[As I research historic Fort Collins, I come across pictures and advertisements for stores I wish I could visit. Except for #6, all were gone before I got here. If you know more about these places or want to contribute your own favorite lost businesses, just comment below or write me.]
1. Iverson Dairy, Shields and 287
“Remember they (children) need the best. Home delivery, S&H Green Stamps, Visit our milk bar”
What’s there now? Rocky Mountain Adventures
2. Emry Clothing Company, College and Mountain
“The store ‘right’ on the corner”
[Look at that sign! We used to be so fabulous!]
What’s there now? Austin’s restaurant.
3. Barrett’s House of a Million Parts, 513 Riverside
[Seems like the kind of place that would sell you the part and then loan you a wrench.]
What’s there now? Vacant. Near Mulberry and Riverside intersection.
4. Al and Ruth’s Cafeteria, 226 S. College
Specialized pastries, a fountain, and bulk ice cream.
[I hear the pastries were memorable.]
What’s there now? Poudre Valley Appliance/Tony’s
5. Standard Mercantile, 154 W. Mountain
“Northern Colorado’s largest collection of records. Classical–semi classical–popular. Columbia — Capital — Decca — R.C.A. — Victor”
[I could never walk past a record store.]
What’s there now? Offices [note edge of Scrivner's grocery next door]
6. Stone Lion Bookstore, College and Mountain
What’s there now? Beau Jo’s Pizza
7. N&R bar, Linden & Walnut
[SPECIAL FEATURE! Click on the picture to "go inside"]
What’s there now? Nature’s Own
8. Wood’s Music, 246 Linden
“Pianos, piano players, Edison Phonographs, Records and Supplies, Sheet Music”
[Featuring 2 music stores in honor of our soon to be lost, The Finest. Read the article in the Fort Collins Now.]
What’s there now? TBD
9. Dr. I.O. McCarty, Dentist (1906)
“Sonnoform administered”
[Same building as #6. Sonnoform an anesthetic held in a vial. The dentist broke the vial and wafted the fumes toward your nose to knock you out.]
10. Shedd and Lee, 115 E. Mountain
“Everything for the office but the secretary.”
[I just liked the tag line]
What’s there now? Two Pairs
11. Ladd’s Covered Wagon. 287 between FtC and LaPorte
[Fort Collins' favorite restaurant in a giant Quonset Hut! Burned down.]
What’s there now? Vacant lot
I remember the Standard Mercantile. As a boy of eight I had a strong feeling that Santa shopped there. It was Christmas of 1948 and I had my heart set on a record player and a “Tom Thumb” cash register. I received each item as specified in my letter to Santa and many years I later found the cartons of each, addressed to Standard Mercantile, in my Mom’s basement.
My husband and I went into the Stone Lion on our first date, 16 years ago this month. I was sad when it moved and then closed down completely.
It’ll be sad if the FC Finest closes, too. As a college student (which brought me to FC a little over 20 years ago), I hung out there on occasion. It was easy to walk there from the dorms and has always been the coolest music store in town.
Iverson’s…didn’t they have those great homemade doughnuts too? Mid 70′s or so. And of course just up the road was (is?) Vern’s.
And how about the guy that lived in a car on the south side of 287. Wow, haven’t thought about that in years…wonder what ever happened to him?
[...] I first read Chuck’s comment in response to an earlier post, I thought he was making fun of me. Had my interest in low-brow gone too far? Had I become trivial [...]
I worked the graveyard shift at Iversons in 1975 for a few months – cleaning and making donuts. The restaurant was a shadow of its former self because of the construction of I-25. Thanks for the picture!!
@vicki …so what was it about Iverson’s Doughnuts? I hear they were honor system doughnuts; you left a quarter for your doughnut. And everybody says they were delicious.
Hello! How can view the video (and, more importantly, hear Bob’s recording, of In Fort Collins Colorado where the Purple Lilacs Grow?
Must have been just the right combination of good local ingredients – and, of course, the sprinkles!
Can you imagine a honor system today???
There was a guy who lived in a car and if I remember correctly it was two cars parked side by side in an empty lot in Laporte on the south side of 287. In 79 and 80 while I was in high school I worked part time at the Laporte Husky service station which now is the convience store on the corner of 287 and Overland.
Hey Scott, see this article…http://lostfortcollins.com/2009/01/25/that-guy-who-lived-in-a-car/
Would love it if you added a comment there.
Cat
I’ve got a lost business to recall: The Made-right hamburger man. I don’t remember his name right now but he got his start up Poudre Canyon near Poudre Park. I recall as a youngster eating there. I think he moved into town later and due to unfortunate circumstances he passed away rather young.
I just asked Norm about the Made-rite guy. He said his name was Cecil and he moved the store around quite a bit…there were maybe 5 locations here in town.
Made-rites were steamed hamburger soaked in a spice solution. And you ate it with mustard, pickle, and ??? (what was the third thing he said?). But if you asked for ketchup, Cecil would kind of sneer at you.
Made rite was a chain out of Iowa. But the chain was a name and a recipe…not a building with arches or clowns or anything.
Cecil died while camping in the canyon (we’ll skip the how. I think he still has family in town). His wife and daughter hiked up to the Brinkhoff place to use the phone. As you might guess, Polly (see The woman behind Whale Rock) and Jack had no phone. They got the women to a phone though.
