Historic Loveland Walking Tour: Commercial Loop Preview

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Welcome to Loveland's National Downtown Historic District!

Downtown Loveland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic District in 2015 by the National Park Service. The District, centered on East 4th Street and roughly bounded by Railroad and Jefferson Avenue including a two-block span of Railroad Avenue, served as the center of economic activity in Loveland for over a century.Founded in 1877, Loveland developed initially as a railroad town, but soon became a major agricultural center and a regional center of commerce and government. The Downtown Loveland National Historic District reflects the evolution of the City’s commercial growth and exhibits the architectural evolution of Loveland’s ever changing commercial needs and tastes. Of the District’s fifty-eight buildings, forty-five are considered “contributing” to the historical and architectural significance of the District and include Late 19th-and Early 20th-Century commercial style architecture as well as notable examples of Classical, Romanesque, and Mission Revival style buildings.

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107-109 W. 2nd St. – Loveland Light, Heat, and Power

When he purchased the Farmers Milling and Elevator in 1893, Lee J. Kelim installed equipment to produce electricity for the mill. The coal-fired steam boiler produced more electricity than milling operations required, allowing him to sell the excess to the city to light its intersections and to merchants for evening store hours. In 1905, Mr. Kelim sold the mill and constructed the Loveland Light, Heat & Power Company—with its ornate exterior—just south of the mill. (A 1930s second story addition was lost to an arsonist’s fire in 1984.)Demand for power soon outstripped the plant’s production. At the new Washington School dedication in November of 1905, simmering emotions came to a boil when the power failed, effectively aborting the ceremony. Community negativity pushed Mr. Kelim to sell out. He moved east of Loveland, founding the town of Kelim with a new mill and elevator.

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130 W. 3rd St, – Loveland Farmers Milling Elevator Company

(Known as Loveland Feed and Grain) This historic flour mill represents Loveland’s oldest industry and is the only structure in Loveland made of stone, brick, wood, and corrugated sheet metal. The mill was constructed in 1891 as the Loveland Farmers Milling & Elevator Company and started production a year later. Lee J. Kelim bought the business in 1893, when the name was changed to the Big Thompson Milling & Elevator Company. In 1968, local ranchers purchased the building and operated it as Loveland Feed & Grain until its closure in 2004. Currently, efforts are underway to revitalize and repurpose the weathered structure.

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405-409 N. Railroad Ave. – Colorado Central Railway Depot

The Loveland Colorado & Southern Railway Depot was constructed in 1902 to replace the aging Colorado Central Depot located immediately to the south. Brick from the old depot served as pavers along thesides of the new depot. The impressive structure was built of light colored brick with unusually narrow mortar joints. Inside, a generous waiting room seated 150 passengers. Architectural features include Romanesque Revival brick arches over the doors and bracketed eave supports with a large roof overhang.As a depot, it was closed in 1980 and added to the National Register of Historic Places two years later. Various eating establishments have occupied the premises during the past decade.

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103 E. 4th St. – Lovelander Hotel

(Known as Elks Lodge and Plaza Apartments)The Lovelander Hotel was erected in 1912-13, replacing an aging wood frame hotel—The Loveland House—which had been in this location since 1878. After a $40,000 remodel in the summer of 1913, the hotel reopened to feature such modern conveniences as steam heat, telephone service, and hot and cold water piped to each of its forty-two guest rooms. Soon after World War I, the business suffered a decline and by 1926 was up for sale. Elks Lodge No. 1051 purchased the building in 1927 and remodeled the interior. Around the same time, a three-story, east side addition was constructed to continue housing the residential hotel. The name changed to the Plaza Apartments in the 1970s.

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129 E. 4th St. – Bonnell Mercantile

Constructed in the late 1880’s, this property began as Benton R. Bonnell’s General Merchandise Store. In 1907, Mr. Bonnell sold the store to his son who continued to operate the business until 1928, when he opened a Buick dealership at 104 East Fourth. Following Bonnell’s departure, this building was owned from circa 1929 to1960 by Sunshine Cleaners.

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137-141 E. 4th St. – Herzinger & Harter Building

Completed in 1878, the Herziner & Harter Building was Loveland’s first brick commercial structure. It was owned by John Lewis Herzinger and Samuel B. Harter. Arriving in Loveland in 1877, the two businessmen purchased a corner lot in the middle of the newly platted town and began constructing this two-story building. The Herzinger and Harter Mercantile Store operated on the first floor, while the second floor was used as a grange hall. It housed numerous other grocers and retail businesses.

