San Luis Preservation

Rocky Mountain News Articles about San Luis

The Rocky Mountain News says in an article about the 50 most influential Coloradans:

Dario Gallegos (1830-1883) -- One of original seven settlers who founded San Luis, Colorado's oldest town (1851). Helped dig five-mile-long San Luis People's Ditch, state's first irrigation canal. In 1857 founded general store in San Luis that remains state's oldest continuously operating business.

They say in an article about the oldest town in Colorado:

Colorado's oldest continuously operated business, a general store now called the R&R Market, stands at the same site where it was founded by Dario Gallegos in 1857. Today it is operated by Felix Romero, 53, a fifth-generation descendant, and his wife Claudia.

And in an article about Colorado Trailblazers:

Nearly 150 years ago, the Gallegos family helped dig the irrigation ditch that runs through their farm. Today, Joe Gallegos oversees both...

Salazar Store fire 1947

"Fire swept the establishment in 1947 and a temporary business location had to be found...most of the adobe walls remained.  When re-built it had 130 foot frontage, depth of 100 feet and 26,000 square feet of floor space". (Earl Pomeroy, Denver Post 6-20-57)   The first fire at the store was in March 1895.

News Article from the 100th Anniversary

News Article from the 100th Celebration

R & R Market in the National Register of Historic Places

United States Department of the Interior

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places documents R & R Market in Section number E page 22 as such:

"Merchants operating in Costilla County during the nineteenth century constructed small business establishments first at Costilla, soon after at San Luis, and by the 1890's in the villages.  Generally, these structures were linear or rectangular plans and faced well-traveled public roads.  The oldest continually operated and best documented family grocery and hardware business in the Culebra Basin is the Gallegos Mercantile (later Gallegos & Salazar and now R & R Market).  The earliest depiction (ca.1887) is of a simple 16ft. X 20ft. linear structure with five multi-paned front facing windows and a pitched roof.  Despite its adobe core the structure burned down in 1895.  A second photo (ca.1900) shows a recessed story and a half-linear form juxtaposed with a two-story rectangular structure that juts out from the center.  The two-story centerpiece has a false wood front with two asymmetrically placed windows and decorative cornice at the top.  A pitched roof unifies the entire structure.  The plan, massing, and design were significantly altered and modernized when it burned for a second time in 1947".

The Colorado Magazine October 1957

The Colorado Magazine

Volume XXXIV

October, 1957

Number 4

the following 5 posts are part of the article from the 100th celebration of the store. 

The posts were approved by the Colorado Historical Society

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Colorado Magazine Article P.256-257

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Posted with permission from the Colorado Historical Society.

Colorado Magazine Article P.258-259

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Colorado Magazine Article P.260-261

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Colorado Magazine Article P.262

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