Today, there’s a Made rite in Loveland, Norm says.
(I might turn this into an Ask Uncle Norm, if you don’t mind, Jim.)
Gone too is the Daylight Donuts which used to be near City Park. It’s now replaced by locally owned and operated Revolution Donuts (also in Old Town) which has delivery and late night hours: http://revolutiondonuts.com/default.aspx
I loved that Daylight Donuts because I lived in a neighborhood with lots of old timers, and they all met there every morning for donuts, coffee, and gossip. Most of them died before Daylight closed, though.
It’s on my list to do a story about doughnut shops of Fort Collins. Spud nut…
More on the Made-rite man: When he was in the Poudre Canyon location, he was at a place called “Wheel Inn”, in an attractive native pine building with a wagon wheel over the front door. Maybe Norm remembers more about that.
2 more hamburger joints that Norm may remember: Scotty’s on Shields Street and then Robb’s drive-in near City Park. My dad preferred Scotty’s so we ate there a lot.
These were both popular in the 1960′s. Scotty’s was just south of the Cambridge house apartments.
One more hamburger joint Norm may remember: Morey’s “In and Out” on South College. It was a little before my time but I know it was popular with a lot of FCHS students because it was relatively close to the old high school building on Remington.
How about the Kinko’s/Fedex building on W. Olive having once been Penney’s Auto Store?
How about Inverness farm and its thoroughbreds shipped around the world now the Jax store on N. College?
Nisperos, your mind is humming. You should be writing for Lost Fort Collins, I tell you
I remember morries in & out – the owner was Morris Teel who was a neighbor of my parents. Morrie was a very good golfer and in the 50′s and 60′s gave “Spike Baker” some good competition-by the way they lived next door to one another. However I remember in & out being on North College, north of the bowling alley.
Anyone remember Bikes burger bar? It was owned by the Glick brothers and it was on south college pretty much across the street from where A&W was.
I always liked going to Kings Food Host on College about where Perkins is. The coolest part about it was that you ordered by phone, like Round the Corner.
For the older crowd the was the Safari on Link Lane-it was a real swinging place. Bob Swerer and his wife owned it. Bob’s band played every weekend there and his band was quite well known. The Safari had the coolest sign in town-it sure made us 8 year olds want to go see the “animals” inside. I do believe that this was the place where my parents learned to do the twist-that cracks me up.
The Safari looked tres cool. I have a Bob Swerer LP. He’s still around and I hope to interview him someday. The building now houses exotic dancers instead of exotic animals. If you long to hear Bob again, here’s a video I made with his “In Fort Collins Colorado, where the Purple Lilacs grow…” as soundtrack…
http://lostfortcollins.com/2009/04/09/montage/
Ah, Kings Food Host USA… another chain which originated in Lincoln, Nebraska, this one in 1955 by Larry Price. Cheese frenchees, onion rings, and malts.
Not sure about the one at City Park, but one of the earliest fair grounds was out east of town, where Lemay is now. The county land was then turned over to build the local poor house. Which evolved into the current hospital. Poor Houses are one of my fascinations.
Okay Jim and Bevo, Morrie’s just got promoted to its own blog post. http://lostfortcollins.com/2009/10/31/ask-uncle-norm-and-friends-morries-in-and-out-burger/
Thanks for playing!
I need john jr to weigh in on this one maybe he had two locations lol
Captain, I think you are correct; I remember some kind of “In and Out” place where Colorado Import motors was located on the east side of College. Colorado Import motors became Peterson Toyota and moved but there is still a car dealer there, I think it’s adjacent to Advance Auto Parts.
Among the drive inns, there were A&W on both ends of College avenue and then there was a place called “Qwick Chick” on North College where the Glass shop now is located.
my bad-I just checked with my dad who has lived in Northern Co. for 87 years and he said morries was on south college at prospect-but couldn’t remeber the name of the burger place on North College.
Mustard on crow ain’t bad.
Could it be the “Just Drive-in” 420 N. College?
I think you might be right on the name Cat — I went to the Classmates.com page for Poudre and there is a great discussion about Cruiding College Ave — Made me think of another place that used to be quite the hangout even in hight school that was the Campus Bookstore at College and Laurel– it was the only place in town where you could get a green river soda — always a favorite and there was also a place on south College south of prospect on the north side of t he road that had the best pancakes ever!
I’ve never had a Green River Soda, so I wondered about the name.
…
(Remember Fizzies Drink Tablets? They have citric acid just like that Pixy Stix which you may be sneaking out of the kid’s Halloween haul or the leftover candy at your home. In addition to citric acid, Fizzies also contain sodium bicarbonate, 2 of the same ingredients found in Alka-Seltzer. Remember Zots? Also sodium bicarbonate. Remember Pop Rocks? Their secret was that the carbonation came from adding pressurized carbon dioxide gas.)
Ohhh, yeah. Fizzies. Loved ‘em as a kid, and as a slightly older kid (around 1970), I even remember them somewhat. They came back on the market and we got a card or two of them. The first one I popped out of the foil and dropped into chilled water was incredibly tasty, just like bottled root beer! Then I tried over and over to find another one that good. Even the ones on the same card weren’t as good!
