One of Colorado’s best-known forts is in need of saving, along with a crumbling religious site, a pharmacy, and more structures in a new list of places requiring historic renovation, Colorado Preservation Inc. said Thursday.
The 29th annual Colorado’s Most Endangered Places includes a 1976 replica of Bent’s Old Fort outside La Junta, and much older structures such as the Hartman Castle in Gunnison, La Morada (Costilla County), Ordway Pharmacy (Crowley County) and Pearl Theater (Buena Vista), according to Katie Peterson, director of the Endangered Places program for Colorado Preservation.
“These historic resources mean a lot to the people of Colorado,” Peterson said in an email to JS. “Colorado Preservation is eager to start working with partners to identify methods of preservation for each location.”
The nonprofit, founded in 1984, works with property owners, local governments, counties and state legislature to help award grants and manage renovation projects. As of 2026, its Endangered Places list includes 149 historic places throughout Colorado, with 57 successfully saved and only nine lost, Peterson said.
It’s not just a matter of moldy history. Preserving the sites is also crucial because it creates local jobs and can drive tourism and town pride, said San Luis Mayor Tiffany Gallegos.
Just south of San Luis, Costilla County’s La Morada site was first built from adobe in the 1860s and used as a meeting place and spiritual center for the Hispano Penitente brotherhood. There they cared for the sick, buried the dead and baptized children while feeding the poor, Colorado Preservation said. Nearly every Hispanic community in the San Luis Valley had a morada between 1870 and 1920, but only two are now active in the state.
“The restoration of the Penitente Morada will not only help revive San Luis’ struggling economy,” Gallegos told JS. “(It will) also continue to support the town’s revitalization efforts as we work diligently to bring back economic vitality to our community.”
While the Bent’s Old Fort site already enjoys National Historic Landmark status, given its location along the Santa Fe Trail, more resources are needed to keep its marquee structure from failing. The original fort, constructed in 1833, was long ago lost to “time and flood,” Colorado Preservation said. But the replica fort is now 50 years old and faces the same dangers, currently requiring metal construction braces to remain intact.
In Crowley County, the Ordway Pharmacy was the heart of the town’s Main Street for more than a century, but the building has stood empty since the pandemic, according to Mayor Jerry Barber. Lately, “its roof is failing and its brick walls are crumbling, but the town’s determination to save it reflects the same tenacity that built Ordway,” Colorado Preservation added.
“We are excited to have the Ordway Pharmacy named as one of Colorado’s Most Endangered Places,” Barber said in an email to JS. “It’s the first time our town has ever had a building on the list and we hope this will help us in our effort to gain statewide recognition and resources to save the building.”
The landmark, 132-year-old Hartman Castle is privately owned in Gunnison, but it’s vacant and in need of repair, Colorado Preservation said. It could very well reopen as a community gathering center and performance space — provided it has the proper support, according to the Hartman Castle Preservation Corp., a local nonprofit that’s leading the effort to buy it and fix it up.
Chaffee County’s Pearl Theater, built in the 1880s, was first a mercantile that sold groceries and whiskey that in 1951 became a movie theater. At one point the Buena Vista building even had a basketball court upstairs, Colorado Preservation said. But after decades of neglect and water damage, it’s in dire need of rescue. In fact, the family that owns it may be required to demolish it after it was declared unsafe by the city.
“This means a lot to Buena Vista because adding the Pearl Theater … offers critical recognition, technical assistance and visibility,” wrote Melanie Roth of the Buena Vista Historic Preservation Commission via email. “More than saving a building, this effort is helping us preserve a sense of place and identity that is central to Buena Vista’s story.”
Colorado Preservation’s Peterson and CBS Colorado meteorologist Dave Aguilera announced the list at a Thursday lunch at Denver’s Doubletree Hotel. Unlike many of the previous lists, this year’s roster does not contain any “saves,” or successfully completed projects.
