ROUTT COUNTY
Mesa Schoolhouse
33985 South US Highway 40, Steamboat Springs vicinity
The 1916 Mesa Schoolhouse, located south of Steamboat Springs, is an
excellent local example of the early twentieth-century rural schoolhouse
building type. Constructed as the Mesa District’s permanent school, the
building reflects the development of the Yampa Valley and its commitment
to education. In the south Yampa Valley area, Germans, French-Swiss, and
Irish immigrants attended classes with children from older generation
immigrant families. Like most rural schools, the Mesa Schoolhouse played
a major role in the assimilation process. Although intended to provide a
place for education for the children of the Mesa District, it also became
the social center of the small agricultural community. School district
consolidation closed the Mesa Schoolhouse in 1959. For the next 30 years
the building served as a residential rental and the following decade as a
“party place”. The City of Steamboat Springs and local non-profit
Historic Routt County! acquired the building and the small parcel of land
with the assistance of the State Historical Fund in 1998. The property is
associated with the Rural School
Buildings in Colorado Multiple Property Submission. (2007 photograph)
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