Ah! Iverson’s. A place I don’t recall ever eating in. My sister Martha (hi, M!) once won a meal or milikshake or something there in a KCOL contest, and I think one or more of my sisters knew someone who worked there. There’s a family story that after a meal out, my folks were short on the change for the meal, and Martha promptly said she knew where there was some money and ran for the tip. It probably happened before we were in town, but I always associated it with Iverson’s.
Stone Lion was downstairs from the Red Cross office where Mom worked for years, and I’ve told the story elsewhere of being locked in the bank vault on someone else’s dare (for a very short time). Twice, actually. I wish Deni and Bruce had had better luck with their book store. I think they were a victim of the endless dragging on of the downtown redevelopment plan. I also remember when “The Establishment” was in there, and when Bonnie Germaine (sic?) had an incarnation of “The Book Shop” (which became Old Corner) in the basement there.
Ladd’s Covered Wagon was another glamorous place advertised on KCOL that I never got to go into. Their location was pretty plain to see for years, and the cement foundation might still be visible. I thought I saw a basement house near there last time I went to town, on the left side of the road as you drive away from town.
Dad had his jeep in Bill Vo’s 4-wheel drive shop very near that (and near Y Oil) when it, too, burned down. Lots of fires around there. I think I’ve recounted that one elsewhere as well.
(Oh, man, King’s Food Host! Tuna Frenchees! Footlong hot dogs! Hot fudge sundaes! You can see it in my bird’s-eye view photo looking across Mulberry.)
The Larimer County Rodeo — Bob Kyle used to have a theater organ hauled up into the stands, and my dad would sit up there and accompany the rodeo. I was just telling another dad I was walking around on Halloween night with (he’s a Shriner clown) about Dangerous Dan and the other rodeo clowns.
And the Campus Shop. First place I remember eating pizza. And watching college kids play pinball. And trying to sneak a look inside the Playboys on the magazine rack.
Ow. My nostalgia muscles hurt.
King’s Food Host: We rarely went – but I recall thinking the whole order-by-phone thing was mega-cool.
While not forgotten, I’m completely awe-struck at how Jax has re-invented itself. The whole store was like the surplus section in the back of the current store. And I remember *very* vividly the TV tube tester in the very front of the store. What a fantastically run business.
Yellow Submarine: Fantastic subs. They were on College – roughly around Oak – for quite a long time. Then they moved to the strip mall that has King Soopers on Taft.
Don’s Cheese & Sausage. Mason St.
What was the arcade in Campus West – right next to Finest (to the west) but in a different building? High score on a pinball machine for the week got you a pizza next door – and now I can’t remember the name of that pizza place.
‘Round The Corner fries – fantastic.
jh
When you mention Bob Kyle, he brings a whole host of memories. Do you remember his music store in the 600 block of South College? He was a friend of both my dad and grandma Ruth. His family also had a mining claim up on Seven Mile creek just down from the site of Manhattan. It would be interesting to know if there are members of his family still in the area.
Jim H: Little Caesar’s Pizza Treat, perhaps?
Jim B: There’s a photo of Kyle’s at that location in the online archives of the Ft. Collins library. He had an earlier location right by Woolworth’s (visible in the 1964 panorama photo that echoes the classic panorama that takes in Mountain, College, and so on), and later moved to East Mountain not far from Columbia Savings. Dad’s piano studio was in space he rented in Kyle’s Music at all those locations.
Bob’s brother Dick was a local musician. I think his band was called The Torquays. I saw him a time or two, but probably never spoke with him. Bob Kyle was a great guy, though. I have a vague memory of another store on South College, not far from the one at 600, on the same side of the street, that he was in before the one by Woolworth’s, but when I try to pin it down, I lose it.
I also shopped at Reed Music (formerly Reed-Stevens) when I lived above the Northern. All I had to do was go downstairs! They were shedding inventory and marking the piano music way down — I got some good stuff, even though I still had this inward feeling that Reed was the crosstown rival of “our” music store.
Manhattan? Really? I never heard that! Dad and I went up and looked at old Manhattan one time in his 1956 Willys Jeep. I think it was the first time I realized that the ghost towns in movies were largely a fictional construct. There were square piles of wood here and there that had been cabins, but nothing like the streets of false-fronted wooden buildings you see in movies. Teller City, same thing.
Jim H– could have been the Library — I remember a pizza joint in campus west by that name late 60′s early 70′s
There was also a music store on Canyon just west of Lincoln JHS that where we used to go all of the time because it was close to school
I’ve got to contribute three more names to the “North College Eateries” of my youth. Pizza Roma was where the pawn shop is now and I first ate pizza there, it was delicious at the age of 4 or 5. Pizza Roma became the Gondolier Italian Restaurant and I believe they had pretty good food. After that, another family took it over and it became Gabbies and we ate there quite often because they had a large salad buffet, and their business lasted into the late 1990s, I think. The same family that owned Gabbies operates Widow McCoy in Loveland, I’m told.
Mr. Taco was on the west side of College where Tiger Auto Parts is now located. They were in business for 5 years maybe in the 1960′s.
Oh, in the time between Mr. Taco and Tiger Auto parts, Mercy Farm operated their pie and sandwich shop there in that building. Their business was highly successful, serving delicious sandwiches and soup during business lunch hours. A lot of their ingredients were home-grown on the farm which now belongs to the Denver Rescue Mission near Wellington.
