Historic preservation

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STEEL: Energy & the West Opens at Watertower Place through July 30, 2022

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Watertower Place is committed to sharing the stories of Pueblo through its unique public tour program. This traveling exhibit explores the history of mining, steel and electricity production. In conjunction with Exploring Steel, visitors can also enjoy the documentary film 'Forging the West' by Jim Havey. Special thanks to the Pueblo City-County Library District for making this educational program possible. Please enter at the Firehouse Entrance. For more information visit www.pueblowatertowerplace.com.

Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday, June 6, 2022 through Friday, July 29, 2022
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
06/03/22 - 07/29/22
Add to your calendar: iCal

Location
Watertower Place
303 S. Santa Fe Ave.
Pueblo, CO 81003

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Building for the Future • Key Areas of Focus

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The World of Hi Tech, Cyber-security & Privacy

A tech startup is a company whose purpose is to bring technology products or services to market. These companies deliver new technology products or services or deliver existing technology products or services in new ways. At Watertower Place we have extensive resources and partnerships from the traditional industrial sector to cyber security. We foster technological innovation and align our platforms with both private and public sector thought leaders in the field.

Food Entrepreneurship

Small cottage industries, food trucks, and caterers all have a need for low-cost kitchen space. This has led to the development of shared commercial kitchens that can be rented for hourly or daily rates. But finding a place to make specialty food products is only the first step. Entrepreneurs who want to make a profit have to successfully package, market, and sell their products, too. That's where food incubators come in. At Watertower Place we understand the issues surrounding food accessibility and want to make a difference in our community. Whether you want to open a restaurant or create a special line of desserts, we have the capacity to empower food entrepreneurs to achieve their goals.

Small Batch Manufacturing

Whether you’re a ‘maker’ who wants to start producing on a bigger scale, or an emerging designer trying to find a production partner within close proximity and low minimum order requirements, or a small business looking to work with lower units, small batch manufacturing in the United States is a viable option. Pueblo has a rich history of manufacturing and at Watertower Place we have established working relationships with key regional thought leaders who serve our entrepreneurial community by investing time, resources, and professional expertise to emerging makers and designers.

Media Center & Communications • The Launching Pad

Content creation is now a $200+ billion global industry with leaders like Disney and Netflix. At Watertower Place we realize that no matter how large or small the enterprise, authentic and genuine storytelling is necessary to reach targeted audiences and to develop brand loyalty. Our Media Center features green screen technologies for film production, podcasting studios, photography labs and a complete resource library and team of professionals to help tell your story. The Media Center is pleased to have Positive Content and the Pueblo Regional Film Commission as initial core tenants and communication partners.

Nonprofit Alley

Watertower Place is opening a unique co-working space called the Nonprofit Alley. We know that seemingly disparate organizations—an arts group and a entrepreneurial start-up group, for example—collaborate on projects in our building right now. When you’re working just feet away from a variety of people trying to make an impact, collaboration is bound to happen. Many of our members realize that they are ‘better together' and the ability to have inter-organizational interactions within your own office is incredibly advantageous. In our various work spaces advocacy evolves organically and networks are strengthened and expanded. Co-working is an essential and growing trend throughout the world and we find that members are happier and more productive.

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Building for the Future • Vision of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

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On Friday, February 7, 2020, the Pueblo Regional Film Commission was honored to host a group of Russian film industry professionals in conjunction with the US State Department and the World Affairs Council Colorado Springs. For over 80 years, the highly competitive International Visitor Leadership Program at the State Department has been ranked as the elite professional program for visitors coming to the USA from around the world. Our guests included film festival organizers, professors of film, public relations and marketing experts from Moscow to Vladivostok.

“We are breaking down boundaries, encouraging serendipity, and building a community of individuals who ideate, create, make, sell, and scale together.”
— Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

For over 100 years, the historic Grove neighborhood has been a center for innovation and creativity from Nuckolls to Alpha Beta. As a result, Watertower Place will retain its reputation as being one of the best community‐based innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems in the region and serve as an model for new, innovative practices and behaviors. Practitioners of creativity, invention, and entrepreneurship from all organizations, disciplines, geographies, and walks of life will turn to Watertower Place for solutions and inspiration, turning their ideas into action at any and all levels of the ecosystem.

