You can help!

Help the League meet the cash match necessary to receive further funding from the State Historical Fund. Your tax-deductible contribution should be sent to BAL, PO Box 1544, Boulder, CO 80306. Please mark your check “Ewing Farm.”

Thanks!

 
    

The Farmhouse (above, in 2004) August 14, 1904, eighteen years after it was completed in 1886. Far left and right: Amanda Hodgson Ewing and John Newton Ewing. Center, left, Delton Ewing (son). Center right, Flora Ewing (daughter). The view is to the west, from what is now 95th Street.

–Copyright © 1996 Vernon Ewing
 
      
“The Bunkhouse” was built by Delton Ewing in 1907 to help house his growing family. The four Ewing boys studied and worked there.

At left, in 2004
      

LEASE AGREEMENT SIGNED

On February 6, with representatives of Book Arts League in the audience, the Lafayette City Council adopted by consent an ordinance putting into effect a lease agreement between the City and the League for the use of the Ewing Farm by BAL as its headquarters and studio.

This is the culmination of five years of patient work and cooperation between the League and the City of Lafayette. There are still many rivers to cross before these historic buildings can be occupied and fully put to use, but we are moving steadily forward. We were heartened by the words of encouragement and support voiced by Council before adopting the ordinance.

We are convinced that the City remains as enthusiastic and committed to the vision for Ewing Farm as the Book Arts League.
 
The Board of Directors of the Book Arts League met February 21 and voted unanimously to accept the lease agreement with the City of Lafayette for the Ewing Farm.
 
–Julie Seko, President

 

THE Ewing Farm buildings are all that remains of a historic Boulder County homestead settled 120 years ago at what was then called “Eight-Mile Corner,” now 95th and Arapahoe streets in Lafayette.

Over three years ago, the Book Arts League, a nonprofit community arts organization, joined with the owners of the Ewing Farm structures and the City of Lafayette in a plan to preserve the historic structures and provide for their maintenance. The Farm would become a permanent home for the League and its antique letterpress collection.

The League worked in cooperation with the Lafayette City Manager and Historic Preservation Board to secure Colorado State Historical Society grants for the structures on behalf of the owners. The League was instrumental in preparing grant applications that secured funds for a $10,000 architectural assessment grant and a subsequent $68,153 SHF grant for the project.

In 2005, the property owners, who had initially “strongly supported” the grant applications, rejected the $68,153 grant in abrogation of their signed agreement with the League and the City. Stories in the local press reported the Farm’s owners intended to seek de-listing the structures, a move that could presage their demolition.

Ultimately, a transfer of ownership and responsibility to the City of Lafayette was negotiated, allowing restoration of the Ewing Farm buildings to go forward using the State Historical Fund grant.

The League has recently finalized a lease that will establish a permanent home for our valued collection of type and old presses. This partnership with the City will allow the League to continue its mission as a community resource for the traditional and contemporary arts and crafts of the book and allow the rehabilitation of the Farm to continue.

The League would like to thank the City of Lafayette and the Historic Preservation Board for their steadfast support of this project and the Ridge at Cross Creek HOA for its decision to allow the project to continue by transferring ownership to the City.

Please follow the progress of the Ewing Farm project here at the Ewing Farm web pages.

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Work begins on the Ewing Farm , using funds provided by the State Historical Fund grant. The Farmhouse is lifted to allow the construction of a stable foundation.
The foundation is poured. After starting life as a rustic cabin in the late 1880s, the Ewing Farmhouse underwent many additions and changes. Like many structures built by Colorado homesteaders, the structure rested virtually on the dry prairie.
 
Now, through efforts of the City of Lafayette and the Book Arts League, a State Historical Fund grant has provided a stable foundation that will halt deterioration and pave the way for a more complete restoration and a useful life for this Colorado Centennial Farm structure far into the future.

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The completed foundation.