In the 1950s, Durango School District 9-R went on a building spree. In 1951, Mason and Needham Elementary schools were opened. Then in 1955, the district built Riverview Elementary (then known as East Animas Elementary) addition to Park and Needham Elementary schools and the Fine Arts Building at Durango High School. Animas City Elementary School, built in 1904 and located at the corner of 31st Street and West Second Avenue, remained the only school in the district that had no gym or cafeteria. It also only had five classrooms for six grades. Students were at times bused to Park School for lunch, and one semester, sixth graders had to be bused to Riverview for classes. This was remedied in 1958 with this annex shown directly across Second Avenue. With its completion, the Animas Badgers finally had a place to play basketball, students could eat a hot lunch on campus and each grade had their own classroom. When the school closed in 1967, this building was used for the district’s Head Start program. In 1979, the district sold the building to the Four Corners Sheltered Workshop. It eventually transitioned to the Cornerstone Evangelical Church shown here. Today, Mountain Middle school occupies this building but it is almost unrecognizable from this picture because of numerous additions. – Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, [email protected] (Catalog Number: 04.05.106 from the La Plata County Historical Society Photo Collections)