Welcome to the next level of excellence at Watertower Place, a world where our community is collaborating for the future.

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Building for the Future at Watertower Place • A New Campaign of Discovery

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Building a community of individuals and enterprises who ideate, create, make, sell, and scale together.

Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Today we begin a month long storytelling campaign about 'Building for the Future.' This follows and builds upon our recent #ResilientPueblo platform which aimed to assist artists, creatives, makers, and entrepreneurs navigate the uncertainty in our new shared reality. COVID 19 has ushered in an opportunity for us to re-imagine our role and place in the community with our partners. The Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship is a destination for ideas where collaboration and partnerships are front and center. We have identified and studied five core areas of focus which include Hi-Tech, Privacy & Security, Food Entrepreneurship, Small Batch Manufacturing, Content Creation & the new Media Center, and the Nonprofit Alley which shares resources among nonprofits in the Alley so that more funding can be targeted towards mission and public benefit instead of overhead.

Today we begin our campaign with an introduction to the importance of thoughtful adaptive reuse of historic properties and the history of innovation and creativity at the former meat packing plant .

Adaptive Reuse of the Historic Nuckolls Packing Plant

Watertower Place is a destination for innovation and entrepreneurship and bridges the gap between new ideas and real-world impact. Located in the heart of the historic Grove neighborhood, this iconic five-story former meat packing plant encompasses 250,000-square-feet and features an innovation hub and maker space for prototyping ideas as well as a full spectrum of resources for entrepreneurs to build and grow their business ventures and not-for-profit organizations. Watertower Place is free and open to the public and serves as a nexus for collaborations from science and engineering, business and law, art and design, by innovators from around the region.

Norwegian born architect Hans Peter Henschien started his own design and architectural practice in Chicago in 1915 and designed more than 300 meat packing and cold storage facilities around the world. The Pueblo plant was one of his first projects with his new firm which and communications with the Nuckolls Family began in 1915. From 1890 to about 1940, packing plants typically were multistory facilities in which work flowed downward using gravity as the main form of technology. Many of the plant buildings share common walls, although all buildings are structurally independent. They are, however, tied into one another to the extent that little or no design separation is obvious from the exterior. Interior operations were arranged so that the flow of work proceeded in a more-or-less orderly fashion from slaughter through processing and manufacturing to shipping, and the plant can therefore be divided into building clusters according to function or related functions.

Watertower Place in the historic Grove neighborhood of Pueblo is currently positioned to become a thought leader in how re-urbanism and thoughtful adaptive re-use of historic properties helps us better understand the 'future of the past'.

The History of Innovation and Creativity at Watertower Place

When Pueblo’s core steel industry was on the downturn and struggling to survive, related businesses like Johnny’s Metal Works & Boiler Shop found an opportunity to thrive and developed a revitalization strategy with the guidance of local entrepreneur and consultant Ryan McWilliams, who is also the owner and developer of Watertower Place. This initial move was the first in a series of strategic steps that not only served the immediate needs of the restoration and renovation of the former meat packing plant, but also fostered the understanding and jump-start of an introduction to prototyping and advanced manufacturing for our innovation center.

With over 250,000 sq ft of open work space now available in the former meat packing plant on four main floors plus an expansive basement, Watertower Place is evolving into a new vertical urban village where shared resources and a collaborative environment offer extraordinary opportunities for entrepreneurs and creatives to thrive. The development team at Watertower Place realized that when you consider the whole arc of ideation and the infrastructure of not only manufacturing, but invention and commercialization, you have an opportunity to forge new pathways of discovery that are robust and complementary to the entrepreneurial mindset. 

For over 150 years, Pueblo has been the quintessential maker city with a strong ‘can-do’ attitude nurtured by the town’s rich blue collar labor force working in everything from steel manufacturing to meat processing. Whether you are a young entrepreneur or a senior tinkering in your garage, Pueblo is never short on ideas. But when you have an idea, where do you go? For many this question is daunting and a challenge. For others it is just a matter of strategic networking and relationship building. Watertower Place is the new destination for ideas in Southern Colorado.

