Posted in Blog business, Municipal, Neighborhoods on February 5, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The (recorded?) bells at Saint Joes I might miss more than anything in Fort Collins when I go. It seems like they play more in recent years than they used to. But there’s also a (real) carillon at the Episcopal church. I don’t know if they play that one.
I would have liked to find out more about them both.
And I might also have said something about the crazy number of traffic signs on the short block in front of St. Joes….
Posted in Blog business, Commercial, Neighborhoods, Vernacular buildings on November 11, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I have had SUCH a hard time keeping this quiet– I didn’t want to say anything until it was done. But for several weeks the Armstrong Hotel has been preparing a nice souvenir map of the neighborhood markets that the Lost Fort Collins blog wrote about last year.
The map in my original post was lame, and inaccurate. The Armstrong’s version, which is now available, is nice enough to frame! And it includes a tour of downtown ghost signs.
You still have to use Lost Fort Collins if you want to find all 17 markets. But the Armstrong’s more limited version is just right for your friends and out-of-town guests who maybe don’t have to be obsessive and comprehensive about everything, and just want to go on a nice bike ride and see a few sites.
I hear people like that exist.
Get the map here: http://www.thearmstronghotel.com/outonthetown.php. Click on “Bike through History,” and you’ll find the map in PDF format.
Or ask for one next time you stay at the hotel.
Posted in Art, Colorado State University, Grow your own, Modest or alternative living, Neighborhoods, tagged Cunningham Corner, Fort Collins art scene 1970s, Fort Collins Music Scene 1970s on October 13, 2009 | 60 Comments »
Cunningham Corner is a condo complex on the corner of Horsetooth and Shields in Fort Collins. It’s also the name on the barn that sat at that corner before the condos (the barn has since been declared a historic landmark and moved elsewhere).
And in the early 1970s, it was the name of one of the hottest bands in Fort Collins.
Kevin Donnelly, founding member of Cunningham Corner, the band, sent the Lost Fort Collins blog the story. With pictures:
Cunningham Corner plays CSU
I was the only band member who lived on the [Cunningham Corner] farm, but the band rehearsed there all the time and it became a haven for the local artistic community which at the time consisted of painters, [such as the legendary “Gorpf”], musicians, sculptures, poets and writers.
I don’t know if “hippies” would be the right word to describe the group of people who lived there. We were just young kids, mostly from the city, who discovered a new way of life in Colorado.
At night, at that time, the area was very quiet and peaceful and all our musician friends would sit around the campfire in the garden and play music into the night. The area is not quite so isolated nowadays, is it?
625 Remington
In later years, the band all moved into the same house together along with various other artists and musicians. We built a recording studio there …
There was a “Der Weinerschnitzl” across the alley and we lived off of those dogs! There wasn’t a lot of money, but all we really needed was to make sure that our guitars had new strings on them by opening night!
Outside 625 Remington Street,2005
Early band days at CSU
Scott Galbraith and I started playing our acoustic guitars in the common area at the Student Center. That was the beginning of Cunningham Corner. There used to be this area where students could stretch out on couches and tables. It became an area where musicians could just bring in their instruments and play for everyone.
Playing at CSU
The sound, the scene, and the Jade Urn
It was the time the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Poco, Randy Meisner, Pure Prairie League, John Denver, Michael Nesmith and Michael Martin Murphy. Cunningham Corner had 4 part harmonies but the band was more than that. It was more like an experimental orchestra. We played many instruments and all original music that crossed over from jazz to rock to country rock and rhythm and blues and to funk and to even classical and show tunes.
A good friend of the Cunningham Corner band at the time was the poet and musician Charles John Quarto who was a mainstay in Fort Collins and who wrote the lyrics for “Geronimo’s Cadillac” for Michael Murphy. Charles was kind of a spiritual advisor of the band and even used to read poetry before our sets at the old Jade Urn coffeehouse.
…I have great memories of playing all night at the Northern Hotel in Fort Collins and then walking home in the cool evening to 1625 Remington Street. Fort Collins was at the time, and I understand still remains, one of the best places to live in the country.
Cunningham Corner [toured throughout the southwest and] was the only non-recording act to headline multiple times at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, which was one of the best music venues at the time. [The home of Willie Nelson]. We also played various fund raising and charity events in Fort Collins.
There were other popular hometown bands as well, and twice a year we would all rent out a couple of ballrooms at the student center and hold a big concert where all the bands would play on stage together. It was a very tightly knit community of musicians.
Publicity for Spring Jam
After the Spring Jam, we all gathered at “The Town Pump” which was then owned by our good friend Ron Heard, and played music all night. Ron also had an ownership interest in the Rams Inn. Back then, if you wanted a really good hearty breakfast the Rams Inn was the place to go. I don’t imagine it is still in business.
Ron Heard at Town Pump
Where are they now?
The members of Cunningham Corner eventually landed in Los Angeles and pursued musical careers. There were many successes and countless stories.
As for myself, I developed an interest in the law. I have been practicing law for the last twenty-five years in Los Angeles. In 2000, I married the love of my life and we now reside in Redondo Beach CA.
Jimmy Davenport, David Fuog, and me
We lost some friends along the way. Our original drummer, Gary Brittingham, who is seated next to me in the Cunningham Corner barn photo, was accidently electrocuted while working at the old pickle factory in Fort Collins about 1972.
