three bays, the northern facade is the shorter of the two. The first story windows are irregular save for their large transoms and the dual recessed panels underneath. On the north, The two eastern windows, separated by a mullion, have a large single pane with double-pane transoms. To their west is a large four-pane window without transom. The main entrance, at the corner, has two tall narrow windows over small square panels and a three-pane transom. To its south is a window exactly like the other flanking window. The entire storefront is topped by a small metal-roofed cornice with brackets echoing those at the roofline. South of the storefront, the west facade is blank for several bays until a small recessed wooden door provides access from the street to the upper floor. Just to its south is another storefront, beginning with a window like those on either side of the main entrance to the corner store save for a single long panel below. On its south is a more deeply recessed two-pane window with transom, then that storefront's main entrance: a wooden door with a four-pane window above three horizontal recessed panels, topped by a single-pane transom. The next two bays have an awning and a blind transom, followed by two narrow windows, one two panes and the other single, an awning and a three-pane transom and finally a blind bay with two panels below. A cornice similar to the main storefront's caps this one. The upper story's windows are mostly one-over-one double-hung sash with brickwork sills and lintels. The two southernmost on the western facade are less decorative, recessed single-pane windows with plain surrounds between brick pilasters. Above them is a paneled frieze below the cornice. The south facade has a balcony at the second level; the rear is faced in clapboard. History Established as a silver mining camp in 1879, Aspen quickly became a boomtown as settlers flocked to the upper Roaring Fork Valley. Many of the early permanent structures were timber frame buildings that were vulnerable to the frequent fires that broke out in the growing town. The city's government began requiring in the mid-1880s that new commercial buildings downtown be built of brick, stone or other fireproof materials. Frank LaFave, an early settler, built the block that bears his name in 1888. He had wanted to build a larger building, but the owner of the wooden