No longer is innovation an abstract concept, but rather a physical place to visit where your ideas are received and tested. From idea to innovation, Watertower Place illuminates the pathway for aspiring entrepreneurs and creatives to make real-world impact. This world-class innovation center is your key to accessing a complete ecosystem for venture creation including everything from design and ideation resources to prototyping and fabrication equipment, as well as the legal and business expertise needed to launch your startup in one of our incubators.

Our next article will focus on the Mission of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

This photograph captures the stairs in the Ice House which was built in 1926 on the southern side of the property in the historic Grove Neighborhood.

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Watertower Place Profiles from Nuckolls Packing Company to Alpha Beta

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Emmet Nuckolls: The Visionary & Founder of the Nuckolls Packing Company

Emmet Nuckolls (1844 - 1910)

Today we begin a series of articles featuring the stories of the individuals who brought innovation and creativity to the Grove neighborhood in Pueblo, Colorado USA.

Emmet Nuckolls was born in 1844 and lost both parents at the early age of six. His older brother was given the task of guardianship and throughout his formative years, he drove cattle throughout the Great Plains. His exposure to animals at such a young age would shape his vision for the future. Emmet was on the first cattle drive from Texas to Colorado on the Goodnight Loving Trail and during the ride he repeatedly told others that he would someday build the largest and most sophisticated slaughter and meat packing facility in the West.

Before establishing his butchering business in Leadville, Colorado his first exposure to life in Pueblo was from 1873 to 1878 when he enjoyed the favorable climate of the ‘big city’ atmosphere. Leadville proved to be a good business decision with it booming economy driven by the Guggenheim family and their large silver mines in the region. From 1879 to 1890, cattle became plentiful and provided ample meat to American consumers. In 1891 he decided to follow the Guggenheim’s lead and return to Pueblo to establish the first generation of the Nuckolls Packing Company.

In 1909 Emmet Nuckolls created quite a political stir in the community when he decided to run for Mayor in a rather unorthodox manner. As a registered Democrat he started talking like a Republican and in a surprise move he called a parade and announced his Independent candidacy. While this ruffled the political feathers of many in the community, he also received wide support from others who saw him as a visionary and challenger to the status quo on the frontier.

Unfortunately Emmet never realized his dream of building the largest and most modern meat packing facility. He fell three stories into one of the lower pens at the packing plant and shattered his hip. After a fourteen day vigil in the hospital the Chieftain announced in one of its largest headlines that ‘Death Called’.

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The End of World War II & The Opening of the Livestock Hotel in October 1946

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The interior of the Livestock Hotel when completed in October 1946 by American Stores of Philadelphia.

Just one tenth of the original Livestock Hotel remains on the south lot of Watertower Place bordered by D Street and the Alley. The structure was built after the purchase of the Nuckolls Packing Co. by American Stores of Philadelphia in 1946 and signaled a major investment and upgrade to the extensive livestock receiving system at the meat packing plant.

Della Nuckolls served as President of the Nuckolls Packing Co during the wartime years and communicated with Jay C. Hormel to secure the future of the Pueblo plant which was closed from 1942 - 1946.

The Nuckolls Packing Company was closed in May 1942 during WWII due to tin rationing, meat market controls, and price ceilings. President Della Nuckolls worked closely with Jay C. Hormel (see private letter from 1946) during the war to prepare the Pueblo plant for a strategic reopening. Unlike Nuckolls, Hormel was able to keep his plant operating because he contributed upwards of 70% of meat production to the war effort. Much of the wartime production at Hormel was SPAM which became a staple both at home and abroad. The Pueblo plant opened again under new ownership in 1946 in the name of American Stores which was based in Philadelphia. American Stores was best known for its extensive ACME Market grocery store chain along the East Coast and its Lincoln Meats brand. With new ownership came significant and necessary capital investments to bring the plant up to date and to meet the capacity goals set forth by American Stores.

