YMCA Auditorium

Grant St Sunrise WY

The 1917 YMCA building is located in the now-abandoned town of Sunrise, a company town for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, now a National Historic District.

According to the registration form for the National Register of Historic Places (2005):

"The YMCA was designed by architect William W. Stickney for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, and constructed in 1917. The building was designed to include bowling lanes, a combination auditorium/movie theater/gymnasium, a card room, a reading room and a sewing room. The imposing, Italian Renaissance Revival-style brick building was and still is the centerpiece of the Sunrise community. It was used as the community gathering place and recreation center until 1966, when it was converted for offices of C.F. & I."

"The two-story, 90-foot-by-40-foot "Y" is located on the south side of the main highway. The walls are common-bond brick with a single-row, soldier-brick water table resting on a 4-foot high, poured-concrete foundation, and a full basement.

"The north-facing, five-bay fa9ade is symmetrical, and is dominated by a 25-foot by 10-foot porch in the central bay. The porch is topped by a medium-pitched gable roof with wood brackets at the eaves and the gable end. The front of the porch consists of a central round archway springing from concrete cushions on top of brick piers, flanked by narrower, 2/3-height round arches. The outside walls of the arches are battered, and extend down to a 1/3-height brick wall capped with concrete that extends around the perimeter of the porch. Drainage openings topped with rowlock-brick round arches pierce the front wall of the porch wall on either east and west sides. The porch ceiling is covered in beadboard.

"Staircases from both the east and west converge on a landing from which a single staircase continues up to the porch deck, forming a T-shaped entry. Abutting the sidewalk is a concrete wall with a flat top and sloped sides that follow the angle of the stairs and shield them from view in the front. A ghost sign reading "Sunrise Mine, CF&I Corp." appears on the front of the wall. A wooden sign reading "Mine Office - Salesmen and Suppliers Must Check in Here. CF&I Steel Corp." is attached to the top of the concrete wall.

"The entrance consists of double doors with 2/3-height sidelights above wooden panels, topped by a 7-over-7-light transom. The doors each consist of two vertical panels below a single light. The eastern sidelight is a 1-over-1, double-hung window with a shelf as a sill, serving as a ticket window. A wooden sign board with double glass doors hangs beside this window. All windows in the building are double-hung wooden sash, of varying dimensions, with concrete lug sills. Window tops are either three-row, rowlock segmental arches with concrete corner blocks, in-filled below the arch with common-bond brick; flat arches of brick with concrete corner blocks; or plain brick.

"The two outside bays on the main floor each have a single eight-over-eight sash flanked by six-over-six sash, each with a separate concrete lug sill and the grouping topped by a segmental arch. Flanking the entrance are single eight-over-eight windows each topped with a flat arch.

"The three center bays of the second story have triple sets of nine-over-nine sash with individual concrete lug sills and no arches. The outer bays each contain two six-over-six sash, each with a concrete lug sill and topped with a flat arch. There are a total often basement windows on the facade, including four along the eastern half of the porch perimeter (two facing north and two facing east).

"On the rear (south) elevation, the three central bays of the second floor match those of the facade. The outside bays have fire escapes, each with a door of five horizontal panels topped with a 4-light transom, with eight-over-eight windows to the outside of each door. Doors and windows in the side bays are topped with flat arches. Metal staircases extend straight down from the doors to the ground. Fenestration on the main floor is irregular.

At the center is a composite window consisting of a center six-over-six sash flanked by very narrow, vertical two-over-two lights. The window is topped by a segmental arch like those on the facade. A similar composite window, lacking the arch, lies to the west. A total of three small, four-over-four sash are on either side and between the two composite windows. The westernmost bay contains two eight-over-eight sash, and the easternmost bay has a rear entrance door with a four-light transom, topped by a gabled hood supported by wood brackets, and to the east, four six-over-six sash. All first floor windows have concrete lug sills, and all but the central window have plain brick surrounds. There are eight basement windows on the south elevation.

"An exterior brick chimney with concrete base, shoulders and cap rises at the center of the east elevation. The chimney is flanked by paired six-over-six windows with individual concrete lug sills and a single segmental arch over each on the first floor, and single six-over-six windows with flat arches on the second story. It is also flanked by a pair of boarded-up windows trimmed in plain wood on the basement level.

"The central bay of the west elevation is offset one-half story, and has one eight-over-eight sash next to an entrance door on the lower story, two tall, nine-over-nine sash between the first and second stories, and two small, six-pane sash at the eave. The eight-light-over-wood-panel-door is accessed by a 4-step concrete stoop and leads to stairs on the inside that go up to the first floor, or down to the basement. The top windows light the projection room. The outside bays match those of the east elevation. Basement windows match those of the east elevation, flanking the stoop.

"The building is topped with a medium-pitched, hipped roof with wood shingles and two louvered eye-brow dormers accenting both the front and rear slopes. The eaves are bracketed.

"Main interior points of interest include the second story combination auditorium/movie theater/gymnasium with a stage, wooden movie screen and projection room. On the main floor, the meeting room at the east end of the building has a prominent brick fireplace. In the basement, one of the three original bowling lanes remains intact, with its manual pin setter. The building is structurally sound with no apparent signs of damage to the roof, foundation, porch or chimney. Several windows are missing."

• Cinema Treasures

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Last featured 6/10/2010. Last edited 1/1/2016.