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Harvesting Historical Riches Northern Hotel, Fort Collins
Three years ago the National Developmental Council teamed up with Funding Partners for Affordable Solutions, the Fort Collins Housing Authority, and the State Historical Fund to restore the century-old building. The State Historical Fund provided $450,000 to restore publicly accessible areas, including the entire Art Deco façade and the lobby. Adhering to guidelines for rehabilitating historic structures, the project’s partners not only preserved an important part of Fort Collins architectural and commercial history, they found a beneficial new use for the structure. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the hotel hosted travelers arriving in Fort Collins by train at the nearby Colorado & Southern and Union Pacific railroad depots. Its changing names mimicked the city’s transformation from farm colony to business center. It opened its doors to the public in 1873 as the Agricultural Hotel then changed its name to the Commercial Hotel in the 1880s. Later, doing business as the Northern Hotel, it served notables such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Wayne, Olivia DeHaveland, and Vincent Price. In 1936 owners gave the building a facelift by adding an Art Deco façade with floral and geometrically patterned accents. The remodeled structure anchored the city’s downtown district until declining passenger rail service decreased the hotel’s value after World War II. A 1975 fire that caused extensive damage to the building’s third and fourth floors punctuated this gradual decline. Despite the hotel’s misfortune, the aging building continued to house popular restaurants and other retail businesses. By restoring the Northern Hotel, the project partners addressed two community needs. First, they preserved an important part of the city’s heritage. Second, they found a creative solution to the city’s affordable housing problem. Although the State Historical Fund only supported historic preservation work on the façade and in the lobby, its assistance leveraged the partners’ ability to restore the entire building and to put it to use as affordable housing for senior citizens and disabled people. Several new businesses occupy storefronts on the first level, while residents occupy remodeled units on the upper three floors. The residents proudly show off their revitalized home to visitors. “Beautiful! Beautiful!” exclaimed a resident who recently gave historian Tom Noel a tour. “I can remember when the Northern burned so bad they talked about taking her down. This is the best home I’ve had.” Ridvan Uctuk, co-owner of a new jewelry store in the Northern, echoes the resident’s enthusiasm. Specializing in Turkish rings assembled from several pieces like a puzzle, his store graces a brilliant white façade that brightens this part of downtown. Though the poor economy has dampened sales, he is optimistic that it will turn around during the summer when warm weather and his historic building attract shoppers. Like the craftspeople that made Ridvan’s rings, the Northern Hotel’s owners pieced together an intricate, sturdy puzzle. Combining funds and technical expertise from diverse sources, they re-established the building’s viability, provided a needed community service, and preserved a Fort Collins architectural gem. And though the Mexican restaurant has moved to another location, visitors hungry for an architectural treat will be more than satisfied. BY BEN FOGELBERG, Editor
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In 1990 Colorado State University’s history department kicked
off its annual Meyer Nathan Lecture Series by hosting a dinner
at a Mexican restaurant tucked inside the Northern Hotel at the
corner of College Avenue and Walnut Street in downtown Fort Collins.
Students and professors waited to be seated in a reconfigured and
somewhat confined lobby while listening for the tell-tale sizzle
of onions, green peppers, jalepeños, and sirloin strips
on iron skillets carried to tables by mostly Spanish-speaking servers.
Once seated, the historians and would-be historians looked around
at the large stucco-walled dining room and immense round central
fireplace. Some of them looked up and noticed a soot-encrusted
stained-glass dome covering the dining area like the underside
of a giant multicolored umbrella. This unexpected canopy did not
inspire awe. Like the Northern’s dilapidated Art Deco exterior
and fire-damaged third and fourth floors, it fostered nostalgia
for the hotel’s past and pity for its current condition.
All of those present at the dinner hoped that the owners could
find a way to elevate the building’s status from beloved
eyesore to rehabilitated landmark.