The new LIvestock Hotel was the single largest upgrade to the facility and a major enhancement to the overall system in which livestock were brought to the plant in the Grove. The new building was carefully integrated with a series of covered easeways and shutes that enabled animals to travel easily and safely from the Hotel to the kill floor shute entrance on the west side of the main building. According to the Pueblo Star Journal, the cost of design and construction totalled $100,000. American Stores secured the services of Olson Construction Co., a regional specialist in the packing industry and based in Salt Lake City, to complete the project in the Grove neighborhood.

The single story brick and concrete structure measured 320 feet in length and 100 feet in width. Exterior walls climbed to 18 feet in height with a 30 foot balcony overlooking the main floor. The design also included a stamped concrete floor system which allowed for better traction for the animals and is still visible today and serves as an outdoor event space. The interior of the structure showcases the heavy timbers that were used to support the vaulted roof and upper windows that allowed for ample light to penetrate the expansive space. The new facility also included a modern fire suppression system for protection. The Livestock Hotel was designed to accommodate up to 2,000 cattle or 6,000 sheep at one time. According to plant operations, animals were not on the grounds for more than 24 hours.

Most recently in August 2019, the Livestock Hotel was chosen as the venue for the first annual Change Your Mind Art Festival. The exterior shell of the building served as the ideal location for all of the musical groups who performed throughout the day at the festival.

The Livestock Hotel today serves as the ideal venue for visual and performing arts and a variety of public and private gatherings.

Local artist, gallery owner, and designer Jeff Madeen recently completed a series of architectural renderings of the Livestock Hotel for the owner of Watertower Place. The development team is considering several use options for this unique gathering space which totals more than 6,000 square feet. Current buildout considerations include a new corporate headquarters for a major engineering firm, dedicated special events and meetings pavilion with a commercial kitchen, bar and lounge. The adjacent plaza area to the west of the Livestock Hotel is ideal for special events, festivals and faires —- giving Watertower Place all the indoor and outdoor amenities necessary for a successful occasion. In the near future, the main entrance to Watertower Place will move to the south side of the property at the corner of D and Plum Streets. This new entrance will be adjacent to the Livestock Hotel making access and parking more ideal for visitors. This meetings and events destination will be folded into the existing 22,000 sq ft of special event event space atop Watertower Place on the former kill floor. To learn more about how you can host your next event at Watertower Place, visit our dedicated section on our website.

Architectural rendering of the former Livestock Hotel by local artist and designer Jeff Madeen. The current brick facade can be found on the north, east and south sides of the building. This design concept highlights the use of special glass windows facing the west.

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Get Your Tickets Now • Watertower Place Tours Resume on Saturday, March 21, 2020

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“I have lived in Pueblo my whole life and this tour was the most exciting thing I have done in 50 years! Thanks for sharing a uniquely Pueblo story. It has brought back so many memories from years past.”
— Bill • Tour Participant • 85 years old

The best way to learn about Watertower Place is to experience it firsthand by taking a guided tour. We offer scheduled programs each month for those interested in a more indepth look at over 100 years of creativity and innovation in the Grove. Space is limited, so we encourage early reservations. Admission is free, but due to the high demand, we ask that if you should not be able to visit as scheduled, let us know immediately so that we can offer your space to those on the waitlist. Welcome to Watertower Place!

Eventbrite - Watertower Place Weekend Tour 2020
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Watertower Place Launches the Illumination Project in the Heart of the Grove

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Beginning Saturday, August 24, 2019, Watertower Place launched the illumination Project which highlights through illumination an architectural element of the historic meat packing plant. Keep an eye out at sunset and capture and share what you see when we announce a Saturday night illumination date.

On Saturday, August 24, 2019 the chimneys atop the meat smoking alleys were shining bright as part of our new Illumination Project. The north water tower is quietly peeking from the shadows in the distance.

Justin Fahmie captured this magical image of our Illumination Project. Thank you for sharing! Stay tuned for the Second Edition --- coming soon!

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Watertower Place Begins Nomination Process for Historic Landmark Status

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Photo of the many towers and stacks located in Downtown Pueblo as seen through the chimney stacks atop Watertower Place. Photo Credit: Gregory Howell

The Historic Narrative for Nomination

The first book of its kind which we refer to as the “Slaughterhouse Bible’.

