Castle Rock Builders Recreate Historic Structures for Colorado's 150th Anniversary

Inside a Castle Rock barn, Dennis Blanchard and two fellow members of the Castle Rock Historical Society and Museum set to work by hand, recreating the facades of buildings that defined the town 150 years ago.

The project was driven by a deceptively simple question. "What did Castle Rock look like in 1876? That was kind of the idea," said Blanchard, a board member of the Historical Society who describes himself as a history nut. The answer required saws, lumber, and a $10,000 grant from the Town of Castle Rock, awarded through the town's 250/150 Grant Program, which funds community projects marking both Colorado's 150th birthday as a state and America's 250th anniversary as a nation, both falling in summer 2026.

For Blanchard, the work carried weight beyond craftsmanship. "I find it fascinating," he said. "The town is old. It has a lot of history of the town, specifically Castle Rock being the county seat." As the seat of Douglas County since Colorado's territorial days, Castle Rock's built environment from the 1870s represents a formative chapter in the region's identity, one that now exists only in photographs and civic memory.

The replicas Blanchard and his two colleagues constructed aimed to bring that chapter into physical form, giving residents and visitors a tangible connection to the pioneer-era streetscape. The Town of Castle Rock's grant program, which opened funding to service contract partners, community organizations, and neighborhood groups alike, backed the project as part of a broader slate of sesquicentennial initiatives, including large-scale sculptures at Rock Park and a Western Heritage Welcome Week planned for later in the year.

All funded events and projects under the 250/150 program must be completed by December 31, 2026.