# Collins Block

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{{Use American English|date=August 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                 = Collins Block – Aspen Lumber and Supply
| nrhp_type            =
| image                = Collins Block, Aspen, CO.jpg
| alt                  = A two-story brick building on a street corner seen from the opposite corner. It is lit by the sun from the right. At the street the sidewalk is sheltered by a roof supported by round white columns; the building's exterior there is faced in rough stone. Medium-sized trees are planted along the street. At the flat roofline is a wide black and white cornice; in the background at right is a wooded mountaintop.
| caption              = North and west elevations, 2010
| location             = 204 S. Mill St.,<br>[Aspen, Colorado](/source/Aspen%2C_Colorado)
| coordinates          = {{coord|39|11|22|N|106|49|9|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin             = Colorado#USA
| map_alt              = A map of Colorado in light yellow showing county boundaries and major rivers. There is a red dot in the center of Pitkin County, in the west central region of the state.
| built                = 1891–93<ref name="COAHP page">{{cite web|title=Pitkin County|url=http://www.historycolorado.org/oahp/pitkin-county|publisher=[Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation](/source/Colorado_Office_of_Archaeology_and_Historic_Preservation)|accessdate=March 10, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718203016/http://www.historycolorado.org/oahp/pitkin-county|archive-date=July 18, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| architect            =
| architecture         = Victorian, Neoclassical
| added                = March 6, 1987
| refnum               = 87000191<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2009a}}</ref>
| map_caption          = Location within Colorado
| designated_nrhp_type =
| visitation_num       =
| visitation_year      =
| mpsub                = {{NRHP url|id=64000071|title=Aspen MRA}}
}}
The '''Collins Block''' is a historic commercial building located at 204 South Mill Street in [Aspen, Colorado](/source/Aspen%2C_Colorado). It is a brick and stone structure erected in the early 1890s.

It was the last major construction project in the city before the silver-mining industry, mainstay of Aspen's economy, collapsed following the repeal of the [Sherman Silver Purchase Act](/source/Sherman_Silver_Purchase_Act). The [classically inspired](/source/classical_architecture) [decorative touches](/source/ornament_(architecture)), such as a colonnade-supported roof over the sidewalk and an elaborate cornice, are the only ones on a commercial building in the city. They anticipate the wider embrace of the [Classical Revival](/source/Classical_Revival) [style](/source/architectural_style) in other cities that began a few years later.<ref name="NRHP nom">{{cite web|last=Norgren|first=Barbara|title=National Register of Historic Places nomination, Collins Block – Aspen Lumber & Supply|url={{NRHP url|id=87000191}}|date=July 13, 1986|accessdate=December 22, 2012}}</ref>

For much of its existence it housed a lumber supply store. Local developer [Harley Baldwin](/source/Harley_Baldwin), owner of the neighboring [Brand Building](/source/Brand_Building), bought it in 1988. After renovations, he began leasing space within the buildings to upscale retailers, earning the two the combined nickname of "Gucci Gulch". The Caribou Club, a members-only restaurant and Aspen institution, is located in the basement.

==Building==

The building is located on the southeast corner of the intersection of East Hopkins Avenue and South Mill Street. Other commercial structures, historic and modern, fill the built-out [blocks](/source/city_block). To the immediate east is the [Brand Building](/source/Brand_Building), with [Aspen City Hall](/source/Aspen_City_Hall) on the opposite far corner. Both are listed on the Register. At the south end of the opposite block of Mill is another listed building, the [Wheeler Opera House](/source/Wheeler_Opera_House), opposite a [pedestrian mall](/source/pedestrian_mall).

Like most of its neighbors (except the Wheeler), the Collins Block is two stories high. The north frontage, along East Hopkins, is five [bays](/source/bay_(architecture)) long with the western [facade](/source/facade) seven. [Rusticated](/source/rustication_(architecture)) [sandstone](/source/sandstone), interrupted by several storefronts and a recessed corner entrance with column, faces the first floor on both sides. A flat wooden roof extends out to cover the sidewalk on both sides, supported by smooth round wooden [Tuscan](/source/Tuscan_order) columns.<ref name="COAHP page" />

The second story is faced in brick. On the north face [fenestration](/source/Building_envelope) is one-over-one double-hung [sash window](/source/sash_window)s. Its middle three bays have a recessed porch with [Ionic](/source/Ionic_order) columns and a wooden [balustrade](/source/balustrade).<ref name="COAHP page" /> At the roofline is a lightly dentilled [cornice](/source/cornice) with broad overhanging [eave](/source/eave)s. The roof itself is flat.

