Journal 13: Pierotti Pavilion

On the afternoon of Pinehaven’s annual July 3 gathering, the pavilion begins to fill long before the meeting is called to order. Folding chairs appear beneath the roof. Covered dishes arrive one by one. Neighbors who have not seen each other for a while huddle together and tell stories about life updates, weather, wildlife, and family news.

Today, that gathering place near the intersection of Roads 401 and 406 is known as the Pierotti Pavilion. Its open sides, simple construction, practical mountain design, and placement within the woods make it easy to overlook. Yet few places have held more of Pinehaven’s shared history.(1)

The pavilion first appears in Pinehaven’s written record in the summer of 1990. At the annual owners association meeting in July, the Architectural Committee reported that a pavilion was under construction on the private property of one of Pinehaven’s cabin owners, Don and Susan Popejoy.(2) The Popejoys had abandoned their original plan for a large fishing pond and decided to build a pavilion on the property instead.(3) Despite being private property, they made the pavilion available to the owners association. Pinehaven residents could gather there for picnics, meetings, and community events without depending upon a public hall elsewhere in the valley.(4)

By the next summer in 1991, seventy-nine people attended Pinehaven’s annual July 3 picnic in the pavilion, and a new tradition was born that would shape Pinehaven for years.(5) The pavilion became Pinehaven’s family room, a place where old friendships resumed, new ones began, and residents learned who lived behind the names on the road signs. It also facilitated the annual owners association business meetings where Pinehaven residents heard presentations about the water district, county taxes, fire protection, wildlife preservation, fire mitigation, road maintenance, and many other topics unique to the community.

Soon the annual routine became familiar. Volunteers cleaned the grounds. Picnic committees posted signs, decorated the pavilion, prepared the charcoal, and arranged the tables. Families brought hamburgers, hot dogs, casseroles, vegetables, salads, pies, cakes, brownies, puddings, and homemade ice cream. The use of this privately owned structure was a simple arrangement based on trust, but it gave Pinehaven a dependable place to gather year after year.

The pavilion also became the place where the community faced and solved practical problems together. Residents discussed fire hydrants, water pressure, road repairs, trash collection, covenants, emergency access, and the need to control pets. Over the years the pavilion often enabled Pinehaven gatherings to continue despite Colorado’s afternoon showers. The pavilion had become part of Pinehaven’s identity, and in 1997, Don and Susan Popejoy were granted lifetime membership in the association in recognition of their generosity in allowing their pavilion to be used for group gatherings.(6)

Then, in December 2003, the pavilion’s story quietly entered a new chapter when the Popejoys sold their cabin and the parcel on which the pavilion stood and then left the Pinehaven community. To benefit the community, Bob Pierotti purchased the land and offered Pinehaven a new use agreement.(7.8) In the April 15, 2004 letter, Bob Pierotti informed the Pinehaven Property Owners Association that it could continue using the recently purchased Popejoy Pavilion property for annual gatherings, subject to conditions concerning liability, maintenance, fire safety, and other uses.(9) The agreement was approved by the Pinehaven board and recorded in its 2004 minutes.(10)

Less than three weeks later, the owners association held its annual meeting at the newly named Pierotti Pavilion. The informal renaming of the pavilion seemed like an appropriate way to recognize Bob’s contribution to Pinehaven. He is a respected longtime resident whose influence helped shape the neighborhood in its formative years. Bob Pierotti has been a deeply involved and respected leader throughout the La Veta and Cuchara region. His contributions have included service on the La Veta School District board, work as a real estate agent and land developer, a central role in building the Pinehaven community, leadership within the Pinehaven Homeowners Association, and service on the board of the Cucharas Sanitation and Water District.(11)

As an expression of gratitude over the years, the Pinehaven Owners Association has on occasion mobilized residents to clean up the pavilion’s surrounding grounds by clearing fallen trees, limbs, weeds, and other combustible debris from the area.

The name has changed with the ownership, but the purpose of the place remains the same. Residents still arrive with food. Volunteers still prepare the grounds. The association still conducts its business beneath the same roof. Cabins may be where Pinehaven families live, but the pavilion is where Pinehaven learned to function as a community.(12)

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Bonus Content: Pinehaven’s Family Room

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For more than three decades, Pinehaven residents have gathered beneath one simple roof to share food, friendships, community decisions, and countless memories. Discover how a privately built pavilion became Pinehaven’s outdoor family room—and why its story is really the story of a community learning to come together.

This custom song is a companion video for Journal 13 at https://cabininthepines.org