Our piano player, Rod Seeley, who I understand remained a musical staple in the La Porte and Fort Collins areas until
recently, passed away a few years ago.
Another great singer and songwriter who lived in Fort Collins at the time and a good friend of the band, Scott Bruning, passed away some twenty years ago.
Peace, Kevin
Final version of the band. 1973. Chester Terwey, David Fuog, Jimmy Davenport, Scott Galbraith, Richard Lee and Kevin Donnelly.
Posted in Ask Uncle Norm, Neighborhoods on October 6, 2009 | 9 Comments »
” Do you remember where the old landfill was? I believe it was also on Taft, but on the east side and closer to town” -Harry
Harry:
As I remember, the landfill of the 60’s was just south of the
southeast intersection of Harmony and Shields. This intersection no
longer exists as several years ago the city sent Harmony to the north
and then west out to Taft Hill Road. That landfill was later replaced
by the present Larimer County Landfill farther south and on the west
side.
Norm
[What happens when you ask the Lost Fort Collins blog a question? Typically, I just go ask Norm for the answer. Norm Cook has lived in Fort Collins since the mid 1940s, and he remembers EVERYTHING!
Now, you can cut out the middle man and ask Uncle Norm yourself. Just write [email protected]. Answers appear here on the Lost Fort Collins blog]
[Become a fan of Lost Fort Collins on Facebook]
Posted in Commercial, Neighborhoods, Vintage commercial, tagged Paramount Cottage Camp on September 1, 2009 | 5 Comments »
In my last post, I wrote about how the owner of 1544 W. Oak plans to restore her ordinary apartment complex to recall its Paramount Cottage Camp roots.
Today, a private collector, who asked not to be identified, gave me permission to show you this–A late 1920s postcard of Paramount Cottage Camp. Make sure you click through for the full-size version:
1544 W. Oak 1929
Here’s the picture of what it looks like today. You needn’t click through on this one:
1544 W. Oak, 2009
Thanks to Carol Tunner and Maureen Plotnicki for turning me on to this postcard and its collector!
Posted in Commercial, Neighborhoods, Vintage commercial, tagged 1544 W. Oak, cottage camp, preservation on Oak Street Fort Collins on August 30, 2009 | 3 Comments »
1544 W. Oak, 2009
1544 W. Oak wasn’t always a plain, uninteresting apartment complex. And if its owners have their way, it won’t be one much longer.
“We were talking about tearing the apartments down and building condos,” says owner Maureen Plotnicki.
But then she learned the property had a past. According to city documents, 1544 began as a “cottage camp.” That is, a place where tourists could “enjoy all the recreational opportunities Fort Collins had to offer, without having to ‘rough it’ in a tent or automobile.” It included a store and a gas station too.
So why don’t we just call the 1928 business a motel? For one thing, the word Motel didn’t even enter our dictionaries until after World War II. Also, cottage camps typically weren’t built along highways like motels. In the case of Paramount, it was built to complement the municipal campground just across the street at City Park.
Fort Collins Campground 1925
Plotnicki says now that she knows that she’s sitting on a historic cottage camp, she doesn’t want to build condos there anymore. Instead, she wants to use the site to “explain some of the history to the community and restore some pride to the property.”
So, she’s nominated 1544 W. Oak for Landmark designation. Then she’ll seek a State Historical Society grant to reconstruct the original sign, flower boxes, roof, siding, and some of the garages.
Plotnicki’s Landmark application has already been approved by the Landmark Preservation Commission, and goes to City Council for a first reading on Tuesday, September 1.
And now I’m going to go all editorial on you: It is rare that historic property owners look beyond trendy magazine interpretations of “old house” (NeoCraftsman with a Tuscan kitchen anyone?) and really seek out a building’s true context.
In Fort Collins, especially, where most of the properties were never grand, it takes a certain understanding to see the beauty in the modest scale of most of our buildings and work to toward restoring that. Big thanks and regards to the owners of 1544 W. Oak. I think they’ll enrich the whole neighborhood and set a great example because of their vision.
Credits
To learn more about the history of the Paramount Cottage Camp (like how 1928 hotel owners petitioned to have it shut down for being too competitive), download the PDF application here.
Camp photo: University Historic Photograph Collection, http://lib.colostate.edu/archives/historic_photos.html, Colorado State University, Archives and Special Collections
Posted in Neighborhoods, Preservation and renewal, tagged fort collins high school, Fort Collins trolley, pitkin, remington on July 29, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Just got a tip from Darrin Goodman (the mando from Horsetooth Mountain Rangers) that construction on Remington and Pitkin has exposed tracks.
According to the Fort Collins Muni Railroad folks, there were originally 3 streetcar lines in Fort Collins, with one going to the “new” high school at Remington and Pitkin (which is now the “old” high school or the “new” University Center for the Arts).
Street car at Pitkin and Remington, 1948. From http://history.fcgov.com
Pitkin and Remington, July 2009
Those are, in fact, streetcar tracks making a turn from Remington onto Pitkin. But they won’t be for long. City crews are digging them up as part of a project to repave Remington.
A man in a hard hat at the scene told me they intend to remove one old section of track and take it to the Trolley Barn. But he wasn’t confident the track could survive the excavation.
The Fort Collins steetcar system ran from 1919 to 1951. A restored line and car has run along Mountain Ave, between City Park and Downtown, on summer weekends since the mid-1980s.
Tracks after excavation.