In 1915 Hans Peter Henschien published the very first book of its kind titled: Packing House and Cold Storage Construction: A General Reference Work on the Planning, Construction and Equipment of Modern American Meat Packing Plants.  During a critical time in America’s history when sanitation conditions and food safety were not consistent, this book changed the way we designed and built meat processing facilities. It was not until the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which required federal meat inspection, that packinghouse construction changed dramatically. As hygienic standards increased, wood buildings virtually disappeared from packinghouses and were replaced by reinforced concrete. His strategic alliance with the USDA at this early juncture enabled him to set very high standards and when each chapter of the book was followed carefully, the USDA would certify the production facility and also allow government inspectors onsite to actually certify and stamp meat as US Government Inspected Products which was a game changer in 1915. This publication has also been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of the meat packing and cold storage industry. This work was originally published in 1915 when the design process was near completion for the Pueblo, Colorado plant. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public via the Library of Congress. It is also being published again by a specialty house dedicated to lost and forgotten titles.

 

Recent research has also determined that architect Hans Peter Henschien designed more than 300 meat packing and cold storage facilities around the world and the Pueblo facility was one of his first projects with his new private practice which began in 1915 in Chicago, Illinois. From about 1890 to about 1940, packing plants typically were multistory facilities in which work flowed downward. From the exterior, the Nuckolls Packing Co. complex appears to be almost a solid mass of interconnected structures. Only the administration building, the firehouse, and the ice house stand as completely separate structures. Many of the plant buildings share common walls, although all buildings are structurally independent. They are, however, tied into one another to the extent that little or no design separation is obvious from the exterior. Interior operations were arranged so that the flow of work proceeded in a more-or-less orderly fashion from slaughter through processing and manufacturing to shipping, and the plant can therefore be divided into building clusters according to function or related functions. The complex as a whole is best understood in terms of building clusters associated by function.


The architect is known for his rational factory theory which used gravity as his main form of technological innovation where people and processes are designed to produce optimal outcomes. The main work buildings reflect Hans Peter Henschien’s principles of multistory packinghouse design. “From an operating standpoint,” he wrote in his 1915 treatise on the subject, “the killing floor in a packing plant will be considered as the starting point. Practical experience has located the killing department on the top floor of the slaughterhouse. In modern plants this will be on the fourth floor as livestock can easily be driven to this height without detriment to their condition. With such an arrangement we have the livestock conveyed by it own effort to a point from which the dressed carcasses and all the byproducts can be transferred by gravity, or by a minimum of labor, to their proper place of storage or manufacture.”

The construction of the world’s largest and most modern meat packing and cold storage facility began under the supervision of George Harvey Nuckolls who was the son of the founder, Emmet Nuckolls, who started the first generation of the business in Leadville, Colorado in the late 1880s. G.H. Nuckolls, who as the Pueblo Chieftain notes, “the life of this great pioneer was unselfishly devoted to the building of Pueblo’s greatest local industry.” The buildings were located in the direct path of the Great Flood of 1921 along the Arkansas River but credit is given to the architects unique construction of the 250,000 square foot plant as the absence of any load bearing walls helped save the structure from significant damage. After the waters receded it took less than 90 days to repair the plant and several pictures taken after the aftermath show the Nuckolls Packing Co. standing as a “beacon of hope to all of Pueblo.” The Nuckolls Family, Red Cross, and Elks Lodge joined forces and set up offices for the flood recovery effort at the Nuckolls Packing Co. in the Grove. The plant stayed with the Nuckolls Family until the sale of the property to American Stores Co. of Philadelphia shortly after WWII. It then became a part of the Lincoln Packing Division of American Stores. 

