Some 127 years has elapsed since the construction of the building between the Opera House, which was erected in 1910 and the Old Mancos Inn, erected in 1894. A few years ago, it was moved from the west side of Boyle Park to its current location, which is as close as it can be to its 1877 location.

From The Mancos Times, July 26, 1895:

"Our subject this week has its own history. It was the first, and for a number of years, the only public building in this valley. Beneath its roof were all kinds of meetings. It was church, schoolhouse, town hall and ballroom, each in its turn, and its walls have echoed to all the sounds of the times, from a sermon to the click of dancing heels.

"In the year 1877, some public place of meeting was needed, and this log house was the result of that need. It was located where it stands today and has itself formed the nucleus around which our village has grown.

"As a school became a necessity, this building, fitted with rude desks, served for the purpose. It was the scene of many a merry-making and a dance would bring out all the residents of the vicinity. From schoolhouse and church, it was turned into a residence, then into a warehouse. For a few months, it served as the Castle Hall for the Knights of Pythias. In its final step it was used as that most degrading of all places, a jail. Let us preserve this landmark in our midst and though only a humble and rude log cabin, hold it in the respect due so old and useful a structure."

That was how Manco Timed Editor Muldoon Kelly, described the building.

What is located in Boyle Park is just a small part of the original building. Much of what is now Nate's Hat business was the building as it stood and then later was surrounded by a stockade.

In looking back at the year that building was constructed I wondered how they celebrated Christmas and New Year's. They had no television, no radio, no newspapers. They would have had meat from cattle and perhaps deer. Potatoes, corn, and some leafy vegetables would have been grown from seeds freighted in from the Alamosa or Walsenburg.

Quite often I heard this while I was growing up - "I sure wish I would have been born in the good old days." They wanted to go to the bathroom in a makeshift privy with the temperature below zero?