written by Alan Lambert
“Do Not Hitch.” If one looks closely at the prominent green and white, cast-iron, columns holding up the roof in front of the arched entryway of the Midland Building in downtown Rifle you will see these words. They harken from a time before Rifle’s streets were paved and automobiles parked along them.
These were the days when horses were the primary form of personal ‘transportation. Unlike the automobile, which wouldn’t be seen on Rifle’s streets for another decade, you couldn’t turn a horse “off.” You had to tie it to something, or it would head home without you. As anyone who has delt with horses knows, a 1,000-pound animal can do considerable damage to whatever its tied to if it gets spooked and pulls back. Hitching rails were installed along Rifle’s streets for this purpose. The columns at the Midland were not to be used for hitching horses.
The property on the south side of the 100 block of East Third Street, where the Midland Building now resides, was first occupied by Claussin’s Livery and Cato’s Blacksmith Shop. Built in the 1890’s, this large, wooden structure was an important part of the early commerce of Rifle. However, these businesses were short lived when the building burned to the ground the night of May 3, 1902 during Rifle’s Great Fire. This fire destroyed over one half of Rifle’s downtown.
The property stayed vacant for a couple of years when it was purchased by Dr. Noah Dymenberg, one of Rifle’s first medical doctors. Dr. Dymenberg was born in Austria and attended school there before immigrating to America where he continued his educatibn at the University of St. Paul, St. Paul, Minnesota, where he earned a degree inl Medicine. He did his graduate work at Chicago’s Polyclinic Hospital. In 1897 Dr. Dymenberg arrived in Rifle and set up his practice. While in Rifle Dr. Dymenberg became known for his civic involvement and served for a time as President of the Rifle Board of Education. By all accounts he had a very busy practice and began to see a need for a hospital.
In 1904, after purchasing the property on East 3rd Street, Dr, Dymenberg began building Rifle’s first hospital. Named the Rifle Sanitarium, it was a two story, brick structure, 42′ by 60’, that had 10 beds, with a large operating room, two baths, sleeping porch, hot water plant, and adjoining garage for buggies and wagons.
Before the hospital was completed, Dr. Dymenberg sold the hospital to Dr. J. T. Beal who operated it as a hospital for the next 13 years. Back then, medical facilities did not have taxpayer funds to back them up. Hard times forced Dr. Beal to sell the hospital in 1917 to a man named A. D. Raynard, who converted it to the Midland Hotel.
For the next 60 years the Midland Hotel was a fixture of downtown Rifle, under various owner, hosting travelers, hunters, fishermen, tourists, speculators, businessmen, train crews and many a rowdy cowboy looking for a place to take a bath and hang his hat after a long ride bringing in cattle herds to the Rifle Stockyards. By the 1970’s the hotel became more of an extended stay facility, renting rooms to elderly folks who could no longer keep up their homes. It allowed them to stay independent without being committed to a nursing home. The Midland Hotel is also where the Greyhound bus would pick up and drop off passengers in the days before I-70.
On May 2, 1982, known throughout the Western Slope as Black Sunday, was the day the huge oil company, Exxon-Mobile, locked the gates to oil shale research facility near Rifle after the Federal Government pulls funding for Oil Shale research. Hundreds of Rifle residents were without jobs, businesses closed, and real estate prices plummeted. It would take the next 20 years for the economy to recover.
The Midland Hotel was one of the businesses that did not survive, and the building sat vacant for much of the next 20 years. By 2001, the roof had sprung numerous leaks, and it was questionable whether the building was structurally sound. Bums found it an attractive place to spend the night and it was a concern that they could start a fire that would once again destroy the downtown. The Midland building, at that time, was owned by a land speculator out of Basalt, who bought the property for next to nothing, and was sitting on it until land prices went back up and he could make a tidy profit. To him, the building was expendable and not worth putting any money into trying to save. To the people of Rifle, it was an iconic part of Rifle’s downtown and an effort save it was begun.
In 2001, I was president of the Rifle Area Chamber of Commerce. During many meeting with local business owners I often heard about the Midland building, how its dilapidated facade was hindering efforts to revitalize the town’s downtown core. Private efforts weren’t getting anywhere, and it soon became apparent it would take the muscle of the city government to make a change. It was with this in mind that I ran for Rifle City Council and was elected to that position on September 11, 2001. It definitely wasn’t a day to celebrate.
Also elected to the council that day was a well-known, local, schoolteacher by the name of Keith Lambert. Although we shared the same last name, we were not related and did not even meet each other until we ran for council, however we found a common bond, and that was the revitalization of Rifle’s Downtown, starting with the Midland Building.
