Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Edna Dercum’s name.

Before the Dillon Reservoir was filled, Edna Dercum — the wife of Max Dercum, who founded Arapahoe Basin Ski Area and Keystone Resort — would often stop at the Arapahoe Cafe in the old town of Dillon for a sandwich.

When the dam went up, the town relocated for the fourth time in its history and the restaurant was moved up the hill with it. For years, Edna Dercum and Summit County historian Mary Ellen Gilliland would meet at the Arapahoe Cafe, Gilliland recalled at a Dillon Town Council meeting Tuesday, Oct. 3.

“It was her favorite place. She went there for decades,” Gilliland said. “And I think (the Arapahoe Cafe) has the same spirit the town has.”

Currently located at 626 Lake Dillon Drive, the Arapahoe Cafe & Pub announced last month that it would be closing Oct. 15, citing uncertainty around the proposed redevelopment of the Dillon town core.

Many Dillon residents already had concerns with the scale of developer Jake Porritt’s proposed redevelopment, which includes a 4- or 5-star hotel where the Best Western and Arapahoe Cafe now stand.

So, when Porritt’s intent to purchase those properties upended the stability of Arapahoe Cafe’s lease and riled up concerned residents, the town council pursued steps to protect what Mayor Carolyn Skowyra described Tuesday as “a landmark in our town.”

“It is a building that came from the bottom of the lake,” Skowyra said. “I think we are obliged to preserve it.”

While the Arapahoe Cafe building has no historic designations — and may struggle to fulfill the criteria to receive such designations because it has been moved and modified over the years — the town council members agreed it has historical significance.

Built around 1945 in the old town of Dillon by Faye and Lenore Bryant, Arapahoe Cafe was moved up the hill to the site of the new town in 1960 to avoid being flooded with the formation of the Dillon Reservoir.

Porritt, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, told the town council that, if he purchases the land where he has proposed constructing a hotel, he plans to donate the Arapahoe Cafe building to the town.

“We’d be happy to, in the event our transaction gets coordinated, to handle that,” Porritt said. “We’d be happy to take care of moving it wherever you guys want to put it.”

But what the town council has no control over is whether or not the family that currently operates Arapahoe Cafe wants to continue running the business. Skowyra did not disclose the details but said the town made the longtime business owner Doug Pierce an offer last week.

“We haven’t heard back from him,” Skowyra said. “I think what we can take from that is Doug is not interested in running a business anymore, a restaurant anymore, and from what we can gather it doesn’t sound like Bonnie wants to take over. So what we’re interested in is the building itself.”

An email inquiry sent to Bonnie Lehman, one of the business owners, Wednesday morning was not returned before publication. A host who answered the phone at the Arapahoe Cafe said the owners were not available and she could not provide a phone number to contact them.

There are three lots in the town core where the Arapahoe Cafe structure could be relocated, as well as a potential spot near the waterfront where the Crow’s Nest was formerly located, if the town comes into ownership of the building, town manager Nathan Johnson said Tuesday.

While town engineer Dan Burroughs noted that the Crow’s Nest area would be the “most difficult” place to relocate the structure due to a lack of electrical and gas lines, a consensus of town council members indicated it would be the preferred location. Skowyra instructed staff to move forward with assessing what it would take to relocate the building there.

“Let’s actually consider what that would look like and how it would happen, potentially next summer,” Skowyra said.

Still, the future plans for the Arapahoe Cafe building were somewhat nebulous, as the council members recognized they do not yet own the building. Questions remained around whether the building would even be structurally sound enough to move and the mechanics of doing so. Other ideas were also batted around, from deconstructing the building and reapplying the siding to a new building to completely reconstructing a new restaurant.

A board member from the Summit Historical Society told the town council that it would be interested in working with the town on relocating the structure. A Dillon resident also suggested perhaps replacing the Dillon Yacht Club building at the marina, at least temporarily, with the Arapahoe Cafe structure.

“I think the value is in preserving the building and something that is identifiable for people in town as the Arapahoe Cafe,” Skowyra said. “I don’t even think it has to be called the Arapahoe Cafe. It has to be that building that people know as the Arapahoe Cafe, that feeling that it evokes.”