Aug. 18, 2003 -  LA JUNTA, Colo.--One of Colorado's historic gems, the long-dormant Kit Carson Hotel, is up for renovation.

Already, "The Kit," as the hotel built in 1906 is affectionately known, is breathing easier. Three trash-bin loads of old mattresses, carpeting, garbage and pigeon poop have been removed from its innards.

"That was a major accomplishment. It was ankle deep in everything you can imagine," said Patricia Holcomb, who runs the endangered-places program for Colorado Preservations Inc.

Holcomb's organization earlier this year listed The Kit, which once boasted the largest dance floor in the Arkansas Valley, as one of Colorado's most endangered historic sites.

The new owner, Mary Kahler of Littleton, still has much to do. The Kit needs everything from a new roof to new heating, air conditioning, plumbing and a kitchen. Kahler hopes to do it "for quite a bit less" than the $2 million to $3 million estimated four years ago.

She envisions retail shops on the ground floor, a children's arcade in the basement, a bed and breakfast on the second floor and apartments on the third floor.

"It is a huge project and will take a couple of years," Kahler said.

A three-story brick building with a blond brick art-deco style facade, the hotel has 50 bedrooms, ballroom, kitchen, dining area, lounge, a high-ceiling basement and 6,500 square feet of space on each floor.

In its heyday, "we had dances, turkey dinners, a little poker club upstairs and the whole kit and caboodle," said Ron Loflin, whose family owned the hotel from 1975 to about 1990. At its peak, there were about 30 employees, Loflin said.

Kahler, a veteran of seven smaller restoration projects from Iowa to California, bought the hotel in June for $24,950.

"My mom's 97-year-old cousin, Elizabeth Moyer in California, was the assistant to the architect who did the renovation in the 1930s. She called us and said, 'They are going to tear down my hotel,"' Kahler said.

Renovation is a team effort, with Kahler's husband, Jerry, her mother, Beverly Babb, and Kahler's stepfather, Jack Babb, doing most of the grunt work.

It has been empty, under a leaky roof, for more than five years. Mary Kahler is working with architects, a structural engineer and La Junta City Manager Rick Klein to determine how to proceed and to prepare documents for grant applications to get funds to assist with further renovations.

"I love the idea," Klein said after a tour. "They are doing a fantastic job, they really are."

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