta past the historic building.

Standing the test of time

ERIC DRUMMOND Far left, Eldon
SPECIAL TO THE PRESS Swanson of Mon-
MONTROSE — The weathered face of trose uses a shov-
the Carriage Works is a reminder of pi- el to tear the last
oneers who conquered the Western few shingles from
Frontier with wooden wheels forged of the north pitch of
iron and sweat. the roof on the
The slouching historic structure at Carriage Works
217 North Cascade Avenue stands at a building. This dry
crossroads. Shovel-wielding men pry sluicing machine,
wood shingles from its roof in prepara- left, once owned
tion to flatten Montrose’s last original by Charlie Diehl
false-front timber-framed building. to refine gold
“People don’t understand what we got could possibly be
over there,” says Bob Moore, who re- persevered at the
cently purchased the property, which Montrose Histori-
had been family owned since its con- cal Museum.
struction in the late 1800s. “It’s got no
foundation under there.”
“It wasn’t built with the thought that DAILY PRESS PHOTOS / ERIC DRUMMOND
it was going to stand there for 110
years,” said Marilyn Cox, curator of the
Montrose Historical Museum.
Time has taken its toll on the struc-
ture, teetering at the corner of North
Third Street and Cascade Avenue de-
spite a grant from the Colorado Histori-
cal Society that stabilized the building
and replaced a leaking roof. The grant
came after the building was put on the
Colorado State Historical Register in
1993.
“A strong wind from the southwest
would put it right out in the intersec-
tion,” says Dave Tousley, a neighbor of
the old structure.
“It’s got to come down before we can
fix it,” says Moore, who also owns
Moore Ray Tire & Petroleum Inc., a full-
service gas station and tire shop on
North Townsend behind the historic
Carriage Works.
Moore’s employees dart in and out of
the building, cleaning out years of
stored relics and dust. With the contents
removed workers needed only a few
days to strip the new wooden shingles
from roof last week. Moore intends to
pour a new foundation on the lot and re-
build Carriage Works with the original
pine.
“If it comes down, it comes back up,”
Moore says. “The more help I get, the
better it will be.”

Wagon wheels
If rebuilt, the two-story structure will
have another chapter to add to its histo-
ry, which began with its construction
around 1895. The structure was origi-
nally built to house the blacksmith busi-
SEE CARRIAGE WORKS, PAGE B4
Above, a document requesting carriage wheels from the Pad-
dock Hawley Iron Corp. in St. Louis dates the structure shortly
before Feb. 4, 1896. Bob Moore, right, puts up his dukes up
while wearing boxing gloves signed by former heavyweight
champion Jack Dempsey, who trained and spared in the Car-
riage Works. Moore says because the structure was built with-
out a foundation, 'We've got to tear it down. It can’t stand there
forever without lots of work.’
B4 SUNDAY, SEPT. 8, 2002 MONTROSE DAILY PRESS

DAILY PRESS / ERIC DRUMMOND

The Carriage Works building takes on a summer evening thunderstorm as lightning colors the sky. Years of storms have taken a toll on the old structure, which stands as a symbol of the Diehl fami-
ly in Montrose.

DAILY PRESS PHOTOS / ERIC DRUMMOND

Above, a gray sky silhouettes Eldon Swanson as he tosses wood shingles from atop the Carriage
Works. At right, the grain of rough-cut pine frames a window on the north façade of the building. Be-
low, an advertisement for the business from a 1904 edition of the Montrose Enterprise.

CARRIEAGE WORKS: Historic building is standing the test of time

FROM PAGE B1
ness of “Studebaker Bill” Diehl.
William Diehl, along with two of his broth-
ers, came to the new frontier town of Mon-
trose from Pennsylvania in 1881. He operated
a blacksmith shop across the street, develop-
ing a reputation as a talented horseshoer and
prompting a need for the Carriage Works
business.
The enterprise thrived as Montrose explod-
ed with a demand for brand specific parts
and repairs for horse-drawn carriages and
stagecoaches traversing the West. Anyone
needing a horse shod, a carriage repaired or
a new Studebaker Wagon in Montrose found
it at the Carriage Works.
Dempsey’s early digs
Studebaker Bill passed the property on to
his son, Charlie who, like many young men of
turn of the century, took an interest in box-
ing
“That old building used to be a hangout for
all the young men in town about 50 years
ago,” said Charlie Diehl in the April 16, 1962,
edition of the Montrose Daily Press. “Any-
body who wanted a scrap knew he could get
one there and a lot of them did.”
Jack Dempsey, whom Charlie Diehl de-
scribed as “one big strapping lad,” sparred
from time to time with Charlie and other
men.
“Dempsey wasn’t the biggest of the bunch,”
he said, “but he fought with a sort of con-
trolled fury that soon showed him to be the
best fighter of the lot”
That controlled fury made Dempsey a leg-
end in the boxing world. His first profession-
al fight happened at the Montrose Moose
Lodge in 1912. He went on to capture the
heavyweight championship of the world in
1919, a title he would hold until 1926.
“That building is interesting because of
Charlie’s relationship with Dempsey,” said
daughter Ruth Boulder in a 1975 edition of
the Montrose Daily Press. “Charlie always
thought he had contributed to forming Jack
Dempsey’s style.”
Although Charlie Diehl had several offers
to purchase for the Carriage Works building
before his death in 1966 he refused to sell.
“Nobody wanted the old shop,” he said.
“They just wanted that choice corner lot.”