Inside, the ground level consists of storefronts and offices. The upstairs level is a residence. In the basement is the Caribou Club.

===Caribou Club===

Entrance to the Caribou Club is via an unmarked [mahogany](/source/mahogany) door with brass trim. It opens into a paneled entry area with 19th-century Western [landscape paintings](/source/landscape_art). On the east is the entrance to the Great Room, similarly paneled in wood and [British racing green](/source/British_racing_green). It is decorated with more landscapes, by [Frederic Remington](/source/Frederic_Remington) and [Albert Bierstadt](/source/Albert_Bierstadt), among others. Its dominant piece of furniture is a 10-foot (3 m) sofa with an equally long [ottoman](/source/ottoman_(furniture)).<ref name="Caribou Club page">{{cite web|title=Welcome to the Caribou Club, Aspen, Colorado|url=http://www.caribouclub.com/letter_11.html|publisher=The Caribou Club|accessdate=April 22, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110324074828/http://caribouclub.com/letter_11.html|archivedate=March 24, 2011}}</ref>

The main corridor leads around the Great Room past bathrooms, the wine cellar and two private rooms to the bar, also accessible from the Great Room.<ref name="Caribou Club floor plan">{{cite web|title=Club Floor Plan|url=http://www.caribouclub.com/floorpl_11.html|publisher=The Caribou Club|accessdate=April 22, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303011749/http://caribouclub.com/floorpl_11.html|archive-date=March 3, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> The room has many personal pictures from members on its wall. The bar itself is mahogany with a brass rail along the floor.<ref name="Caribou Club page" />

In the southeast corner is the dining room. It is finished in a shade described as "somewhere between Etruscan red and a ripe tomato." Light is furnished by candles and [antler](/source/antler) [chandelier](/source/chandelier)s. There are six round tables for diners.<ref name="Caribou Club page" />

==History==

Samuel Collins began construction of the building in 1891, when the city was at the peak of its population and prosperity due to the [Colorado Silver Boom](/source/Colorado_Silver_Boom). It was designed to have businesses on the first floor and offices on the second. Collins had problems with the carpenters' union that delayed completion of the project for two years. That delay may have accounted for the disparity between the more [Victorian](/source/Victorian_architecture) look of the stone lower story and the [neoclassical](/source/neoclassical_architecture) elements of the upper story. The latter may have been inspired by the influential use of neoclassical design at the [Chicago World's Fair](/source/World's_Columbian_Exposition) of 1893.<ref name="NRHP nom" />

Later that year, Congress repealed the [Sherman Silver Purchase Act](/source/Sherman_Silver_Purchase_Act), which had required the federal government regularly purchase the metal to back the dollar [in addition to](/source/bimetallism) [gold](/source/gold_standard). Aspen, which had grown so rich so rapidly from those sales of its silver, suffered severely as the market collapsed and many of its miners left for the gold fields of [Cripple Creek](/source/Cripple_Creek%2C_Colorado). The Collins survived into the city's ensuing "quiet years" of steady population decline, when vacancy and disuse felled many of the other relics of that era.<ref name="NRHP nom" />

In the 1930s, a time when Aspen was down to less than a thousand people, the Collins housed a [mortuary](/source/mortuary). A couple named Tom and Alice Rachel Sardy bought it in 1938<ref name="NRHP nom" /> and moved in. They also became proprietors of another business in the building, Aspen Supply, which sold furniture and hardware.<ref name="Sardy obit">{{cite news|last=Condon|first=Scott|title=Alice Sardy, one of Aspen's 'sweetest' dies at age 101|url=http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20100317/NEWS/100319641|newspaper=[Vail Daily](/source/Vail_Daily)|location=[Vail, CO](/source/Vail%2C_Colorado)|date=March 17, 2010|accessdate=April 22, 2010}}</ref>

