On the southwest corner of Walnut and 1st streets is a huge stone building that stretches for the entire block, now called Memorial Square but initially known as Fort Wootton. Although it was meant to look like a Western frontier fort, it was actually built in the 1930s as a make-work project for the WPA during the Great Depression. The large building on the corner, seldom used today, was formerly the scene of town meetings, bingo games and come-one, come-all dances. The remainder of the structure is actually a series of small buildings around a central courtyard, each building designated as a meeting place for one of the various veteran’s organizations. After many years of being the location for the Las Animas County Department of Social Services, the “Fort” once again is the home of local Veteran’s Organizations.
As you walk on up Walnut, you will pass on your left the larger meeting house to which the First Christian Church moved and, on your right, several still-occupied 1880s Victorian homes with their asymmetric tack-ons and gables.
Turn West (right) at 2nd Street for a good view across the street of a carefully refurbished mansion. Built about 1904-07 by two (of five in town) Tarabino brothers, both of whom were married and had families, the home had a common entryway that led to totally separate apartments, which accounts for the unusual design with the matching gables. The brothers owned and operated The Famous Department Store, one of downtown’s leading merchandisers. The steep-roofed frame house on the southeast corner of Second and Chestnut is possibly the oldest in this neighborhood. Panoramic photos of the city in the 1880s show it standing out prominently and pretty much alone.
