A Brief History of the Sherbino Theatre
And the Sherbino Family
The Sherbino Theatre was built by Louis Sherbino, one
hundred years ago in 1915. The Ouray Herald described
Mr. Sherbino as a capitalist and mine magnate.
“Ridgway’s man with the coin. He has a remarkable
record as a mine promoter, having sold 93 claims and
making 40 distinct and separate promotions.” However,
unlike the Carnegies or Vanderbuilts, Louis Sherbino,
was not from “old money”, he was truly a self made
man.
The year was 1874, a young French Canadian by the
name of Louis Sherbino got off the train in Denver, with
his most prized possession, a violin from France,
strapped to his back in a rosewood case, he began
walking to Lake City a journey of more than 180 miles,
as the crow flies. Lake City was a boom town at the
time, many miners where trying their luck searching for
gold in the area and there was work to be had. Louis
was not a miner, rather he was an axeman hailing from
the upper Michigan peninsula. He found work cutting
wood which was used to make charcoal for the coke
ovens using in the early stages of the ore smelting
process. Louis also played the fiddle, had an interesting
personality, was amiable and generally got along well
with folks.
One year later Louis returned to Canada where he
married Agnes Moodie and then brought his new bride
back to Lake City. Not being satisfied with wood cutting,
Louis saved up his money and bought some mining
claims. The buying and selling of mining claims proved
to be his real forte and he made a good living the rest of
his life doing just that. While living in Lake City he sold
the Bon Homme mine to some investors in Detroit, a
city with which he had many business ties. Louis’s son,
often called LWA, since almost every male in this family
has been called Louis Sherbino for five generations,
remembers one occasion when Louis returned from
Detroit and emptied out a leather belt loaded with gold
coins he had earned by selling the Blaine mine, on the
face of Mount Sneffels to some wealthy eastern
investors.
Now while the men of the family were all called Louis
William Ambroise Sherbino, evidently the surname of
Sherbino was in fact an altered version of the true
family name of Charbonneau, since young Louis was not
able to explain the phonetics or spelling to a timber
boss he hired on with in Michigan, so the spelling we
know today became the accepted spelling. Through the
generations, the family surname evolved from
Charbonneau to Cherbeneau and even Sherbonneau as
family members attempted to return to their French
family roots.
Louis and Agnes bought a large piece of property a few
miles west of Ridgway. Since his business of mine
speculating often took him to Detroit and other points
east, the operations of their ranch often fell to Agnes
and ultimately to their son LWA. During the early days
of this cattle operation, their cattle were “free range”
but as the Forest Service was founded and regulations
ensued, Agnes was told that her herd of Durham Short
Horned cattle were no longer acceptable to the Forest
Service and that if she wanted to continue running
cattle on public land, she would need to convert to
Hereford stock. Agnes saw things differently and
refused to change her breed so she sold off her entire
herd to buyers in Kansas City and the Sherbino cattle
operation and their registered brand of V Bar S ceased
to exist.
It is stated several times in the Sherbino family history
that Agnes was the “third wife” of Louis, but it is
unclear if they practiced polygamy or if there had been
an earlier marriage which failed, which would cause
Agnes to be a “second wife”. Louis and Agnes divorced
in 1890 and the property in Ridgway was left to Agnes
and Louis returned to Detroit to pursue his business. He
remarried but ultimately he returned to live with Agnes
in Grand Junction during the last year of his life. He
passed away in 1924.
LWA was the only surviving offspring of the union
between Louis and Agnes. Being an only son, he grew
up helping his mother run the “ranch” and for a time
ran an 80 acre portion of the ranch as his own.
Evidently, when the family returned to Colorado after
the birth of LWA they forgot to file for his citizenship
papers and ultimately he had to apply for US citizenship
in 1916. As an interesting side note, in my research
with Don Paulson from the Ouray County Historical
Society, I discovered a copy of a “Declaration of
Intention” filed by LWA in this regard and I would like to
quote a portion of this document. Among other things,
including renouncing King George the 5th as his
monarch, LWA affirmed, and I quote, “I am not an
anarchist; I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the
practice of polygamy; and it is my intention in good
faith to become a citizen of the United States of
America and to permanently reside therein: So Help Me
God.” So with that affirmation, LWA became a US
citizen.