Pizza Roma was owned by C.J. Streit. I probably had some of that pizza, but I remember more the times I didn’t have pizza there.
A music store on Canyon? Wow! I remember the Aggie Market and other stuff, but can’t recall a music store. Was it sheet music and instruments, or a record store like Bach or Rock?
Mercy Farm. We used to impress visitors by taking them there. I would go to the one on North College, and then they opened one on the corner of… hm, the block where the Aggie Theater used to be? In what used to be a car dealership? It hurt to find out that those pies were no longer going to be available when I visited town.
The Library was a 3.2 “disco” on the north side of Elizabeth due north of Panhandler’s Pizza in the same building.
The pizza joint in Campus West was not Little Caesar’s. It was either in the building with the arcade or it’s own stand-alone building sort of in the back parking lot. It was on the south side of Elizabeth and was west of the arcade but east of Round The Corner. For some reason I want to say it was someone’s name – like Bob’s Pizza or something like that.
And remember when Sports Authority at Mulberry & College was a Safeway? It’s pretty comical to look at that roofline – even today. Kind of sticks out like a sore thumb when you notice it. “WOW – That used to be a Safeway.”
Holy smokes I *totally* forgot about Mercy Farm.
jh
Now, now, I love that old Safeway building with its Googie roof-line and I’m glad it’s still with us…
Wizards Pool Hall; Paul’s Pizza!
Without a doubt, the biggest loss to Ft. Collins, business wise, was the loss of Steele’s Market. When I lived in old town in the 1990′s, it was so convenient to get groceries at Steeles. In later years, Steele’s Deli was perhaps one of the best sandwich shops in the downtown area. I think that location on West Mountain is one of the most prime pieces of real estate in the old town area. Maybe someone could build a replica of Franklin school there with shops and a restaurant on the ground floor with lofts on the floors above? “Franklin town center and lofts”.
I was shocked that Steele’s had gone. We sort of knew the family (as I expect many did), and had shopped there since they were on the East side of College, where I used to yearn to see the doughnut machine in action. (I recently picked up a video with a scene of a similar machine popping the things out.)
Safeway’s used to perplex me with their chronic moves to the other side of the parking lot, in both locations. My best memory of the downtown one is when they had “Sam Spam’s Circus” with little automatons on top of displays performing repetitive little tricks over and over (similar to the ever-fascinating displays in the window at Anderson’s Jewelers). My last couple of years in town were spent mostly in a wretched house, since demolished, that was a half block from Safeway and 7-11, across the street from Colony Market and Poudre Rexall, down the alley from a laundromat, and within two blocks of Peaches Records (or was it The Finest?).
We were close to Gnat in the Box too, but ghastly photos in the CSU Journal had dissuaded me from eating there at that time.
Walter Chrysler! We had a Chrysler presence in the Hampton Roads area, where we lived from 1985-2005. Many times we went to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk’s Ghent area (pronounced with a hard G). I picked up a book on art fraud that claims that the Chrysler collection was a monument to gullibility in many ways. I’ve since wondered which, if any, of the old masters I’d enjoyed weren’t.
We had a Coors presence there too (in Virginia), with the old Cavalier Hotel, where Adolph Coors took his final plunge from one of the windows. It’s not known to this day just how that happened. (I also managed to visit the location of the old whorehouse associated with the hotel before they tore that down, but that would be more of a Lost Virginia Beach tale.)
This arcade name was bugging me to death. Through the help of a friend from my era we were able to construct it:
Campus Casino
“Jack in the Box” always had a reputation.
“Colony Market” had another name before the 1970′s which escapes me right now. I want to say “Red Owl Market” but I’m not sure. There was also a church there in that block also facing College, I think it was First Christian before they moved to the first Drake Road location.
When I worked for BNSF, we shipped tank cars full of beer concentrate to Virginia from Golden. I think they’ve since expanded that operation even more since all the mergers in the beer industry. Coors was BNSF’s largest customer in Denver for a time.
Who remembers these The Hauf Brau, Black Knight, Linders, and talk about seedy Red Garter
Hauf Brau (yes), Black Knight (yes – remember it burned?), Linders (no). Red Garter? I definitely remember the name. Where was it?
Linders was a hobby shop operated downtown by “Buzz” Linder. They had a large HO scale auto racetrack in the back room and the young boys couldn’t wait to buy a tiny racecar and put their racing skills to the test in the back room. Buzz Linder had silver hair and he and my dad were frequently mistaken.
That was the First Christian Church. My dad played organ there for some years, and after the congregation moved, I was inside the building again for theater rehearsals (HMG’s “Wizard of Oz”) and we even rented space in the basement before that as one of the locations of the Musical Arts Conservatory, originally located in a former frat house next to what is now Canino’s (and was then Mac’s thrift shop) and has since been torn down. We were also in the loft above the former Ben Franklin and in, I think, the same storefront Kyle’s had had on East Mountain.
It would be interesting to know the name of the market. I remember wandering over there while waiting for Dad to finish practicing on the organ at the church.
Campus Casino? Still not remembering that, but I probably never made it in. If I could put my hands on a copy of my school newspaper from RMHS, there’d be, I think, an ad for the place, with a pretty fair Cheech Wizard rip-off speaking.
