Pat O’Leary isn’t here. But his spirit, his fingerprints, are everywhere at the corner of North Lena and Clinton streets in Ridgway.
The grand piano in the community event space that he learned to play when he was 50. The greenhouse perched atop the remodeled 142-year-old firehouse, fashioned after one he saw in Denver. The outdoor patio that will forever bear his name, where he would have soaked up the summer evenings. The gleaming marble bar, where it’s easy to envision the Irishman from Chicago sipping his favorite drink and shaking hands with customers.
This is the space the businessman and philanthropist began imagining several years ago — a mixed-use development now known to locals as the Old Firehouse that incorporates a restaurant, an office, outdoor and indoor community spaces and residences. Pat was keen on giving new life and new purpose to this historic stone structure. Over the decades, it served as everything from a town hall, fire station and school, to an artist studio, to one of the settings for the original 1969 “True Grit” film.
It was Pat who laid the groundwork for this place, securing the necessary town permits and finances and assembled the contractors, greenhouse manager and other staff needed to build and run the operation. But Pat died of pancreatic cancer in March at the age of 71 before he could fulfill his vision, leaving it to his wife, Marti, to push the project across the finish line with the help of friends and employees.
Patron saint candles featuring images of Pat and Marti O’Leary sit inside The Hearth restaurant within the remodeled Old Firehouse building. The O’Learys purchased the old historic stone structure at the corners of Sherman and North Lena streets in 2017, intent on preserving its heritage while redeveloping the site into a community gathering place. Erin McIntyre – Ouray County Plaindealer
The grand opening for the restaurant and bar that serve as the centerpiece of the firehouse is planned for late September — the same month as what would have been the O’Learys’ 42nd wedding anniversary.
“It’ll be our dream that happened, and he’s not here to celebrate it,” Marti said, holding back tears as employees bustled around the restaurant. “But I wouldn’t not do it.”
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In the Old Firehouse, the O’Learys created more than 16,000 square feet of space that simultaneously preserves Ridgway’s heritage, aims to give a shot in the arm to the local economy and reshapes the face of one of the most recognizable corners in town.
The original firehouse was built in 1882 as a home for railroad workers, nine years before the town incorporated. In the ensuing decades it served several purposes: town hall, fire station, school and social hub. The company that filmed “True Grit” built the bell tower that caps the historic red structure to make it appear more like a late 1800s school.
The building came under private ownership in the 1980s and became an art studio in the 1990s and 2000s. The owner at the time, Michael McCullough, fashioned several sculptures, while his partner, Lucy Boody, converted the vacant areas around the building into an ever-evolving garden of trees, shrubs, plants, hand-sculpted fairies and benches.
The Ridgway Firehouse is pictured here in 2015, when it was a studio for sculptors Michael McCullough and Lucy Boody. The building originated as a residence for railroad workers. Its belfry was added by the producers of the 1969 movie “True Grit.” Photo courtesy Carol M. Highsmith, Gates Frontiers Fund Colorado Collection/Library of Congress
The O’Learys turned their attention to the old stone structure after McCullough died in 2016. Pat, a history major at DePaul University, loathed the idea of an out-of-stater buying the building and knocking it down. So he and Marti purchased it in 2017, the starting point of a new chapter for the firehouse.
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The Hearth is at the center of the building, offering an upscale dining experience for dinner and Sunday brunch. The sample menu features an array of unique items, from smoked trout rillette for a starter, to lemon ricotta tortellini for dinner, to Norwegian eggs benedict – with dry-cured salmon – for brunch.
“The food has to match the space,” said Daniel Castillo, whom the O’Learys brought over from the posh Elk Mountain Resort to be the executive chef at The Hearth.
The restaurant, which seats around 60 inside and 16 outside on the front patio, includes a full bar, a custom-built, gas-assisted, wood-fired pizza oven imported from Italy and a wood-fired grill.
Customers who look up when they enter the restaurant will get a peek at the origins of their meal. Windows provide a view into the 1,400-square-foot greenhouse.
The Harvest greenhouse manager Sam Nafziger walks through the 1,400-square-foot space atop the Old Firehouse building. Nafziger is in charge of growing and harvesting vegetables and herbs from the aeroponics growing system, which features 44 vertical towers that are each able to grow 40 plants. Erin McIntyre – Ouray County Plaindealer
Named The Harvest, it’s headlined by an aeroponics system featuring 44 towers that are each able to grow 40 plants. Rather than using soil, the system suspends roots in the air and irrigates them with a nutrient-rich mist. Greenhouse manager Sam Nafziger tends a variety of vegetables and herbs that will be incorporated into dishes served at The Hearth and at private gatherings at the adjoining event space.
There’s also a fruiting chamber attached to the greenhouse, where Nafziger has already harvested hundreds of pounds of mushrooms. Those are already being dried for the restaurant’s creations.
Nafziger holds mature oyster mushrooms ready to harvest for the restaurant. Erin McIntyre – Ouray County Plaindealer
Immediately to the south of the restaurant, the event space offers indoor and outdoor seating for close to 150 people, designed for weddings, retreats and other private functions.
This vantage point of the project shows the southeast side of the patio outside the event center, with the greenhouse visible on top of the old firehouse with the bell tower. Erin McIntyre – Ouray County Plaindealer
Outside the event space, Lucy’s Garden offers private patio seating and a nod to Boody’s artistic contributions to the space.
On the north side of the firehouse, a covered patio known as Pat’s Place will be a three-season hangout with pub food and drink service from a restaurant window. Diners can look forward to a rotating selection of soft-serve ice cream.
The O’Learys and their team of designers and builders did their best to retain and repurpose as many elements from the historic stone structure as possible. The restaurant sits within the three reinforced stone walls. The metal fence that surrounded the old firehouse remains. The bell tower was removed, refurbished and returned to its rightful place last year. A new bell will be rung for the first time during Pat’s memorial on Sept. 12.
Above and behind the restaurant, a 1,600-square-foot office space is ready to be rented. Behind that, four one-bedroom workforce apartments will be made available first to employees in the building, then to other local workers who qualify financially.
The third floor features two condominiums, one for O’Leary and the other for Steve Chevalier, whom the O’Learys traded the condo for a vacant lot he owned on the north corner of the building site.
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It has been a long, arduous process for Marti to get to this point, made more challenging by the loss of her husband in the spring. She went ahead with the plan to sell their home on Log Hill, and moved into an apartment upstairs from the restaurant while their condo is being finished in the building.
While she and Pat tackled the project hand-in-hand, the vision for it really belonged to Pat. And at 75, Marti isn’t interested in overseeing an event center, restaurant and bar on her own. She’s listed the property for sale for $8.5 million, hoping a buyer will give it the same love and dedication poured into its creation.
Marti O’Leary poses in front of the Old Firehouse project in Ridgway, a mixed-use development she brought to fruition after her husband, Pat, died in March. Erin McIntyre — Ouray County Plaindealer
But none of that has diminished her enthusiasm for the grand opening, her attention to detail to make sure everything is in place, or the emotions that well inside her when she considers the aspects of the Old Firehouse Pat would have appreciated the most.
“I want people to enjoy everything that’s here,” Marti said.
The Old Firehouse is located at 185 N. Lena St. Dinner will be available nightly from 5-10 p.m. and brunch will be available on the weekends from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To make reservations, call 970626-8801, and for more information, visit theoldfirehouse.com.