The mortuary was successful enough that the Sardy family was able to move out and build a house on Main Street across from Paepcke Park which is still known as the Sardy House. They bought a lumber business across the street, moved the mortuary to their house and combined the two businesses into Aspen Lumber & Supply, using almost the whole Collins Block. After [World War II](/source/World_War_II), Aspen began to develop into the ski resort town it is today. The Sardys sold part of both their family businesses to [Walter Paepcke](/source/Walter_Paepcke), the Chicago businessman who guided much of that era of the city's development. In the late 1940s, Tom Sardy recognized that Aspen would need a modern airport, and after being elected a [Pitkin County](/source/Pitkin_County%2C_Colorado) commissioner worked to get one built. Sardy Field at [Aspen-Pitkin County Airport](/source/Aspen-Pitkin_County_Airport) is named in his honor.<ref name="Sardy obit" />

In 1988 the Collins was acquired by Aspen [developer](/source/land_developer) and businessman [Harley Baldwin](/source/Harley_Baldwin), who already owned the neighboring [Brand Building](/source/Brand_Building). Returning to Aspen after 16 years of activity in New York, he undertook extensive renovations to the structure. The upper floor he returned to residential use, building for himself and his [partner](/source/Significant_other), Richard Edwards, a {{convert|6000|sqft|adj=on}} [penthouse](/source/penthouse_apartment) that was later featured in ''[Architectural Digest](/source/Architectural_Digest)''.<ref name="LA Times Baldwin obit">{{cite news|last=Oliver|first=Myrna|title=Harley Baldwin, 59; Led Effort to Transform Aspen|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-feb-07-me-baldwin7-story.html|access-date=April 22, 2011|newspaper=[Los Angeles Times](/source/Los_Angeles_Times)|date=February 7, 2005}}</ref>

On the ground level he eased out the remnants of the hardware store and other, similar retail tenants. In their place came upscale fashion boutiques such as [Bulgari](/source/Bulgari) and [Brioni](/source/Brioni_(fashion)), complementing the [Louis Vuitton](/source/Louis_Vuitton), [Gucci](/source/Gucci) and [Dior](/source/Dior) presence at the other end of the block.<ref name="WSJ story">{{cite news|last=Knadler|first=Jessie|title=Caribou Club, Aspen, Colo.|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116623696577052286|newspaper=[The Wall Street Journal](/source/The_Wall_Street_Journal)|date=December 16, 2006|accessdate=April 22, 2011}}</ref> These entrants into the local marketplace, into a city that had not previously shown the effect of its growing population of rich and famous residents, earned the two buildings the nickname "Glitter Gulch", which eventually became applied to Aspen as a whole.<ref name="LA Times Baldwin obit" />

In the basement of the Collins, Baldwin built the Caribou Club. Admission was limited to members only, the first time such an establishment had opened in Aspen, where celebrities and locals had previously mixed at the [Hotel Jerome](/source/Hotel_Jerome)'s bar. Baldwin was criticized for this,<ref name="Aspen Times Baldwin obit">{{cite news|last=Urqhart|first=Janet|title=Harley Baldwin, entrepreneurial 'force of nature'|url=http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20050130/ASPENWEEKLY/101300008|newspaper=[Aspen Times](/source/Aspen_Times)|date=January 30, 2005|accessdate=April 22, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305014448/http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20050130/ASPENWEEKLY/101300008|archive-date=March 5, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> but the Caribou became one of the city's most popular nightspots.<ref name="NY Times Baldwin obit">{{cite news|last=Colman|first=David|title=Harley Baldwin, 59, an Entrepreneur Who Gave Aspen Cachet|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03EFD9153BF932A05752C0A9639C8B63|newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|date=January 31, 2005|accessdate=April 21, 2011}}</ref> [Diana Ross](/source/Diana_Ross) and [Tom Ford](/source/Tom_Ford), as well as businesspeople like [Warren Lichtenstein](/source/Warren_Lichtenstein) and [Lynda Resnick](/source/Lynda_Resnick), are among the regulars.<ref name="WSJ story" />

In 1987, it was listed on the [National Register of Historic Places](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places) along with many other historic properties in the city.

==See also==
*[National Register of Historic Places listings in Pitkin County, Colorado](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Pitkin_County%2C_Colorado)

==References==
{{reflist|33em}}

==External links==
{{commonscat|Collins Block (Aspen)}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110324074828/http://caribouclub.com/letter_11.html Caribou Club website]

{{National Register of Historic Places}}

Category:Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
Category:Commercial buildings completed in 1893
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Aspen, Colorado
Category:Buildings and structures in Aspen, Colorado

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Collins Block](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collins_Block) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collins_Block?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.