I remember Linders. I used to hang around there to look at their revolving rack of cheap novelties. Not cheap enough for me to buy any, but I sure wanted to.
The Red Garter was on Linden, between Mountain and Trimble Court. It was too shockingly adult a place for me to consider as a kid, but I did see a play there in the late 70s when, I guess, it had reopened.
I don’t remember the Black Knight burning, but I remember the Matterhorn burning. I’d been in there to perform with the Helen Mary Green theater one time. After it burned, my sister and I were selling apples at a stand there one day and saw a bunch of ambulances and emergency vehicles going by. We wondered what for; when we got home, Mom told us my friend Scott had fallen off an 80-foot cliff on the far side of Horsetooth. Scott and some friends had decided to go see the remains of the old telegraph station back there (which I had often talked about and still haven’t been to). I got the full story in detail later as Scott and everyone else who had been there reconstructed the events of the day in minute detail while sitting around in our basement.
I sound like Grandpa Simpson again.
A burned out telegraph station in the hills? I want to see that.
I have another business to recall. The “Green Onion” was a bar on the corner of Linden and Walnut in the 1960′s. I had to walk from piano lessons to the Union Pacific freight depot on Linden Street and my route took me right in front of the Green Onion.
These days, you wouldn’t even think of a second grader walking alone after dark. Ft. Collins was a wonderful place in the 1960′s.
Jim, who did you take piano lessons from?
Cat, it was visible from our house on what was for years called Horsetooth Road (now County Rd 38E, or maybe part of Harmony, which was a half mile away then), visible on the far side of the reservoir as I looked across Spring Canyon Dam.
Dad told me it was what used to be a telegraph station. I could see through binoculars that there was something there, but never saw it clearly. I used to tell anybody who’d listen that I wanted to go have a look at it some day.
So Scott was on his way to it when he fell, hands first, off the cliff, shattering the hell out of his forearms and not doing the rest of him much good either. Several of us hurried to the hospital as soon as we could, and when I finally got in to see him, banged up, bandaged, in a hospital bed, his first words to me were, “I was on channel 4 and channel 9. They said I was on channel 7, but I didn’t see it.”
Linders was a pretty cool place in the 60′s-A man by the name of Danny Bailey bought it from the Linders-and of course when the Mall went in out went Linders-Danny Bailey invented and sold the rights to an adjustable fishing bobber-I still use one-it has a rubber band inside that allows you to add water for additional weight and be able to place it on your line where you want and then be able to keep it there by twisting the rubber band. It is a great product and they are still made in Berthoud I believe. They are available at Jax.
I only really know of the Red Garter because I worked at the Poudre Valley Creamery in the summer of 72 and it was across the street-I was advised by my coworkers that I would probably not be welcomed with open arms if I went in-so I didn’t-sometime that summer it burned-no one seemed very upset about it. I do recall that there were numerous fights including stabbings.
LETS ASK UNCLE NORM-there used to be a guy that hung out in front of the 5&10 (woolworths) who had a flat top, he was there on that same corner every time that I went downtown during the 60′s and even the early 70′s-he just kind of loitered there and didn’t bother anyone – then lo and behold I came to Fort Collins in the mid ninety’s and had a craving for a silver grill breakfast and dang there he was again sitting at the counter-a little older but that same haircut-who is this guy?
I don’t know Flattop, but I remember The Stick Man. He was an older guy (it seemed to us) who wore black, and a hat (also black), and he just seemed to spend all his time wandering around picking up sticks.
Ruth Bradley was my piano teacher. I only lasted three years because it became obvious that my talent was limited and my parents didn’t enforce practice time rigorously. Both my brother and I took lessons from Ruth Bradley. She was really a great musician and she taught lessons in her home at the corner of Olive and Whedbee in a brick house that has since been renovated in a way that makes it not as attractive, historically.
I think someday Cat might want to do a page on Ruth Bradley’s family. I think her dad was a car dealer in early Ft. Collins.
That’s an excellent idea, Jim. Norm has pointed out his piano teacher’s house many times on our drives around town. Didn’t she start the FC Symphony?
And, on a tangent, right across the street is the house of the man who had Fancher Sarget shot! It’s this dark brick bungalow. You can tell a bad guy lived there.
That sure sounds like a telegraph relay pole for the Overland Stage Route to me. I think there were some relay stations which were in addition to the stagecoach stations.
There was another piano teacher in Ft. Collins that shaped many young musicians in Ft. Collins named Violet Hein. It could be that she formed the Ft. Collins symphony.
I do know that Ruth Bradley was very connected to several of the CSU music department that have been mentioned previously here. Wendell Diebel was a great friend of hers.
Wendell Diebel’s son lives somewhere in western New York, so I should try and get together with him some time. He’s on Facebook, and a while back I sent him a message about how much his dad had meant to me. Mark didn’t even know I’d taken piano lessons from him!
I ran into another of his pupils online one time. He is fondly remembered — a wonderful, dry sense of humor, and an amazingly even temper. If you could hear how I played when he took me on, that would be even more amazing.
Campus Casino was to the south of Panhandlers and “College Pinball” was in the corner of the building that housed What was Captain Emo’s at the time as well as Panhandlers. I remember Panhandlers being The Pizza Inn and The Rams Inn. I think but the memory is going. Right behind Panhandlers where McDonalds is now was a public swimming pool but I can’t remember when it closed.
