National Register of Historic Places
St. Joseph’s Church
Capulin, Conejos County, Colorado
The record
- Listed
- February 1, 2019
- Type
- Historic district
- Address
- 19895 Cty. Rd. 8, Capulin
- County
- Conejos
- State
- Colorado
- Contributing resources
- 1 building, 1 structure, 1 site
- Coordinates
- 37.28225, -106.11165
- Reference number
- 100003276
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
The outline is the area recorded for this listing in National Park Service map data, drawn approximately.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUniversity of Colorado Boulder LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
St. Joseph's Church is a historic district at 19895 Cty. Rd. 8 in Capulin, Conejos County, centered on a Gothic Revival church built in 1912-1913. An earlier adobe church served the congregation from about 1878 until 1912.
Why it's listed
It was listed in the National Register in 2019 under criteria A and C, with local significance in ethnic heritage, Hispanic ethnic heritage, social history, architecture and art. Its period of significance runs about 1878 to 1968, from the first church built around 1878 through the Benedictine sisters' departure in 1965.
Physical character
The church has rock-faced sandstone walls on a stone foundation, pointed Gothic-arch stained-glass windows, a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and a three-story front tower with a square, shingled belfry. A windstorm blew off the tower in 1928 and it was rebuilt that year; by 2012 the church, rectory and convent had replacement doors and windows.
Historical context
Jesuit priests arrived in Capulin in 1878, and Theatine priests took over the parish's administration in 1920. Carmelita Lucero de Trujillo deeded the church and cemetery grounds to Bishop Nicholas C. Matz in 1887, and Matz dedicated the church in 1913. St. Joseph's became an independent parish in 1939, when Benedictine sisters arrived to teach at the local school and used the rectory as a convent until their 1965 departure. A new cemetery opened east of town around 1935, and Capulin joined the Pueblo Diocese in 1941.