| In 1996 Martie Henderson found an old hotel that had been boarded up for over
10 years and fell in love with the idea of restoring it to its former glory. After a year of hard work, she opened it as
“La Plaza Inn & Suites — an elegantly restored historic hotel.” However, after a few years of operation and still low occupancy,
she realized that Walsenburg just wasn’t enough of a destination to make the little inn work. Since she couldn’t move La
Plaza to a neat little resort town, she decided to make Walsenburg a quaint little tourist town! With an extensive background
and education in sales and marketing, Martie knew two of the key elements necessary for a tourist destination were already
in place – scenery and traffic. Between three and four million cars pass through Walsenburg annually, so she was positive
that if some unique shops and eateries opened along Main Street, they would arouse the curiosity of travelers.
Armed with a plan to revitalize Walsenburg, Martie set out to find retailers and restaurateurs to fill
the buildings downtown. She tried for several years to lure investors and shop owners. She finally decided to do it
herself. During the spring of 2005, she managed to purchase three buildings on Main Street. They were all empty and
their storefronts had been in disarray from previous renovations. She restored them to their original Victorian
architecture and opened three shops: the Main Street Antique Mall at 609 Main Street, Southwest Imports at 607 Main
Street, and Cowboy Connection at 605 Main Street.
Each shop offers different merchandise as their names indicate, however; Southwest Imports is much more than
pottery. It offers an array of furniture, home decor items and gifts, not only in the southwestern tradition, but also a
large selection of Old World Tuscan-style items, and a delightful selection of mountain lodge/log cabin home accents. But
perhaps the most unique aspect of the Southwest Imports shop is her little “business incubator” experiment. Martie has provided
an area for four separately owned boutiques in one of the stores. Each little boutique owner buys their own merchandise
and rents a 10ft.X10ft. space. As they grow their businesses, she would like them to start their own shops on Main Street,
thereby filling an empty store front and creating their own job plus a few more for others. Martie’s been pleased with business
so far and is happy to see new activity in the Burg. She feels she’s in the right place at the right time, believing Walsenburg
is the last best investment opportunity along the Sangre de Cristo range!
Front: Laura Smith, Tammy Williford, Janet Behringer
Middle: Barbara Gatlin, Martie Henderson, Claire Braun, Marianne
Smithy, Joane Paige
Back: Debbie Williams, Shelly Naranjo
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