structure next door would not sell (before La Fave completed his building, however, it burned down). It was originally a restaurant, with apartments for rent upstairs. That restaurant, the St. James, was praised by The Aspen Daily Times as "magnificent, neat, and clean." In the years after the Colorado Silver Boom ended and Aspen's population declined from over 10,000 to a few hundred by the late 1920s, the block was neglected but did not fall victim to arson or collapse as so many other buildings from the boom era did. In the 1950s, the slow revival of Aspen as a ski town led to the building's revival. Architect Fritz Benedict, influential in the development of the reborn city, used the dilapidated building as his office and rented out the apartments. Two decades later, Norwegian Stein Eriksen, a 1952 Olympic gold medalist in downhill skiing, used the restaurant space as a ski shop. Eriksen left the property in the 1980s, by which time Aspen had become an upscale destination resort. The storefront is currently used by a clothing boutique run by Leonard "Boogie" Weinglass, often described as the inspiration for Mickey Rourke's character in Barry Levinson's film Diner, who runs Boogie's Diner across the street. Another boutique is in the other storefront; offices are upstairs. In 2008 two local lawyers bought the La Fave Block from Eriksen's partnership for $14.6 million, adding to an extensive portfolio of high-profile downtown properties. See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Pitkin County, Colorado References Victorian architecture in Colorado Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Commercial buildings completed in 1888 National Register of Historic Places in Aspen, Colorado