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545 N. Cleveland Ave. – Loveland Community Building

(Known as Pulliam Community Building) Constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938, this 20,000-square-foot building boasts 13”-thick concrete walls and a Lamella truss (open-span) roof. D. T. Pulliam and his wife Lillian donated the land and $20,000 as a cultural center “for the uplift of the community.” The Art Deco structure, which once housed City Hall, was the largest civic auditorium in the area and the site of concerts, productions, and meetings.The founder of Loveland’s First National Bank, Mr. Pulliam also helped start the Empson Canning Company in 1908.A nonprofit is seeking to update and renovate the building as a multi- purpose event location. Pulliam descendants still gather annually at this site for a family reunion.

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601 N. Cleveland Ave. – Loveland Post Office & Federal Building

The Loveland Post Office and Federal Building was constructed in 1936-1937. The dedication ceremony for this Art Modern-style edifice occurred on July 15, 1937. In February 1947, Loveland’s Valentine Re mailing Program began in the Loveland Post Office.

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524-544 N. Cleveland Ave. – Brandt Building

Built in 1920-1921, this one-story commercial building occupies half of a city block. As early as 1906, the home of the Lucas and Nettie Brandt family was situated on the site. Mr. Brandt served as Mayor in 1894 and later as manager of the Loveland Milling & Elevator Company.The Loveland Reporter, the Loveland Rubber Works, a furniture establishment, and the Salvation Army Hall operated from this location at one time or another. Rice Mortuary occupied the building from 1933 to 1950. City Newsstand has been in the business here from the early 1970s to the present.

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440 N. Cleveland Ave. – Colorado Telephone Company Exchange

This two-story, brick commercial building was erected in 1905, apparently to house Loveland’s early telephone exchange. By the end of 1906, a total of 504 telephones in the Loveland vicinity were connected to the exchange. The phone company operated from this location for fifty-two years.

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201 E. 4th St. – First National Bank

This stately Classic Revival-style building was erected in 1928 to house the First National Bank. When it opened its doors on Nov. 10, 1928, the bank was managed by President Hugh Scilley and Vice Presidents D.T. Pulliam and Adolph Donath. First National Bank weathered the economic depression of the 1930s, serving its customers from this downtown location for thirty-five years.

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239 E. 4th St. – Loveland Street Clock

In 1910 the Brannan Brothers Jewelry store, at 239 East Fourth Street, installed this two faced street clock. It was manufactured by the Brown Street Clock Company of Monessen, Pennsylvania. The clock’s original movement, sign and faces have been removed and replaced. Wires underneath the sidewalk illuminates and connects the street clock to a master clock inside the building.

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247 E. 4th St. – Larimer County Bank

Work started on the Larimer County Bank in 1890; it opened in February of the following year. Built out of pressed brick from Boulder, the structure had distinctive sandstone trim over its windows and doors. The corner entrance was typical of many banks of the day. In 1902, the building was extended to the north along Cleveland Avenue. During 1927, the sandstone trim was either removed or covered with brick, and the corner entrance was eliminated. The bank closed its doors in 1931, a victim of the Great Depression. The building was subsequently occupied by the Loveland State Bank followed by Stroh & Co. Realty & Auctions.

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403 - 413 E. 4th St. – Loveland Steam Laundry

In business since 1912, Loveland Steam Laundry has been at this location from 1918 to the present. The laundry has been owned by the Wellman-Farnham family throughout its entire history. The tin front building at 413 East 4th Street was built in 1902 and first occupied by Dr. R.D. Miller’s Drug Store until the mid-1910s. Numerous businesses occupied the building’s ground-floor retail space over the years, until Loveland Steam Laundry expanded into the building during the 1970s.

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400 N. Adams Ave. – German Reformed Church

First pastored by C.G. Zipf, this gabled structure has served continuously as a church for more than a century. Built around 1909 in the Carpenter Gothic style, it features a three-story bell tower sided with gothic-arched windows, covered by a steeply-pitched hipped roof, and topped by a finial. A large addition to the east elevation appears to date to the 1970s.Since the mid 1930s, the compact building has housed the congregations of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hope Reformed Church, and Loveland Spanish Assembly of God Church respectively. In the 1990s, it was occupied by the Loveland Bilingual Christian Center. Currently, Loveland Bible Church meets here.

