Design and Merchandising Fort Collins Buildings

The Office of Engagement and Extension funded documentation of the off-campus historic buildings. The funding allowed for nine buildings to be documented, researched, and viewed virtually. The nine buildings included are the City Hall, 1882; Montezuma Fuller House, 1894; German Evangelical Congregational, 1905; Post Office, 1911; Stover House, 1922; Armstrong Hotel, 1923; Holy Family Catholic Church, 1929; and the Powerhouse, 1936. You can learn more about these buildings and interact with them below.

Virtual Tour Legend

Mattertag Posts—informational tags communicating key content—are embedded throughout each virtual tour; for the CSU-AVL project, a customized legend guides viewers through the virtual experience. The legend consists of four colors—green, gold, orange, and gray—each of which showcases specific information: green – architectural materials and/or features, gold – pictures, orange – floor plans, gray – published articles, light green—historic facts, and teal – videos.

Firehouse/City Hall, 1882

Constructed in 1882, the original Fort Collins City Hall and Firehouse is in Fort Collins’s historic Old Town at 232-238 Walnut Street.

The building served as City Hall from 1882 to 1957 and the Firehouse from 1882 to 1974. As City Hall, the upper floors of this building may have housed the office of Alice Edwards during her tenure as alderwoman from 1894 to 1985. Edwards is presumed to be the first woman elected to municipal office in the state. As the Firehouse, it held the newly organized Volunteer Fire Department. A fire service was vital to the success of Fort Collins because fire was a grave concern for the city.

Model ID: YocoTcvhQpo

Montezuma Fuller House, 1894

The Montezuma Fuller House is in Fort Collin’s historic Old Town at 226 West Magnolia Street. Montezuma Fuller, a prolific Fort Collins architect and alum of the Colorado Agricultural College (now CSU), designed it in the Queen Anne and Eastlake styles. Constructed in 1894, the Fuller House combines these two styles in a uniquely ornamented structure, with Queen Anne brickwork and Eastlake woodwork.

Fuller not only designed this house but also was the first person to live in it. Fuller was the architect of over 70 Fort Collins buildings, including this house and the German Evangelical Congregational Church, which this library also includes.

Model ID: mA1eBU2bhQh

German Evangelical Congregational Church, 1905

The German Evangelical Congregational building is located just east of Fort Collin’s historic Old Town at 201 Whedbee Street. Prolific Fort Collins architect Montezuma Fuller designed it in the Gothic Revival style. Constructed in 1905, the German Evangelical Congregational Church served ethnic Germans from Russia who moved to Fort Collins in the early 20th century.

Mistaken for Russians, the Germans faced great xenophobia in Fort Collins. The architecture of this church distanced the community from the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church because it lacked a dome or Byzantine crosses. The use of Gothic Revival architecture symbolized the German ancestry of the congregation.

Model ID: jhCyW726Muz

Fort Collins Post Office, 1911

The Fort Collins Post Office is in Fort Collin’s historic Old Town at 201 South College Avenue. James Knox Taylor designed it in the Second Renaissance Revival style in 1911. Expected of the only federal building in the city, the Post Office and its grand design stood out among the existing Fort Collins buildings.

Fort Collins granted a permit to demolish the Post Office in 1985. However, with ample support from Fort Collins residents, the City Council voted to establish the building as a historic landmark, which necessitates the Landmark Preservation Commission approve any external alterations, including demolition.

Model ID: CvbXJrTEbaq
Floor Plans

Stover House, 1922

The Stover House building is next to City Park at 1320 West Oak Street. Marion Alice Parker (one of the few female architects in the 1920s) designed it in the Tudor Revival style. She built the house for Frank P. Stover, who owned City Drug in Fort Collins, and his wife, Mary Stover. Parker bought the property on which the house sits.

Constructed in 1922, the Stover House is a compelling relic of early 20th-century domestic architecture with its separate bedrooms and dressing rooms for Frank and Mary and an assortment of cabinetry and built-in shelving. Despite having no children, they built their home with two guest rooms and plenty of living space, including a summer house in the backyard.

Model ID: 1MkmheYCaSe
Floor Plans

Armstrong Hotel, 1923

The Armstrong Hotel building is in Fort Collin’s historic Old Town at 249-261 South College Avenue. Lester L. Jones designed it in the Commercial style. Constructed in 1923, the Armstrong is a remnant of Fort Collin’s era of automotive tourism.

With automotive ownership burgeoning in the 1920s, Fort Collins had poised itself to be a road-trip hub as a gateway to the Rocky Mountains and a stopping point between Denver and Cheyenne. Before the building of I-25, the north–south thoroughfare was U.S.-287 (now called College Ave.). College Avenue is where Charles Mantz, the original developer of the Armstrong, strategically decided to build his hotel to accommodate those traveling through Fort Collins. Since then, the Armstrong Hotel has changed names twice and owners three times but has continually provided accommodations to visitors to Fort Collins.

Model ID: QtE8dVpEEPf
Floor Plans

Fort Collins High School, 1925

The original Fort Collins High School building is next to Colorado State University at 1400 Remington Street. William M. Bowman (from Denver) designed it in the Colonial Revival style. Constructed in 1925, the original Fort Collins High School employed the Colonial Revival style to reinforce the installation of American ideals and citizens’ responsibilities as the purpose of education.

Independent of its ornamental use of the Colonial Revival style, the organization of the high school echoed, in its wings full of specialized classrooms, the Progressive transition toward providing vocational training and tailored education throughout high school. Today, this building continues the legacy of specialized training as it houses CSU’s University Center for the Arts.

Model ID: 8d3V84jkpLE
Floor Plans

Holy Family Catholic Church, 1929

The Holy Family Catholic Church building is in the Holy Family neighborhood at 326 N Whitcomb St. J. C. Moresi from Denver designed it in the Late Romanesque Revival style. Constructed in 1929, Holy Family Church was the first church founded in Fort Collins to serve the Latinx community.

Holy Family Church has been a cultural, spiritual, and social center for the Latinx community in Fort Collins since its founding, even housing a school for over 30 years. A fire in 1969 burned the side of the church that housed the altar, leading to the altar’s rebuilding.

Model ID: kW5DzkiENwC

Fort Collins Municipal Power Plant, 1936

The Powerhouse building is located just north of Fort Collins’s historic Old Town at 430 College Avenue. Burns and McDonnell Engineering Company designed it in the Art Modern style. Constructed in 1936, the Powerhouse held the machinery necessary to supply power to the city; consequently, the structure of the building is robust to support the required turbines.

The construction of such a building was a significant undertaking in the middle of the Great Depression. However, the city needed a way to increase its income and decided to fund the building. In addition, the Works Progress Administration funded the project’s landscaping in the Art Deco style.