10 JANUARY 8-14, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | partnering with City Street Investors. “It came out of the blue,” recalls Joe Vostrejs, CEO of City Streets. He’s sitting in the lobby of School Yard, the rejuvenated Evans school that City Streets restored, then opened in the spring of 2025. Holly had made the decision to sell the restaurant that sits on an eight-acre parcel, as well as the fi fty-acre parcel right below it, as a package, and that helped lead to the partnership. “A land developer doesn’t want a restaurant, and a restaurant guy isn’t go- ing to want land,” explains Vostrejs. He’s technically the restaurant guy, although he left that industry at 26 to go into real estate for two decades, then became integral in the resurrection of Larimer Square and well as the renovation of Union Station. With City Streets, he’s acquired restaurants and opened beer gardens across the metro area. Revesco’s Rhys Duggan, who envisioned the River Mile along the Platte River before Kroenke Sports & Entertainment shouldered that entire project, is the land guy. “We went out, we toured, we met with Holly, we went back and forth,” Vostrejs recalls. Ultimately, they couldn’t resist the deal. “It’s a fabulous piece of Colorado history,” Vostrejs says. And as he and Duggan discovered, it’s in pretty fabulous shape, because the Arnolds had taken such care with its initial construc- tion. “Like any old building, you’re always doing renovations and repairs. It never ends,” Vostrejs admits. But it helps that Holly stayed in touch with adobe experts who could sup- ply replacement bricks as needed. While the new owners have plans for updating equip- ment, the building itself is sound. Still, while preserving the past is impor- tant, Vostrejs recognizes that the Fort won’t survive if it doesn’t stay current. “All those little pieces of history,” he says. “When you think of Denver Union Station, even something as small as Billy’s Inn, it’s important to take these old places and make them really relevant. The Fort is still a very successful business. I think we have an op- portunity to sustain it as it is, while at the same time opening it up to a new generation.” That involves not just offering different menus in different parts of the restaurant, but livening up the courtyard and fi nding other ways to use the space, both daily and for special occasions. “Follow the same principles as at Union Station, Larimer Square,” Vostrejs says. “Make it as accessible to people as possible. Give them as many excuses to use it as possible... “We love the historic fabric and charac- ter,” he concludes. “The issue is making them relevant to today’s audience. That’s our job... to thread the needle.” And then tie that thread back to the origi- nal inspiration. Holding Down the Fort When the History Colorado Center opened at 1200 Broadway in 2012, one of its initial exhibits was dedicated to Bent’s Old Fort. Responding to criticisms that the dis- play took a cartoony, stereotypical approach to the Indigenous people who frequented the trading post, the display soon underwent signifi cant revision. (Not as signifi cant as Collision, the origi- nal exhibit devoted to the Sand Creek Mas- sacre, however. After tribal descendants complained, Collision was ultimately re- moved altogether and a new display created, done in consultation with the tribes and offered in their own languages. It was fi nally installed in 2022, 158 years after 250 mem- bers of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes camped on the banks of the Big Sandy were killed by volunteer troops led by Colonel John Chivington.) The staff of History Colorado has changed, too: DiPrince, who started at His- tory Colorado in 2012, was moved to the top job from her role as COO fi ve years ago. She’s led the charge to make this state’s history not just more accessible but more inclusive, “a history that belongs to all of us.” DiPrince says. Growing up in LaJunta, she was a fre- quent visitor to Bent’s Old Fort in the ‘80s. Her siblings worked there; she learned to make jerky there. John Carson, descendant of the legendary (and controversial) Kit Carson, a frequent visitor to the original fort, was her teacher and coached basketball with her father; he also worked at Bent’s Old Fort. Now, more than ever, DiPrince recognizes the importance of the site’s economic impact on the area, and that it’s “so much a part of the community identity.” But it’s also part of Colorado’s identity, she notes, as well as “an important part of the multicultural history of the state.” So when the NPS suggested that the 1976 version of Bent’s Old Fort was a “non-historic structure,” DiPrince was just the person to point out the importance of the site, particu- larly as the state and nation prepare to cel- ebrate two big anniversaries. While President Donald Trump’s America 250 commission has focused on fi reworks and hats, History Colorado is pushing an assortment of proj- ects, including major exhibits at the center as well as other displays at its facilities around the state; it’s in the process of collecting 150 oral history accounts from residents around Colorado, while communities are sharing their own celebrations on a state website. Some of those communities were jarred at the end of December, when Trump vetoed funding for the Arkansas Valley conduit, a sixty-year-old project geared to providing clean water to all the Coloradans living along the Arkansas River that fl ows past Bent’s Old Fort. But politicians are hopeful the presi- dent’s decision will be reversed by Congress. And soon, DiPrince hopes she’ll be able to share that Bent’s Old Fort’s status is back on track, too. After her agency’s fact-fi nding mission, the NPS determined that the fi fty- year-old replica was eligible for designation, after all. “At this point, it needs a really good maintenance plan,” says DiPrince. And if the NPS can’t take a clue from the Fort restaurant, History Colorado also has an adobe expert who can help. “We work with adobe all the time,” DiPrince says. “There’s work to be done, but it’s not beyond repair.” Colorado may be at a crossroads, but as history has shown, it usually moves in the right direction. Nothing is beyond repair. Email the author at [email protected]. Holding Down the Fort continued from page 8 The Fort restaurant was designed to hold up to the elements. Sam’l Arnold and the Fort restaurant he opened in 1963. THE FORT THE FORT The remains of Bent’s Old Fort in the 1880s. HISTORY COLORADO