That was the Beach & Blade club — I’m thinking the first name was West-something — Westwood? Westmore? Westside? — but at the moment, I’m blanking. When I went to the photo department at CSU in 1980, there was a wall-size aerial photo of town. The pool was still visible, though I’m not sure if it was still viable at that point. I’d been there once, but not to swim.
The family next door to my old house (see above) had a number of feral boys who used to push their bikes around making “vroom vroom” noises. When their dad got a new pickup, they took to driving the old one around and around their back lot, which was over an acre. My friend Scott (see above) and I theorized that they made “vroom vroom” noises as they drove. Anyway, you could see the oval track made by the truck in the photo as well.
I was at the photo department to find a picture of the Rocky Mountain Forest & Range Experiment Station from the days it was at CSU. I got to spend almost a whole day poring over photos, and for quite a while, I could have told you exactly when I was walking through the former location of any building on campus. Like the Chemistry Building, long since burned down.
Westmoor?
took a while going through city directories the name of the music store on Canyon was Reed-Stevens music studios — i beleive they mostly were there for instrument rental for Lincoln –
It was the westmore beach and blade — I helped out with their swim team when I was in high school — I just remember the slide — monster one
Betty everett had a craft store I think was in the building where stone lion was — I remember going into the basement for supplies for her –really creepy place another forgotten business was the Poudre Valley Creamery had a ice cream fountain on Oak just west of the Post Office — Great place for ice cream!
Aha. I had no recall of Reed-Stevens being there. I just remember when they moved near the Northern.
I remember the Pines Gift Shop being in the Stone Lion building at one point. ‘Gift’ meaning ‘something you wouldn’t buy for yourself.’
I loved that Poudre Valley Creamery. One time I tried to buy an ice cream cone for a penny, and I was so little and cute they gave me one. When Mom found out, she made me take a dime to them, and somehow retroactively took all the enjoyment away from it.
There’s no doubt that the loss of the Poudre Valley Creamery is also worthy of note among the Ft. Collins businesses. My best recollection is the ice cream in the red and white round tubs.
So here we go I remember as a kid going into Mcdonalds not the restaurant but the dry goods store and going into the state dry goods store-with my momma she was on a mission to buy my school clothes. You remember school clothes john jr. Anywho she would always get those jeans with the double kneed patches, the kind of jeans that took two good solid weeks of not being able to bend your leg-and when you did you got a strawberry on your knee. The worst part was that your mom would always buy them long so that you had these cuffs at your ankles folded with thes big cuffs, tripled rolled waiting for you to grow-some of us did and some of didn’t grow into that cuff-but it was a great place to hide that liver that was served for dinner.
So back to the point does anyone remember as you paid the bill there was a spiderweb of wires hanging above you? You would go to the salesperson and they would step behind the counter and hand write a bill you would give them cash or a check and they would attach the receipt and the money to a clothes pin “so to speak” that was attached to a wire they would pull a handle and the money and receipt would go flying across the wire up to the cashiers cage WOW HOW COOL and then the change would come flying down along the same wire-imagine flying money fluttering in the breeze- very cool.
I remember it more clearly at the old Ben Franklin store, where there was a second-floor balcony or office window at the back, and they’d have a basket on a zip line that, miraculously, could fly down to the register or back up to the nerve center at the back. Cooler than a pneumatic tube, because you could watch it the whole way.
Another business in the block with Linders and Al’s News Stand was the Corn Cabin. Friday night I walked up the alley where those business were historically located, between the College Avenue buildings and the parking garage. It’s completely unrecognizable, I suspect it was remodelled heavily when the parking garage was built.
Corn Cabin (which changed fairly early on to Sugar Shack, though I called it Corn Cabin for years) was on the front of the block. I once spent a whole dollar on candy there, which incensed my dad. I used to get cheap bags of sweepings from the caramel corn machine, being on a budget (the no-money kind) and all.
In later years, the indispensable staples there were licorice pastels and the Nutty Corn. I still haven’t found a caramel corn I like as well as the dark molasses flavor they made there. Everything tastes too light.
Oh, there was also a gas station on the corner of Laporte and College almost all my life, where the Mexican restaurant is now located. I want to say ‘Gooding’s Service’ but that may have been 3 blocks south.
For me personally, I miss Wyatt’s Cafeteria on Oak Street. I remember it was built as “Luby’s” when I was in grade school, then they changed the name in later years. Both names are Texas based chains. About the last time I ate at Wyatt’s was when I had jury duty in the early 1980′s.
Jim, you were right the second time. Here’s a photo of Goodling’s from the History Connection (peel back the URL and play with it yourself). This would be the gas station by where I used to catch buses out of town, conveniently close to Ill Manor. Scott Gillan’s dad worked here at that time, and I used to see him and chat a little on my way places. The Fort’s a great town for walking.
ps: Once you start searching in the History Connection (be sure and limit the search to historic photos, unless you like to go through everything), it’s hard to stop. Here’s three photos of Kyle’s music, including one of the last location next to Columbia Savings. I only wish these photos were about four times as big, but I’m glad they’re available at all. You can search by address, by street, by keyword, and a lot more. I’m sure many of you already know, but this is for anybody who didn’t.
