![](/sites/default/files/pictures/full/no-image-360.png)
Durangoans razed their old (1892) Italianate stone courthouse after Francis Pillsbury, a Denver architect, designed a two-story, orange brick, rectilinear wing that was left free-standing. Thirty years later a team of Aspen architects added another wing in the same boxy form as Pillsbury's work with a contemporary version of a dentiled cornice in metal, recessed windows, and a second story of slightly cantilevered cubes. They tied the wings together and gave the fullblock complex a distinctive entry through a central, three-story Neo-Victorian bell tower crowned with a wrought iron crest. The old courthouse bell and Seth Thomas clock were repaired by Durango automobile mechanic Tony Ferdinando and installed in the tower.