Homelake Campus Walking Tour at Colorado State Veterans Center - Monte Vista, CO
N 37° 34.546 W 106° 05.809
13S E 403148 N 4159312
The Colorado Veterans Center is a treasure in the heart of the San Luis Valley. This walking tour will guide you through the area's unique history.
Waymark Code: WMF8JN
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 09/10/2012
Views: 2
The Colorado State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, established in 1889, provided a place to care for the aging and disabled veterans of the Civil and Spanish-American Wars. Now the Colorado State Veterans Center at Homelake, the center still cares for and honors veterans of every major war in U.S. history. Begin the tour and pick up a brochure at the Homelake Veterans' History Museum.
The tour begins at the museum (former kitchen and dining hall) and takes you east around the old apartment buildings built around 1919 (many are in desperate need of repairs). The tour continues past the Superintendent's Residence, built in 1893. Along with the Administration Building, it is one of the oldest buildings still standing on the site. Nearby, a green park and sign are the only reminders of the iconic hospital that no longer exists. The hospital was the first building constructed for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in 1891.
The tour then passes more current monuments and buildings including a Vietnam era aircraft and tank, the "new" hospital (now the administration building), veterans' cottages (built in the 1930's, renovated in 2007 and still in use today) and the historic cemetery. There are veterans from the Civil War through the Iraq War including eight Confederate Veterans buried there.
The tour finishes behind the museum at the Windows In Time sculpture and time capsule.