Another business in that same block is (was) McCarty’s barber shop. My old uncle, Art Collamer, used to frequent McCarty’s. I think it’s still there.
Could somebody tell me if the Egg & I on College was once an A & W?
The Egg and I on South College was a King’s food host. I have pictures of a birthday party there taken in the early 1970s.
Oh… Was there more than one King’s in town? Or, was the Captain mistaken when he said “I always liked going to Kings Food Host on College about where Perkins is”? Or, did King’s do the Safeway switcheroo and switch from one side of the street to the other?
There were 2 Kings in town for a few years. One at 330 S. College and then this one on College just south of Harvard on the west side of the road. Between the years of Kings and “Egg and I”, it was the Country Kitchen restaurant, another chain which has faded from the scene in a lot of communities. I think they still have Country Kitchen restaurants in Wyoming and maybe Iowa, someplaces along I-80.
Thanks, Jim…
kind of edgy nisperos LOL
Does anyone remember Spudnuts I loved them why? because they set up a system somewhat like a paper route or a milk delivery-they recruited kids to go door to door and set up an account for home delivery-doughnuts or better yet spudnuts right at your door=interesting business model-can’t wait for nisperos to pontificate
love,
captainbevo
I remember the Spudnut shop! I remember the fact that it existed more than the product itself. The kids of the owners were about my age and I sort of knew them. It was on the east side of College a bit north of Laurel – in between Der Wienerschnitzel (is that what was at that spot then?) and Laurel – if I recall correctly.
It was also a door or two south of Kyle’s. I knew various people who’d worked there. Turnover was high because they had a particular business plan: hire a high school kid, pay them the minimum with the promise of a raise after 90 days, and fire them just before then. Start over with another high school kid.
Some of those buildings betrayed their origins as residences, somewhat the same way as buildings we see where the second floor of a house rises out of a square commercial storefront. At the back of Kyle’s, I could still see a second floor room. I had no idea how to get into it, though years later I went upstairs several doors down and saw a number of rooms (offices, whatever) on a corridor that seemed to be as long as a couple of buildings and wondered if it went all the way to the Kyle’s location. I’m guessing now it didn’t.
The Spudnut shop changed names to “4 Kings Donut Shop” and I think the fella who operated it was Bud King. His son went to school at Poudre High with me but I can’t remember his name right now.
I was in the PHS Class of ’79. I don’t see any of the King sons in my yearbook. ’78 or before?
I saw the mention of Iverson Dairy where they gave out S&H Green Stamps. I grew up in a place where some merchants gave green stamps and others gave blue stamps. About the only thing I remember our family ever getting from those was a picnic tote in red plaid with 2 thermos bottles and a snap to close container which nestled between the thermos bottles for sandwiches or potato salad or whatever. We used to carry it in the car for road trips. One bottle would have black coffee and the other Kool-aid or Hawaiian Punch.
The family silverware came from saving Betty Crocker coupons. I have one small fork out of the set to remember it by — Queen Bess, I think the pattern is called. My wife and I saved Green Stamps as recently as 1982 or so, living in SE Georgia when the redemption center finally went under.
I remember hot roasted nuts at K-Mart. They also had a photobooth with a strip of four black and white shots for a dollar. I remember my first time in one of those, and I now have the pictures: I’m looking away in the first picture, then the flash went off, and I’m staring right at the mirror in the last three, even after Mom said something that got my sisters looking away. That might have been at Woolworth’s downtown.
1977 was my graduation year at PHS. My yearbooks are all packed in boxes now.
I’ve got another “lost business” for your curiosity. “Arlan’s Discount Department Store” was located in the building where Sutherland’s had their “kitchen cabinet” showroom, where the Dollar Tree is located now, on College just south of Drake Road and what used to be Ghent’s. That store changed to Target in probably about 1970, and then K-mart came to town and Target closed up.
They used to have a jingle they played with their ad on KCOL: “You can find more than you bargained for at Arlan’s discount department store…”
“Bring less money
Take home more
At Arlan’s Discount Department Store
Save on everything you’re shopping for
At Arlan’s Discount Department Store…”
And all the rest of it.
Yeah, Arlan’s was heaven for me, because it was cheap. 45 singles for something like 29 cents, with an extra hole drilled through the label and piled loose on a big table. I still have several of those. Plus I could get there on my bike with about a half hour of pedaling, which made it just about the closest retail establishment until they built the Jif Food Store (originally 1-Stop) at the corner of Taft Hill and 38E (formerly Horsetooth Road).
Kip, if you ever come back to FC, we need to get together for a cup of coffee. Maybe my house will be moved by spring….
Oh, Captain Bevo, you are talking about the store that my mom always called “Brown McDonald’s”. It was a clothing store as I recalled.
Jim B, that would be great. Don’t worry: it probably won’t be before spring. I was there this summer, and I’m lucky to make it once in four years these days.
nisperos, I was much impressed by Kresge’s, which I saw on a trip out to Chicago in the 60s. I also remember a nearby shoe store (in Chicagoland) with an x-ray machine, and I was so disappointed that it wasn’t operating. At the time, I thought I was unlucky. I wanted to see my foot bones!
