A local nonprofit is continuing its push to preserve a historic greenhouse in West Glenwood, raising about $4,000 from a Feb. 28 fundraiser as it works toward a $100,000 goal to dismantle and store the structure before nearby development moves forward.
The Glenwood Springs Riverside Botanical Gardens has raised about $20,000 so far toward the initial fundraising campaign, according to Director Laura Speck.
“We made about $4,000 (at the Feb. 28 fundraiser),” Speck said. “Our goal is still $100,000 and that’s just for phase one.”
That first phase focuses solely on preserving the greenhouse’s historic elements — the central dome and chimney — before construction tied to the Canyon Vista affordable housing project begins.
“That’s literally just to save this greenhouse, because that’s the only thing that timeframe-wise that we have to worry about,” Speck said.
The greenhouse dates to 1903, when it was built for coal magnate John Cleveland Osgood at Redstone Castle in Redstone. The structure was later relocated to West Glenwood, where it operated for decades as part of the Glenwood Gardens nursery.
Speck said only portions of the structure remain historically intact.
“It’s just the dome and the chimney of the greenhouse that are historic,” she said.
The greenhouse currently sits on property expected to become the site of the Canyon Vista Apartments project, an 80-unit income-restricted development backed by a $3.8 million city funding package approved by Glenwood Springs City Council in December.
Speck said the nonprofit has not received a firm deadline for removing the greenhouse but expects the timeline could come within months.
“The last we were officially told was the end of this month,” she said of when developers were expected to finalize a contract for the property. “But we’ve heard that that might be pushed back a little bit.”
Speck said delays would give the group more time to fundraise.
“Every time we get pushed back, we’re happy, because that just gives us more time to fundraise,” she said.
The group plans to dismantle the structure piece by piece to preserve it for future reconstruction. Engineering firm SGM has already completed a structural scan of the greenhouse to guide that process.
“They did the architectural rendering of the whole building so that we can take it apart and then reassemble it in that really professional way,” Speck said.
The chimney will also be taken apart brick by brick and numbered so it can be reconstructed later.
“It will be taken down,” Speck said. “Even the brick — the chimney — we have a local stonemason that’s going to take each brick apart, number it, so that when we put it back together, it goes back together.”
The greenhouse preservation effort is part of a broader vision to create a botanical garden in Glenwood Springs, though Speck said that project remains in its early stages.
The nonprofit hopes to eventually relocate the greenhouse to a city-owned parcel near the confluence of the Roaring Fork River and Colorado River, where it could serve as a centerpiece for the proposed garden.
For now, however, the focus remains on preventing the structure from being demolished.
“Saving this historic greenhouse from being demolished is the first step,” Speck said.
The group has begun early planning work with the city related to a potential long-term land lease for the garden site and expects to move into planning and zoning discussions in the coming weeks.
Speck said the greenhouse preservation effort is intended to keep a piece of local history alive while the larger garden concept develops over time.
“We’re just trying to save a piece of our history in this valley,” she said. “So people can say, ‘Hey, this is so cool.’”
To learn more about the effort or to donate, visit glenwoodspringsriversidebotanicalgardens.com.
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