Girling collection

One day, Ron Brewer just happened to mention some old buildings to Maynard Nelson. They were owned by Royden Girling and were located atop Elberta Heights north east of Eckert.

On request Royden gave a tour of the site to Nelson and others. The buildings had been assembled and furnished as a kind of western "play town" by Donald Reed and a Mr. Alexander, two wealthy Denver families who had summer homes on the mesa top. It was a place where out-of-town guests were entertained with parties and dances. Girling had acquired the structures and contents along with the property when the family purchased the place from Reed.

Nelson contacted Nancy Peterken, of Housten, Texas, daughter of Royden Girling. The family donated the buildings to the Surface Creek Valley Historical Society in August of 1981. The entire collection was donated including all of the period furniture and accessories that had been stored for years along with numerous odds and ends that had been added from time to time. Previous museum plans were immediately expanded from a few old buildings moved to the site to a Main Street with a collection of structures, some old and some replicas of originals.

Before the buildings could be moved however, volunteers went to the site to sort, clean, catalog, and pack everything. Mary Kiser, Marie Weterich, Joan Crocker, Doris Stewart, Rutha Hart, and Dode Peterson spent weeks at the task. This was no small project! The silos were called into service and used to store the many boxed items until buildings were moved and ready for display.

The buildings were moved and Warren Brethower once again, organized his volunteer "construction bunch" and reconstruction projects were underway. Also, part of the Girling collection are the street lights, telephone booth, wagons, and a buggy.


Mercantile Store

One building, the Girling Mercantile, was duplicated rather than moved because it was attached to an immovable building. A replica was constructed at the south east corner of Main Street in Pioneer Town. The "construction bunch" was called to do the work. Rather than have two general stores in Pioneer Town, most of the items in the original store were relocated to the Coalby Store. When construction was completed, volunteers Vinneta (Roberts) Butcher and Verda (Roberts) Schafer (sisters and natives of Cedaredge who had moved to Hotchkiss) took over the furnishings and displays while Verdas's mother-in-law, 90 year-old Fern Schafer, supervised from a convenient nearby bench. Carpeting, glass display cases, window coverings, and much of the family heirloom clothing and accessories were donated by the family as well. They were also instrumental in getting the glass wall cases built by Warren Brethour to protect the wedding dresses and other fragile clothing displayed on the east wall. Other local families contributed many items found in the Mercantile.

The two women continued the upkeep of the display and rotated some of the articles from time to tune with other pieces hi storage. Later, other volunteers took on that responsibility.

Under and outer-wear for men, women and children are attractively displayed along with eyeglasses, hats, shoes and other wearing apparel.