Snooty… That would be Batson Drug, where a manager came and told me to leave, because kids could only be there one at a time, and for five minutes at most. By an amazing coincidence, they didn’t have much I was interested in anyway, except a paperback reprint of the EC horror comics, so apart from feeling offended, I didn’t much mind leaving. Walgreen’s was more my speed.
(This thread is even more fun than the gigantic “Denver in the 70s-80s” thread at BoingBoing a few months ago. I should go see if there are any new posts on that one.)
Correction: it’s a 60s-70s thread, and yes, it’s still going strong, with 70 or so new comments since I looked in. Darn it, I have work to do today! And tomorrow!
There is one more business I need to mention: In the late 1960′s, there was a business on South College named Maudie’s Flea Market. It was kind of a game store, a place for kids to go to waste their money. I think it was in the same block as Wienerschnitzel and Kyle’s Music store. My parents took a dim view of that store, and rightfully so, I think.
Maudie’s was on the block with Kyle’s? Interesting. Mentally, I think I keep moving it to the South, down toward Mellow Yellow. Not surprising, as Maudie’s was a very franchised, commercial version of a head shop. I wanted to be old enough to buy the Disney Memorial Orgy poster by Wallace Wood (I figured if I was 14…) and before I got there, it had been pulled from circulation. Thanks to the wonders of the web, I have a good copy of it. Even better since I found a reprint of it in a “Realist” collection at Old Corner a couple of trips back.
I loved the radio ads for Maudie’s, which had other locations. There was a Jonathan Winters-style “Maudie” and a straight man, with dialogue like this:
Maudie: You know what a six-hose hookah is?
Straight: A Polish motorcycle?
M: No, you silly putty! It’s a water pipe!
S: Who’d want to smoke water?
M: I’ll bet you’d try, Lippo! You smoke tobacco in it! Or carpet fuzz! Or your milkman! Or anything you want!
…
I think they also called it “Maudie’s Incredible Department Store.” I bought some black light soap bubbles as a present for one of my sisters and was hugely disappointed that she used them all up before I got to see them under UV.
It’s possible that Maudies was on the corner of Laurel and College, my memory is very foggy as to location for sure.
One of my favorite hang-outs as an early teenager was also in the block with Mellow Yellow, Brand-X bicycles. I guess it’s actually two blocks south, near Plum and College.
Oh, there was also a chicken place in the block between Laurel and Plum, The Little Red Hen.
I can add a few thoughts here:
The pizza shop in the Campus Shop bookstore was operated by the Pizza Roma/Streit family.
Reed-Stevens Music Store was at the Canyon location. I (okay, my parents) bought a red Gibson SG guitar there…Wish I still had that one! Dick Kyle played a red SG in the Torquays as well I think (double pick-up with whammy bar, the lucky guy). I thought that the final days of Reed-Stevens had them located in the Kyles location. I could be crazy. I don’t remember them in the Northern Hotel block, but in later years Appleway Music was there for a while.
The Spudnut shop was owned by the Holmes family and I can still (SEE) the inside of the place like it was yesterday. Truly iconic. The basement housed a Dance school for many years. In my early years I grew up about 2 doors south of Spudnut and the Holmes family were good friends of my family. My mom worked for the dance studio and later she worked many years at the Campus Shop bookstore. I ran around that neighborhood like I owned it.
I hung around Appleway music for quite a while. They were on East Mountain, in a former car dealership location across the street from where the Coloradoan used to operate, and then they were on Remington between the Elks Club and St. Luke’s Thrift Shop. Later on, they were in Campus West, but by that time I didn’t get in there much. I thought it was pretty neat that Joe (Fonfara? Can’t spell it.) could play at least one thing on most instruments he had for sale. He could demonstrate!
I can’t say with certainty that Reed was never in the Kyle’s location. When I said downstairs from the Northern Hotel, I don’t know if they were exactly under the place or just up at that end of the block on the same side of the street. I hate having to hedge my memories like this, but I’d rather do that than be over-certain and get called on it. They were just calling it Reed Music by that time, and though a lot of sheet music was discounted, I don’t even know if they were definitely on their way out at that point.
I don’t know why I didn’t remember the Streits running the pizza franchise at the Campus Shop. We were friends of the family, and therefore fierce partisans of Pizza Roma. It could just be that they stopped selling pizza there early on enough that it passed unnoticed by me. One time Dad took me there and we had pizza. I waited years for that to happen again. I wanted to play the pinball machines, but never had the dime.
We used to gas up at a station right next to the back door of the Campus Shop (on Laurel but not the one right on the corner). I’m not clear what kind of station it was. We were partial to Gasamat, but I seem to recall this one had premiums you could collect from points you earned by buying gas, and that sounds too much like a frill to have been a Gasamat.
Thanks for sharing! Keep up the nice work. -Jamie Dolan – Neenah, WI
This is for captainbevo and his Spudnuts memories. In case you hadn’t heard, Red Dogs and Donuts in Greeley is now making and serving the original Spudnuts:
Red’s Dogs learns new treat trick, Greeley Tribune, 1/18/10: http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20100118/NEWS/100119709/1035&parentprofile=1015
Thanks nisperos sounds like a road trip is in order for me
Went to C State briefly
It was strange someone gave me a book and it had a bookmark from Stone Lion bookstore. I remember the place. Went to get a book, Bob Marleys bio Catch a Fire came out and a half ounce of bud was sitting by my bike. True story!