Colorado State University will soon begin work on an all new medical center at the corner of Prospect and College. In order to build there, they plan to tear down fourteen houses (plus out buildings) that are currently standing on that block. (Only three lots won’t be affected.) I recently had the privilege of touring two of the most significant properties on the block, 1417 and 1421 S. College. Both are Dutch Colonial Revival style houses which are fairly rare in town. (I only know of one other on W. Mountain. If you know of others, please add their addresses in the comments.)
Both houses are quite run down. It’s clear that the owner (CSURF) knew that the houses were not long for this world, so they didn’t waste money on maintaining them. But it’s still possible to look past the disrepair and get a glimmer of the grand houses these used to be.
I ended up taking more indoor photos of 1421 than 1417, mostly because it had more of its original fixtures. The house at 1417 had also had some low office-style walls added in the living room which blocked views and made it harder to get good photos.
If you click on the photos above, they’ll expand into a larger slideshow. [When Forgotten Fort Collins became Northern Colorado History, the slideshows didn’t make the transfer. I’ll hopefully get them re-added soon.]
I did a cursory glance through the FC Archive online to see if I could find anything on who owned these houses. C. H. Alford was the original owner of 1417 S. College and lived there for 38 years. I didn’t dig much further than that.
There is a woman who is hoping to save these two houses. She is the one who invited me to come and see them. She’s willing to orchestrate their removal to another lot, but she needs to find people who are willing to take the houses and who have lots to put them on. If she’s unable to find new owners, then it’s likely these houses will be torn down within the next week or two.
There’s also a giraffe house on W. Lake that I’ve included a couple of photos of. To see more photos of giraffe houses (yes, it’s a real thing), check out this website of Ozark Giraffe Houses.
I really wish I had a lot! These houses are BEAUTIFUL and I’m so upset that fort collins is tearing such history down for another medical facility! They’re not run down like the article states! I would love to raise my family in one of these homes.
I hope that CSU at least hires a salvage company to come get every time thing out that can be reused. Such a waste to see salvageable materials go in the dump.
I believe everything they wanted to be salvaged has been salvaged. So everything you see in the photos is destined for the landfill unless someone contacts CSU about rescuing them.
Does anyone remember the flood of 1997? These houses got flooded a bit. Renters did not clean them properly. And that information combined with the fact that there were no gutters on them for years – well, you’d be moving black mold. Lead pipes as well. I would not trust it. Take the lovely architectural pieces and let them go to another home for embellishment. Maybe the ghosts will finally rest too.
There is a bit of a depression at that corner, isn’t there? Prospect and College often gets flooded in a heavy rain. I wonder if they’ll try to fix that when they redo the intersection.
That said, the basement in 1417 didn’t smell musty at all. The one at 1421 smelled like my grandma’s basement, which is to say it definitely had a slightly moldy aroma.
But when you move a house, you only take what’s above the foundation. So any mustiness would likely remain behind. They looked to be in pretty good shape from the foundation up (with the exception that they seriously need a coat of paint and probably some new wood shingles).
Crazy now that we see that they totally raised that area about 6 feet!
It makes me wonder if that will lead to more flooding at that intersection, with that corner taking less of the runoff.
I’m pretty sure 1421 was owned by the Hinman’s in the 50’s. I remember going to a slumber party there in jr. high. The kids were Barbara and Gary Hinman. Gary was killed by one of the Manson followers before the Tate/Bianca murders…please don’t tear down these homes. They really knew how to build houses back then.