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500 E. 3rd St. – Washington School

(Known as Loveland Municipal Building) The first Loveland school opened in 1878 behind a butcher shop on East Fourth Street. It relocated in 1880 to the basement of the Methodist Church. In 1881 the school moved again, this time to the two-story brick building constructed on the southeast corner of East Third and Washington Avenue. Known as Washington School, this structure held classes for grades one through eight until it was destroyed by fire in 1904. A replacement schoolhouse—the first building with electric lights—was built at the same site in 1905. The City of Loveland bought the building in 1981; it is now the Loveland Municipal Building.

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400 E. 4th St. – First United Presbyterian Church

On Thanksgiving Day of 1875, the First United Presbyterian Church was organized by combining members of the United Brethren, Methodist, Baptist, and United Presbyterian churches. Originally, services were conducted by the Rev. William McCreery in the St. Louis schoolhouse. By 1877, the congregation formed a building committee which oversaw the construction of the first church building in 1878 on the corner of Fourth Street and Lincoln Avenue. In 1906, a new church building was built at Fourth and Jefferson. This structure is listed on local, state, and national historic registers.

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236-248 E. 4th St. – Union Block

(Known as Lincoln Hotel) When the First United Presbyterian Church (originally at this site) was razed, a consortium of Loveland businessmen planned a large commercial enterprise for this piece of prime real estate. Contractor W.J. McCord oversaw construction of the three-story Union Block in 1905. Modillions and decorative scroll-work extend the full length of its façade; rosette tie rods divide the first and second stories; traditional transoms top the entryways; and corbels brace the cornice line.After the first tenant, the State Mercantile Company, relocated, F. Emery Freeman purchased the building and hired Denver architect Frank S. Snell to remodel the upper floors into the elegant Lincoln Hotel—which operated into the 1950s. Among the longest running businesses at this site was a drug store, circa 1917 to the 1970s. Current usage includes retail and apartment spaces.

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228 E. 4th St. – Rialto Theater

Construction began in 1919 on the new $100,000 theater on East Fourth, which had evolved into downtown Loveland’s main street. William C. Vorreiter, President of the Bank of Loveland, built the theater, which opened in 1920. Dubbed “the finest theater north of Denver” by the local newspaper, the structure contained 1,014 wooden seats—720 on the main floor and 294 in the balcony. Because of economic reasons during the Depression, Vorreiter sold the building in 1935 to Gibraltar Enterprises, Inc. In 1962, Gibraltar sold the Rialto to Commonwealth Theaters. The theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. In 1993, the Rialto became one of the first projects in Colorado to be awarded a grant from the State Historical Fund.

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210 E. 4th St. – State Mercantile

Built in 1910 on the site of the Johnson Livery Barn, this large commercial building was the home of the State Mercantile Company until May of 1920, when it was purchased by the Masons and utilized as their Masonic Temple, or meeting hall. In 1919, the building also housed the C.C. Doty Mercantile Company clothing store, the Moose Home, and a furniture store operated by Foster & Kruse. Other businesses that have occupied the building include Stoddard’s Grocery in 1935 and Fred & Fred’s Food Market in 1947. Belcher Office Supply occupied the building for twenty years, vacating the property in 1985.

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136-140 E. 4th St. – Bartholf Opera/Arcadia Hotel

(Known as A&B Building)Frank G. Bartholf was fifteen in 1861 when his family moved west to homestead. By 1879, he operated a business in St. Louis (a small local community considered the forerunner to the city of Loveland) but the town was already fading. In nearby Loveland, E. S. Allen operated a harness shop on a corner lot that he owned. The two entrepreneurs teamed in 1884 to construct the A&B Building, which housed the area’s first opera hall on the second floor. Photographs show that there once was a cornice over the structure’s entrance that read A&B 1884. For many decades, the building housed W&T Pharmacy.Eventually, Mr. Bartholf extended his land holdings to the Big Thompson Canyon where he built the Forks Hotel at Drake. A Larimer County Commissioner, he was instrumental in bringing the sugar factory to Loveland.