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Then & Now: A Moving History

Contributed by: Aspen Walker on 10/3/2005

For years Safeway was right on main street Castle Rock at 100 South Wilcox. I remember when it opened. Must have been around 1979 or maybe 1980. For years we had Bob's and Super Save, Thrifty, Fox Drug, Russ Drug, a Yellow Front. And then there was Safeway. A really big grocery store with a hot deli and every brand of food you ever saw on TV. Rows and rows of flowers in black buckets and refrigerated cases. A very long toy aisle. 

This was well before the outlet shops, the big box stores and the whole host of franchised restaurants that have popped up north and south of the Rock. Castle Rock was a small town in those days and Safeway felt big time. All through my school years, my family shopped at Safeway. I got snacks there with my mom and brother after taking in storytime at the Philip S. Miller Library on Gilbert Street. My friends and I bought six-packs of grape soda and chips so cheesy they stained your fingers orange after we studied at the Philip S. Miller Library on Plum Creek Boulevard.

Castle Rock really started to grow in the late eighties and early nineties. We got a Wal-Mart and the outlet mall covered the fields that were once the town of New Memphis, before it turned back into fields. Hang gliders stopped launching off the mesa over Silver Heights lest they land on new construction.

Super Wal-Mart came to town. The smaller Wal-Mart building was no longer needed by the corporation from Arkansas. Safeway bought the building and moved off the town's main drag, leaving behind a large vacant building in the middle of town.

In 2001, the library district bought the building with plans to turn the Philip S. Miller Library into a stunning facility that could house the Local History collection, administration, technical services and the library’s stellar collection of books, music and movies. (There's a long history to library service in Castle Rock. Check it out at www.DouglasCountyLibraries.org. Select the About Us" link at the bottom of the homepage, and then click on the "Timeline" tab.)

The promise of a new centrally located library was a boon to downtown Castle Rock. While the north end of town continued to boom, the south side was dominated by a large empty building with very dark windows. After the announcement that the library district had purchased the building, folks started reinvesting in southern Castle Rock.

By employing the earth-friendly practice of “recycling” a vacant building, Douglas County Libraries saved an estimated $50 per square foot, or over $2 million. The revamped building opened in September 2003 with much fanfare and over 3500 visitors on the Grand Opening Day, which was aptly called “A Moving History”. After a month in the new location, library business in Castle Rock was flourishing, with circulation of library materials up 215%, checkout sessions at a 374% increase, and new patron registration boosted by 2,907%. Jamie LaRue, Director of Douglas County Libraries, was named 2002 Business Person of the Year by the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce, based on his decision to revitalize downtown Castle Rock by moving the library into the empty storefront. The American Library Association featured the building in their monthly magazine’s annual showcase of superb new and renovated library facilities.

Looking back on the history of growth and change during my handfuls of years in Castle Rock, I’m struck by the fluidity of it all. Old towns return to prairie grasses, only to make way for outlet stores. Grocery stores become libraries. Little book-loving girls easily wowed by hot delis grow up to work at their hometown library- with an office located right about where the frozen foods section used to be.

 


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Aspen Walker

castle rock , CO

Aspen Walker has posted 715 stories and 2 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Aspen Walker's average story rating is 4.98.
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