The Arlington becomes a destination landmark

Photo courtesy John M. Motter
The core building of the Arlington Hotel shown in this picture remains on Lewis Street. The hotel and the many surrounding tents shown in this photograph provided hot water baths, fed from a geothermal well still in existence next to the alley behind the Adobe Building.

Julius Bryce Patterson was born at Hayesville, N.C., Dec. 29, 1853, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Patterson. The family moved to Colorado, arriving in Denver May 5, 1871. He lived, in succession, near Pueblo, La Veta and Silverton. He married Julie Garren at La Veta in 1879. They had three sons and one daughter. In 1883, they moved to Silverton. Late in the 1890s, he sold the Champion Mine for $200,000 and retired from active mining. In 1904, he purchased the Buckles and Schultz building on Lewis Street in Pagosa Springs and converted it into the Arlington Hotel. They operated the Arlington Hotel until 1936. For years the restaurant at the Arlington was a destination landmark in southwestern Colorado. While in Pagosa Springs, he operated a hostelry, racing stables, livestock, and promoted hunting and fishing. He passed away Dec. 28, 1945. There are still Pattersons living in this area.

Dr. William M. Parrish was born in Greencastle, Ind., Dec. 17, 1844, the son of Abel and Bersheba Parrish. In 1870, he began the practice of medicine at Newport, Mo. On Sept. 6, 1877, at that place, he married Alice L. Patterson. The couple had four children. Dr. Parrish opened a practice at Pagosa Springs in 1888, where he also conducted a drug business and ranched. His homestead was on the south side of the San Juan River just east of the bridge on land now part of the San Juan Motel. Dr. Parrish moved to Monte Vista, Colo., in 1896.

Chrysella Waldner Parks was born at Rico in 1873, when that frontier community was in its infant “gold rush” days.

Several of Pagosa Springs’s first settlers moved on to Rico when news of the gold strike there spread. Although the family moved to Durango three years later, according to her obituary in The Pagosa Springs SUN, that could not have happened because there was no Durango at that time. They most likely moved to Animas City, Durango’s pioneer predecessor. The family later moved to Beaver Creek on the stage road between Pagosa Springs and Durango, now known as U.S. 160. She died April 13, 1967.

Marion A. Patrick was born in Morroco, Ind., in 1860, the son of John and Sarah Patrick. At the age of 17, he moved to Georgetown, Colo. After living in several mining camps, he moved to Durango in 1881 — the first year of Durango’s existence — and homesteaded on the Pine River. In 1889, he sold his Pine River holdings and moved to Pagosa Springs where he managed the Pagosa Hot Springs baths and Patrick House Hotel for several years. In 1885, he married Annie Grimes.