- City:
- Trinidad, CO
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Auditoriums and Arenas, Auxiliary Civic Facilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Started:
- 1936
- Completed:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
Description
Fort Wootton in Trinidad, Colorado “is a giant war memorial that takes up about half a city block. It was once described as the most complete war memorial in the nation. Nine veterans’ groups teamed up with the WPA to have it built in 1936-7. It has an auditorium and meeting spaces inside.”
Fort Wootton was from its “inception a veterans’ gathering place evocative of their military training and posts, somewhat patterned after the regional historic site Bent’s Fort. Further, and fortunately, in 2018 the county deeded the property to the Las Animas County Veterans’ Council, an organization now seeking to restore the property to its WPA heritage as well as its veterans’ associations.”
Source notes
“FORT WOOTTON MEMORIAL SQUARE” HISTORIC STRUCTURE ASSESSMENT HISTORY AND USE and ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE & CONSTRUCTION HISTORY, by James W. Steely, Architectural Historian (2019-2020)
https://bigmoneyrally.com/2012/?p=16791
https://www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/4706502075
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on January 22, 2017.
Additional contributions by Brent McKee and James Steely.
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