Aside from helping his mother with the ranch and being
a law enforcement officer, LWA had another passion in
life, he was a musician and performer and it was this
interest which may have prompted his father Louis to
build what we know today as the Sherbino Theatre. In
1911, when LWA was about 28 years old, rumors
started to circulate that Louis was going to build a
theatre for his son to perform in. The following year
those rumors were confirmed when Louis purchased
the land and retained Gus Kullerstand as architect and
builder for the project. Construction of the facility
proceeded well, however since Louis was perceived by
many in the community to have strong ties to mining
interests and there was a dispute between mine
workers and mine owners at the time; some have said
that workmanship was done poorly and the building has
suffered as a result through the years. Nonetheless, in
1915 the new building was ready to be opened to the
public.
Read the newspaper announcement from the Ridgway
Sun of September 17, 1915.
Unfortunately the vision of Louis providing his son a
source of livelihood turned out to be short-lived. LWA
operated the Sherbino as a performance venue for only
a few short months since another Ridgway resident,
who worked for the railroad, a major employer in the
town, also opened up a competing venue. Although not
particularly strong in business acumen, LWA married
Bessie Slick, the daughter of a prominent area
physician. Both LWA and Bessie performed the night of
the Sherbino Theatre opening. With both the Sherbino
and Slick familes involved, the Sherbino in a sense
became a defacto community center for the town. As
one studies the history of Ridgway, the Sherbino
Theatre comes up again and again as a location for
many important community events. Of particular note
is that prior to the advent of advanced phone systems,
the internet and cable news, world and even regional
events often took weeks to reach rural areas like
Ridgway. The Sherbino Theatre was the site of a
community gathering of more than 300 Ridgway
residents to learn that the United States had just
entered WWI.
As any of you who have studied the history of Ridgway
certainly know, Ridgway was founded in 1891 as a
railroad town, being at the junction of the Telluride
area line and the Ouray line. The Silver Crisis of 1892 to
1896 busted most of the prominent city founding
father’s fortunes as mining activity in the area declined.
In an attempt to keep the rail lines and the town viable,
rail activity was diversified to include the hauling of
lumber and livestock. Other new businesses opened,
including the Ridgway Flour Mill in 1893, which not only
processed all the wheat local farmers could grow, but
also imported wheat from the San Luis Valley. A new
creamery was opened as well. By 1911 the Ridgway
Creamery was processing milk from more than 700 local
cows. Also founded in 1905, the Western Box Company
built fruit boxes out of locally milled aspen, spruce and
pine. At its peak, this operation produced up to 5,000
boxes per week.
Yet with the decline of the mines and mine related
railroad traffic, it was difficult for Ridgway to become
firmly established. WWI, the national depression and
even WWII had significant impacts on rural areas like
Ridgway. Economic drivers, at a large scale, were
effecting the small town. In 1947 the Colorado Road
Department decided to move Ridgway’s main street
from Clinton to its current location which had a
devastating effect on businesses located there. The
Sherbino was no longer on “main street” but was now a
block away from the main business area. Many of the
key structures located on Clinton Street fell into
disrepair, were boarded up or even demolished. Then
to make things even worse the Bureau of Reclamation
was considering a dam site along the Uncompahgre
which would have inundated the Ridgway townsite, so
from 1957 until 1971, a cloud hung over Ridgway, there
was little incentive to invest in new businesses or even
keep up the maintenance of existing structures in our
town.
In the late 60’s the town was the site of several major
Hollywood productions, including Hal Wallis’ True Grit.
The Sherbino received a wrap around porch which was
later demolished.
Yet like the town, the Sherbino Theatre survived its
challenges and lived to “fight another day”. The
Sherbino Theatre has had many “lives”, it has served as
the town post office on multiple occasions, has been a
roller rink at least twice and has served as the venue to
present plays developed by the local schools. Its retail
space was first a Drugstore, then a restaurant, a post
office and is now the location of the Colorado Boy
Brewery.
In 1991 the Ridgway Historic District was established
and the Sherbino Theatre was included in the area to be
preserved. Many key Ridgway citizens, including Dennis
Weaver, have participated in fund raising activities to
assure that the Sherbino Theatre is preserved. The
Ridgway Historic District Preservation and Conservation
Committee was able to raise more than $108,000 locally
and the Colorado Historical Society extended a grant to
support the effort in excess of $80,000. After extensive
fundraising and preservation work the Sherbino Theatre
was reopened to the public in 1996 as a community
venue for the performing arts. Richard Fike, the
founder of the Museum of the Mountain West in
Montrose, currently owns the Sherbino, which he
originally purchased in an effort to preserve the historic
structure. It was not until about three to four years ago
that the non-profit Ridgway Chautauqua Society took
up the challenge of trying to purchase this fine old
theatre and assure that she continues to serve the
Ridgway community as a venue for community
education and fine arts presentations. By being here
tonight you also have a hand in helping to preserve the
legacy of the Sherbino Theatre, thank you for your
continued support!