Who Has the Right to Preserve a City's Past?

The owners of the long-shuttered Gates Rubber Company factory complex in Denver want to knock it down. So do neighborhood groups who have been calling for the site to be redeveloped. But an urban explorer college student living in nearby Boulder has taken it upon himself to save the site by applying for a historic landmark designation – a controversial move that's causing many in the city to consider who has the right to preserve history.

Eugene Elliott is a 21-year-old from Iowa studying real estate and business at the University of Colorado, and he really likes the Gates Rubber factory. According to posts on the urban explorer forum UER.com, Elliott has taken a handful of trips inside the decaying complex. In papers filed with the city of Denver, he argues that the complex is an important element of the city's physical history and played an important role in the development of the economy. Complete with a $250 fee, Elliott has started the formal process of saving the complex from destruction.