On the northeast corner of the upcoming intersection of Main and Maple is the Carlisle Building, about 80 years old and therefore one of the youngest on this tour. Its Spanish Mission style is particularly appropriate on the Trail to Santa Fe. As an aside, no one knows who Carlisle was. The best guess is an Eastern or mid-Western entrepreneur who financed the building and possibly was never even in town.
Across the street to the south was formerly the site of Trinidad’s first stage stop. The grandly named United States Hotel was a six-room adobe with one public room that was the lobby, bar, and dining room. Nevertheless, passengers who arrived on the dusty Barlow and Sanderson stages must have been glad to see it after a week’s trip across Kansas. That tiny structure had been replaced by a much grander two-story adobe building by the time ex-General and ex-President Ulysses S. Grant came to town in 1880. Practically every carriage and wagon in town was in the entourage that met him at the railroad station and escorted him here. That night, he was honored with a grand banquet and the list of town and county officials who made welcoming speeches looked interminable. Reading it, one begins to understand the General’s reputation for over-imbibing.
As early as 1872, parties were fighting to get hold of the very desirable property next to the hotel and stage stop. There were dishonored sales, lawsuits, countersuits, and charges of malfeasance against some of our most prominent and beloved pioneers and officials, a squabble that went on well into the 1900s. The present building was erected about 1910 and was, for years, a professional center for doctors, lawyers, dentists, and accountants.
The building at the end of the block was once a livery stable. Later flowing with the times, it became an automobile dealership and then stood empty for years. At this recording, it now houses Coin Dancer Antiques, where you might very well find period pieces dating back to its early days as a stable.