A Bit of BNA History

A simple telling of the BNA history states that the organization was founded in the early 1980’s by a group of neighbors desiring a place for the street on the US National Register of Historical Places. But before this happened, two women who lived a century apart in the same house on the Boulevard helped pave the way for where the BNA is today. This is a bit of their story.

Estelle McNeil was a young Connecticut woman who fell in love with her brother’s business partner, Alfred Camp. The two men were what you might call early venture capitalists- starting banks in Del Norte, Animas City, and Durango to help finance economy spurred by the railroads. Nothing is known of the courtship between Estelle and Alfred, but I suppose, in part, he lured her west with the promise of a nice place to live, along Durango’s first designated residential street.

When Estelle’s house was built, the street was a long way from being called The Boulevard, as there were very few homes and the median was desolate of trees. Estelle would help change this, bringing two silver maple saplings in a suitcase from Connecticut to plant in front of her home, which she moved into on New Years Day 1884. Later, among her many civic endeavors, she would lead a tree planting campaign to beautify the street and median. The rows of tall trees now shading our landscape in summer and setting it ablaze in autumn were but a vision for Estelle, who died in 1948. The local Arbor Day Foundation honored her thirty years later by planting a silver maple in her name in the 900 block.

From 1970, Elizabeth Bushnell made Estelle’s house her home, lured by ample space in which she and her husband could raise their four children. Elizabeth initially despised the Victorian style of the house: “it was gruesome… everything was landlord green and ‘Pepto Bismal’ pink,” she said. But as she brightened the decor and tended the garden, the house and neighborhood grew on her. A decade later she dove into study of Victorian architecture, filling notebooks with descriptions of the various surrounding styles. She made acquaintance with one Mr. Smith, who lived his whole life on East Third Avenue, enlisting his memory for anecdotal details. Then Elizabeth, or Betty as she was informally known, began sharing this new-ish love for her neighborhood, guiding walking tours along the Boulevard. One of her early guests asked why some of the homes or the street itself wasn’t historically registered, and thus was catalyzed the idea of accomplishing just that. Other neighbors had long desired recognition for their homes, so many joined in the work of recording details of structures along the Boulevard which could contribute to eligibility for the Register. The Boulevard Neighborhood Association was officially formed with the motto “We Have a Plan!” and the first item of business was accomplished October 11, 1984 when East Third Avenue was added to the National Historical Register.

Kristen Phillips, Vice President
Boulevard Neighborhood Association