Plans are in the works to restore a 94-year-old former school facility in Pueblo, Colo.
Colorado Public Radio reports that a non-profit group is in the process of buying the former Keating School, built in 1927, but vacant since 2009.
Plans call the building to house a variety of small businesses, residential condominium units and community event spaces.
“The whole building, inside and out, has had very little work done to it over the years," said Corinne Koehler, who leads Keating School, the non-profit group managing the project. "They have really preserved the historic aspects of the building."
Six sandstone columns stand at the entrance to the Classical Revival-style building. Its varicolored masonry has diamond patterns.
The interior has terrazzo floors, glazed brick and marble accents, and a 600-plus seat auditorium with a plaster floral ornamented balcony and exposed beamed ceiling.
“It is a beautiful theater,” Koehler says. “It has original light fixtures, the original seats. And so restoring that to its glory from the 1920s would be great.”
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Keating was built in 1927 and originally called Central Junior High School.
It'll likely be a year or so before renovations begin, and it could take about five years to complete the estimated $18 million redevelopment plan for the property.
Funding will come from a variety of sources including grants and tax credits.
