Year Listed: 2012
County: Yampa, Routt County
Construction Date: 1903
Threat When Listed: Demolition by Neglect – Vacant
Status: SAVED
Built in 1903, Crossan’s Market is an excellent and intact example of a small town mercantile building that stands as evidence to the development of Yampa and the surrounding agricultural economy. Closed in the mid-1960s after a competing merchant purchased the business and building, Crossan’s Market is a time capsule to an earlier time. Shelves stocked with merchandise from the 1960s are still present and calendars on the wall still hang open to 1964. The building has been owned by the City of Yampa since late 2006.
Unfortunately, regular building maintenance also largely ended in the 1960s. A recent HSA identified more than a dozen critical and serious deficiencies, perhaps most importantly a failed foundation that is causing the building to shift and fall. The Friends of the Crossan’s M&A Market are a dedicated group of local volunteers that have spent more than 500 hours cleaning, researching and stabilizing the building, but with an extreme climate and the limited financial resources of a town of 500 people, the building desperately needs additional help.
There are many potential uses for Crossan’s Market, including exhibit and archive space for the Yampa-Egeria Historical Society, the Yampa Town Hall, offices for the South Routt Economic Development Council, and/or a visitor’s center. Historic Routt County! is a strong advocate for the building and the project. Advocates for the building believe a successful rehab of the building would provide economic development opportunities for Yampa and the region, and also provide an invaluable case study for other small, isolated, rural communities with deteriorated historic building stock.
Exterior restoration is now successfully completed, with Historic Routt County as fiscal agent for State Historical Fund grants and total fundraising of over $1.2 million from 12 funding agencies and parties. CPI and History Colorado both gave awards to the project. CPI continues to promote this site as a successful small town, grass roots led rehabilitation success story for traditional mercantile buildings. The lower level is interpretive space and a genealogical research station, while the upper floor is the new Town Hall. These milestones have led the market to be considered a Save.