From here is the best vantage point for admiring the huge bulk of the Fox West Theatre, across the street to the west. Built by the same Edward West of the vast sheep flocks who built the West Block we just spoke of. Opened in 1908 as a venue for traveling Vaudeville acts, the Fox (named the West Theatre until the 1940s) was designed by the Rapp Brothers firm of Trinidad. It was one of the grandest theatres in the state --- indeed, in the West --- and many of its fine facilities and ornate details remain in the interior, though the street level façade has been extensively changed. Originally, twin Corinthian columns stood on either side of the entrance. They have disappeared but the handsome balustrade still decorates the top of the second story. The high-rising third (really, the fourth) floor at the rear of the building houses the intricate machinery for special effects on the stage and stores the many backdrops that were available for stage scenery.
The main auditorium seems limitlessly high with ornate, gilded carving on the front of the balconies and private loges along the side. It boasts a seventy-one-foot stage that has hosted a wide array of history’s famous performers, including John Philip Sousa, Mother Jones, Roy Rogers, Sitting Bull, Rube Welch, violinist Rubinoff and many others. It seats 650 people and has received an award from the Colorado Historical Theatre Association for being the only remaining theatre in Colorado with a double-tiered balcony. In the basement, was a large ornate ballroom where orchestras played several times a week. The theatre was fully converted into a motion picture theater in 1929 and was operated as such until its closure in 2012.
In 2018, the historic building was purchased by the City of Trinidad and with the support of History Colorado and in partnership with Urban Neighborhoods, Inc, preservation of this architectural and cultural gem has begun.
You now stand in Trinidad’s once-infamous West Main street, for years the area of the town’s liveliest bars, brawniest gaming houses and thriving red light district. If you had walked here in the early 1900s, (you ladies wouldn’t), you would have been accosted about every three steps by flouncing skirts (or their pimps) and you would have kept a sharp lookout for drunks and pickpockets. Walk on down. It’s safe now.
About every four years from the 1880s until well into the 1900s, a clean-up of West Main was announced, either by the sheriff or the city police. A few raids would be made but, after elections, it was business as usual.
Return to Animas Street and turn left, to the north. The building that is now an annex of City Hall looks quite new and modern because of the unusual shape of its front windows and the glass entrance. However, it pre-dates City Hall next to it and must have been built in the 1880s, for it was used by Trinidad’s first mortuary (Sipes, established in 1879) to house its horse teams, carriages, and hearse. The building has had many uses since then and has belonged to the city for years.
