Aspen History: Paepcke and Gropius

“Cooperation assures Aspen’s future,” asserted the Aspen Times on August 30, 1945. “Walter Paepcke, who has proven to be one of Aspen’s top-flight boosters since he first saw the slightly tarnished crystal city some three months ago, is back in Aspen to help start the ball rolling to get Aspen back on the map in a very real way. His enthusiasm for Aspen has steadily grown to the point that he seeks the assistance of all interested persons in a plan to develop in an orderly and sensible fashion the resources left after nearly a half-century of neglect. Mr. Paepcke, contrary to popular belief, owns only a small part of Aspen, consequently any plans for restoring this city in any way must be a community project. Firm in the belief of things done democratically, Mr. Paepcke met the people of Aspen in the District Court room in the Court House, Thursday evening, at 7:30. At the meeting Thursday, Paepcke presented Dr. Walter Gropius, Chairman of the Department of Architecture, Harvard University. Dr. Gropius as noted as a city planner and has been carefully looking over the townsite with the view to make recommendations for a comprehensive plan for city development. Such enthusiasm from people who have had every opportunity to inspect other localities further emphasizes the fact that Aspen certainly needs to be discovered and everyone must help to improve the town.” This image shows the Aspen Mercantile Building (located in the 500 block of E. Cooper) boarded up and in disrepair, circa 1950.