At the time, Rifle had several large, vacant buildings that were teetering on collapse. Each had historic value, but we knew not all could be saved. One of the worst was the Hoback Flour Mill, a two story, false front, wooden structure that was leaning considerably to the east. The building started life as the Rifle Plumbing Company and was built in 1901 on the 100 block of East 2nd Street where the City Hall Parking Garage is currently located. In 1924 it was purchased by 0. M. and Wilda Hoback who turned the building into Rifle’s first flour Mill. Years later the building housed a laundry and then became a storage area for East Avenue Carpet.
By the spring of 2002 the Hoback Flour Mill building became the Rifle City Council’s “sacrificial Lamb.” Using city ordinance 7-2-140, Dangerous or Vacant Structure, the building was ordered demolished, and it was. Although members of the of the local historical society were not happy, the building’s demise established two things, the council had the wherewithal to enforce the ordinance and gave notice to land speculators that they could no longer sit on empty, derelict buildings in the City of Rifle.
Shortly after the mill building came down, Rifle’s Planning Department invited the owner of the Midland Building to meeting at Rifle City Hall. Before this meeting took place, I met with a number of the folks dedicated to preserving the old Midland building. I explained to them that this was a high stakes game we were playing with the goal being the preservation of the building. However, we were taking the chance that if the owner did not cooperate, we would be forced to have it demolished for safety reasons. We knew that if a large public backlash took place to its possible destruction the owner could continue sitting on the property without doing anything. This we hoped to avoid.
On the day of the meeting, the Midland’s owner arrived at city hall and was led into the council’s meeting room by the city’s young, newly hired head planner, Matt Sturgeon. The room was packed with Rifle’s movers and shakers of the time including the mayor, and members of the City Council, board members of the Chamber of Commerce, the Fire Chief, members of the Downtown Development Authority and members of the historical society including those who were actively trying to save the building. It was standing room only. A seat was reserved at the front of the room and the owner was sat in it. One by one the people in the room expressed their concerns for the building and the future of the downtown. When it came to those who were actively trying to preserve the Midland, they said they were very concerned about the safety of the downtown and it the building was to burn it could wipe out the other historic buildings in the downtown!
With that, the Midland’s owner knew he had no chance and sunk lower in his seat. Mr. Sturgeon then explained his options:
- Preserve the building or tear it down,
- Sell it to someone who would. If this did not take place within 4 months the city would come in and demolish it and charge the owner for the cost.
Sturgeon then requested and received permission to send in a team of experts to determine if the building was structurally able to be preserved and what issues were to be faced if the building was to be demolished. Weeks later, it was determined the building was preservable, however it was full of asbestos. Almost immediately the building was sold for a much-reduced price.
Fortunately for Rifle, there was a man waiting in the wings who had the drive, the money, and the knowledge to restore the Midland Building. Israel Shapiro and his wife had just moved to the Roaring Fork Valley from New York State where he was instrumental in preserving historic buildings in New York City with his last project being the complete refurbishment of the Statue of Liberty. Not yet ready to retire, Israel bought the Midland and immediately began its restoration. While digging in the basement he came across many rusty horseshoes, plow parts and blacksmith tools, remains of Cato’s Blacksmith shop and the 1902 fire. By August 2004 Israel completed the restoration work and the chamber of commerce held a large celebration to commemorate the event. The building became, and continues today as a host for two restaurants, with the old hotel rooms being converted to offices.
Israel was not done preserving Rifle’s downtown. Before the Midland was completed, he purchased the empty lot across the street where the Rifle Mercantile once stood. This building burned to the ground on July 6, 1986, and remained as an empty lot since. Israel not only rebuilt the two-story building with modern materials and features, but he also made sure the brick facade exactly matched the original building. These two projects ignited a rebirth in Rifle’s downtown with other entrepreneurs investing in and restoring downtown buildings.
Matt Sturgeon was Rifle’s Planning Director for over 10 years before moving into the position of Rifle City Manager. Later, he shared this memory of his first project as a planner. “Even today, that project/process is one of the most gratifying of my career. I learned so much about Council, the community, and those few months; it was priceless to a new employee/Planning Director. I learned a lot about my boss, too. You are correct in how it played out. The mill building showed Council had the gumption to go the distance, and the asbestos report provided the ammunition. It was a gamble, but the payoff made the bet worth it. It was also helpful having someone we could believe in and trust, Isreal.
Wal-Mart, City Market and the Midland are why Rifle is where it is today. It showed we were savvy, committed, creative, and all in on the community. Once those fell in place then came the confidence and money to go further!”
The columns say “Do Not Hitch” but it didn’t stop the community from hitching on a dream and following it through!
