Cross over Main to View the rather severe but handsome façade of the Franch Block built in 1887. It is the second building with incised designs that seem more Southwest Native American than Victorian.
The Franch Block and the Aiello/Toller Buildings make up the three buildings in this block of downtown which contribute to El Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District. 1882 marks the first construction on any of the buildings in this group, although they did not enter their period of historical significance until 1887 with the addition of sandstone cladding that remains prominent today. The purchase of the Stevens block building (the central structure) by Giacomo Toller brought significant changes to the building, to reflect the increasing influence of automobiles at the time. These changes are also a good representation of Art Deco style architecture.
The magnificent Coal Miners’ Monument seen across the street, honoring local miners, is a project of Trinidad’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The life-sized figures are portraits of three actual miners created by sculptor Ben Johnson, instructor at Trinidad State College. Names on the base are men who worked the local mines. A statue of murdered Greek labor hero Louis Tikas was erected on site in 2018 by the United Mine Workers of America. Tikas, born Ilias Athanasios Spantidakis, in Crete in 1886, became a symbol of the struggle for labor rights in the United States after he was murdered by the Colorado National Guard on April 20, 1914 as the leader of the Ludlow miners who went on strike against inhuman working conditions in the Rockefeller’s CF&I mines.
At the far end of the block, on the north side, was the location of one of the very early general stores that catered to Santa Fe Trail traffic, owned by Maurice Wise, the Jewish merchant who donated part of the land for the Catholic Church and parochial school. In the first years of the 20th century, this building housed the Trinidad Electric Transmission Company. And it was here, in 1911, during a week-long show that had Trinidad agog, that local housewives first saw such marvels as electric washing and sewing machines, an iron that didn’t have to be reheated on the coal stove, and even an electric cooking range! All of these were marvels foretelling the end of the coal era that supported the town.
On the corner across the street is a handsome, rather utilitarian building put up by John Aiello, brother of the man who had the ruckus with Carry Nation. That was the site of the Colorado Hotel in 1868, when most of the 60-odd Anglos in town barricaded themselves against about 300 Hispanics swarming outside, angrily demanding the surrender of a few of the Anglos at whom their fury was aimed. Now known as the Trinidad War, it was really a race riot. And, though men of good will on both sides tried to talk reason, peace didn’t come until the U.S. Cavalry roared into town and camped for several weeks. Supposedly started by a wrestling match between an Anglo and a Hispanic that ended with the death of the Hispanic, it actually was a result of friction built up over the years by a clash of cultures.
Even in small ways, such as casual pastimes, the cultures rubbed against each other. For instance, the Anglos were mostly repulsed by the Hispanics’ great sport often practiced along about here on Main Street. It was called “Racing for the Rooster”. A chicken was buried up to its neck in the sand of the street and young caballeros, one by one, galloped past, leaning from the saddle in an attempt to pick up the rooster by its head. Of course, often only the head came. Beech Street, which formerly crossed Main, now deadends, its northern continuation converted into a one-way parking lot access.
