History: Hoaglund Barn celebrates second birth

November will mark the 30th anniversary of the renovation and habitation of the old Hoaglund Barn, which Alpine Bank in Snowmass currently calls home. The barn, which sits below the Snowmass Center next to the Conoco Station, had been a landmark for 96 years, but in 1979 it was dismantled by the Snowmass Co. in hopes that it would be restored one day. The Bank of Snowmass rose to the occasion and had the barn rebuilt in 1983.

The barn itself has a long history dating back to its original construction on the Wilfred Lafayette Hurst Homestead in 1893. Charles Hart purchased the homestead including the barn in 1917 and then sold it to Florence Hatch in 1927. It exchanged hands again in 1946 when Johnny E.B. Hoaglund (for whom the barn is named) bought it. Janss Corp., one of the original developers of Snowmass Village, purchased the property in 1956 as part of its land consolidation for the ski area, which became part of the holdings for the Snowmass Land Co. Restoring the barn was no easy task: Each piece had been numbered when it was dismantled, and the puzzle had to be not only put together but restored at the same time. A complementary structure was built alongside the barn to increase the floor plan for the bank.

Editor’s note: This page is a partnership between the Snowmass Sun and the Aspen Historical Society

with two primary goals in mind: to improve the knowledge of Snowmass history in the region and to collect historical

photographs of the Snowmass region for the society. If you have pieces of history to donate,

please send them to archives@aspenhistory.org.