INTRODUCTION
As part of its Historic
Preservation Resources Program, the City of Fort Collins
solicited proposals for professional services for
"Development of a Historic Resources Preservation Program
for the City of Fort Collins," Proposal Number P-342, 5
February 1991. Community Services Collaborative of Boulder,
Colorado, was selected by the City for this project, which
included a number of separate tasks. Front Range Research
Associates, Inc., of Denver, Colorado, served as subconsultant
for developing a historic context for the themes of
"Residential Architecture: 1867-1940" and "Central
Business District Development: 1862-1940."
Contacts for the City Planning Department were Joe Frank,
Assistant Planning Director, and Carol Tunner, Historic
Preservation Specialist. Rheba Massey, Chairperson, Fort Collins
Landmark Preservation Commission, represented the commission.
Principal participants in the project for Community Services
Collaborative included John D. Feinberg and Allyn S. Feinberg.
Principal participants for Front Range Research Associates, Inc.,
were R. Laurie Simmons and Thomas H. Simmons. Judith E. Broeker
participated as research assistant. Wayne Sundberg, Fort Collins
historian, generously assisted the project by reviewing portions
of the historical narrative.
The Setting
Fort Collins, Colorado, is a city of 87,758 population (1990),
located at an elevation of 4,984 feet in the north central
portion of the state, approximately sixty-five miles north of
Denver. Located on the Cache la Poudre River, a tributary of the
South Platte River, Fort Collins is the county seat of Larimer
County. The earliest permanent settlement in the area began in
the late 1850s and the city was incorporated in 1873. Horsetooth
Reservoir, a part of the Colorado Big Thompson Project created in
the 1940s, is adjacent to the city on the west, where the
foothills of the Rocky Mountains begin. The area surrounding Fort
Collins, which averages roughly fifteen inches of precipitation
yearly, is an important irrigated agricultural region of the
state. Such crops as sugar beets, alfalfa, wheat, barley, and
corn have been important historically, as has livestock raising.
Colorado State University, the second largest university in the
state, is located here. In recent years, the city has diversified
its economic base with the attraction of high-tech industries
such as Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments.
Historic Contexts
The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 established the
National Register Of Historic Places, the official list of
recognized properties of local, state, and national significance
maintained by the National Park Service for the Secretary of the
Interior. The Secretary of the Interior has issued Standards for
Preservation Planning for archaeology and historic preservation.
These standards include: establishing historic contexts;
utilization of historic contexts to develop goals and priorities
for the identification, evaluation, registration, and treatment
of historic properties; and integration of the results of
preservation planning into the broader planning process.
The Secretary of the Interior's Standards define an historic
context as "an organizational format that groups information
about related historic properties, based on a theme, geographic
limits and chronological period." The historic context is
the cornerstone of the preservation planning process as it
results in an understanding of the full significance of historic
resources. Historic contexts may be as narrow as the discussion
of a specific property type or as broad as a major research
theme. The elements of an historic context may include such items
as: a series of events or activities, patterns of development, or
associations with a person or group or group of persons; a stage
of physical development; or a research topic or site that will
expand the existing knowledge base. A group of contexts may
summarize a community's history.
For this project, which emphasized the development of
residential architecture and the central business district, a
number of topical and chronological historic contexts were
created: Euro-American Exploration and the Fur Trade, ca.
1540-1858; The Colorado Gold Rush, Early Settlement, and
the Creation of Fort Collins, 1844-1864; Establishing
the City, Old Town and New Town, 1867-1877; The Railroad
Era, Colorado Agricultural College, and the Growth of the City,
1877-1900; Sugar Beets, Streetcar Suburbs and the City
Beautiful, 1900-1919; and Post World War I Urban Growth,
1919-1940. Within each topic, the influences shaping Fort
Collins' residential and commercial development during particular
time periods are explored. The potential property types
associated with each context are discussed as a physical
reflection of the socio-economic development of the city. Taken
as whole, the contexts help explain the how, when, where, and who
of the physical development process. Other thematic historic contexts that are now on-line include:
Old Military Fort Site;
Agriculture in the Fort Collins Urban Growth Area 1862-1994; The Sugar Factory Neighborhoods; and Quonset Huts in Fort Collins.
A property type is defined as "a grouping of individual
properties based on shared physical or associative
characteristics." Physical characteristics may include
structural forms, architectural styles, building materials, or
site types. They are associated in time and location with
specific historical patterns. As associated with contexts herein,
property types were identified on the basis of chronology and
function. For example, residences, commercial buildings, and
schools were treated as separate property type categories. Within
each property type discussion is information on architectural
styles displayed in Fort Collins and a description of buildings
erected in the city which are or were examples of the property
type. Architectural styles are based on those recognized by the
Colorado Historical Society, as defined in the Society's
publication A
Guide to Colorado Architecture (1983).
The property type discussion also cites buildings which are no
longer extant but were historically or architecturally
significant. This information is provided to alert planners to
the fact that, in some cases, examples of an historic property
type may no longer exist and to supply comparative information on
the loss of historic properties over time. It is obvious that
some property types will overlap more than one context. A summary
of property types associated with each context is presented at
the end of each context narrative, as are suggestions for
registration requirements, data gaps, and discussion of threats
to resources. The document is intended as an evolving planning
tool and it is expected that information about resources will be
refined or added as further information becomes available.
Links to Historic Contexts
Euro-American Exploration
and the Fur Trade, ca. 1540-1858
The Colorado Gold
Rush, Early Settlement, and the Creation of Fort Collins,
1844-1866
Establishing the
City: Old Town and New Town, 1866-1877
The Railroad Era,
Colorado Agricultural College, and the Growth of the City, 1877-1900
Sugar Beets, Streetcar Suburbs, and the City Beautiful, 1900-1919
Post World War I Urban
Growth, 1919-1941
Bibliography
Table 1 - Population
Growth
Table 2 - List of
Historic Subdivisions
Introduction
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