Nuckolls Packing Co. employed as many as 500 men and women for over 60 years creating bonds with generations of Pueblo families. After the first two generations of leadership, the Board of Directors did not hesitate to select the founder’s grand daughters Marion and Della Nuckolls to assume top leadership positions. Marion, who was both a classical pianist and a Vice President of a major investment house in Pueblo, served as President and Della, a trained Los Angeles-based Denishawn Dancer who studied dance along with Martha Graham and later was a star of the Greenwich Village Follies at the Shubert Theatre in New York City, took on the roles of both Vice President and Treasurer. Della enjoyed traveling to the East Coast to perform and then return to Pueblo to help with the family business. It is widely known that Marion and Della Nuckolls are considered two of the first women to assume top C-level management roles in a major food production facility in the United States. Della is credited with saving the meat packing plant after its closure during World War II due to severe tin rationing and price controls when private letters were recently discovered between Della and Jay C. Hormel. All of the meat packing industry leaders worked together to ensure businesses returned to pre-war operations levels and in 1946 the Nuckolls Packing Co. was sold to American Stores of Philadelphia. Through the vision of three generations of the Nuckolls Family, the Nuckolls Packing Co. will always remain an important part of Pueblo’s industrial past. 

The Nuckolls Packing Co. Plant (now Watertower Place) in the historic Grove neighborhood of Pueblo is currently positioned to become a thought leader in how re-urbanism and thoughtful adaptive re-use of historic properties helps us better understand the 'future of the past'.

Architecture

The architect of the Nuckolls Packing Co. was Hans Peter Henschien who was born in Norway and emigrated to the United States in 1901. During a career that began in 1902 and lasted into the 1950s, Henschien built his reputation on the design of packinghouses. In his day, he was considered the foremost designer of packinghouses and cold storage warehouses in the country, and he was the first architectural engineer to work extensively among meat packing firms. Henschien came to New York in 1902 where Swift & Company employed him as an engineer and designer. Swift transferred him to its general headquarters in Chicago in 1905. In 1909, Henschien left Swift and went into private practice with D.I. Davis, specializing in packing plant design. He opened his own office in Chicago in 1914 and soon took on a new partner, Robert J. McLaren. Upon McClaren’s retirement in 1929, Henschien continued the firm under his own name. Sometime after 1937 he formed a new partnership known as Henschien, Everds, and Crombie. For several decades Henschien’s 1915 book, Packing House and Cold Storage Construction,  was considered the authoritative reference on multi-story packing plant design. During his career, he reportedly designed at least 300 packing plants and cold storage warehouses throughout the world. 

Henschien was the most widely known packing house architect in the world and his expertise was required if the Nuckolls Family was to realize their dream of building and operating the largest and most modern packing plant in the world. Construction on the four story main building was completed in one year beginning in March 1916 at a cost of $300,000 USD. The five story adjacent ice house was built in 1926 at a cost of $100,000 USD. 

Nuckolls Packing Company in Winter 1940.

Watertower Place in Winter 2019.

The vast majority of plant buildings in Pueblo are of reinforced concrete construction with exterior walls clad in brick. Geometric Art Deco detailing executed in stone is usually found evenly spaced along upper story beltcourses of patterned brick. The building facades are all brick with period architectural design features. This detail signifies buildings designed by Henschien. In addition to the Pueblo Plant, Henschien designed, in whole or in part, Rath Packing Co. (Iowa), John Morrell & Co.(Iowa), Jacob E. Decker & Sons (Iowa), Dubuque Packing (Iowa), and the Richter Sausage Co. (Illinois), to name just a few. 


Geography

The buildings were located in the direct path of the Great Flood of 1921 along the Arkansas River but credit is given to the architects unique construction of the 250,000 square foot plant as the absence of any load bearing walls helped save the structure from significant damage. After the waters receded it took less than 90 days to repair the plant and several pictures taken after the aftermath show the Nuckolls Packing Co. standing as a “beacon of hope to all of Pueblo.” The Nuckolls Family, Red Cross, and Elks Lodge joined forces and set up offices for the flood recovery effort at the Nuckolls Packing Co. in the Grove.

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Welcome to Watertower Place

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Welcome to the official blog for Watertower Place. Here we plan to take you on a journey of the history, culture, arts and business of the former meat packing plant in the historic Grove neighborhood of Pueblo, Colorado.

This platform is dedicated to sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly of over 120 years of creativity and innovation in the Grove. When we say ‘ugly’ we are referring to the messiness of life which is where all the humanity lies in our greatest storytelling.

This is Pueblo. We hope you enjoy the ride!

The Watertower Place Team