The church is on a 1.3-acre (5,300 m2)[2] lot at the northeast corner of the intersection, a block north of Main Street (State Highway 82).

The surrounding buildings are primarily residential; although there is a large commercial plaza a block to the north along East Hallam Street.

[1][3] On the opposite corner of the south (front) facade, the bell tower is complemented by a slightly projecting gabled section.

In the middle, the central section has the main entrance, where a short set of steps rises to recessed glass-windowed wooden double door in a segmental-arch surround.

At that time, Aspen had experienced rapid growth in the preceding decade, from a rough campsite to a bustling city of thousands due to the Colorado Silver Boom.

The Richardsonian Romanesque church by Frederick Albert Hale, designer of the First Congregational Church in Pueblo and the Aspen and Cowenhoven blocks downtown,[5] used the same distinctive orange peachblow sandstone, quarried in the nearby valley of the Fryingpan, a tributary of the Roaring Fork, as other Aspen landmarks like the Wheeler Opera House and Brand Building.

A thousand people attended the church's dedication ceremony in 1891, the conclusion of ten months of building that cost $20,000 ($678,000 in contemporary dollars[6]).

At the onset of the Panic of 1893, Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, the underpinning of the city's growth and prosperity.

Over the next decades, the population began to decline as the local economy shifted to ranching and what little silver mining the market could still sustain, a period in the city's history known as the "quiet years".

In Loma, on Colorado's western border, a similar situation had developed with a Presbyterian and Methodist church contemplating a merger.

[4] In the following decades, Aspen was slowly reborn as a popular and pioneering ski resort and second-home community for the wealthy and famous.

The church met in the Aspen Historical Society's property at the former Wheeler–Stallard House for six weeks while tie rods were installed in the ceiling.

During the Aspen Music Festival every August, student recitals are held, free of charge and open to the public, three days a week.

Locally, it supports the city's homeless shelter and works with other private and public agencies to provide any emergency response that may be needed.

[15] More volunteers, including pastor Jane Keener-Quiat and her husband, traveled to Meru in 2010 and did more work improving water and sanitary facilities.