LOGAN COUNTY COURTHOUSE   1910
Courthouse Square – Main Street  (NR)

Built at a cost of $100,000 by Kaepernik and Jenkins, it was dedicated on March 5, 1910, with a local orchestra playing in the rotunda.  Paintings of early  life in Logan County  are displayed  on the lower floor  and are the work of  local artist,  Gene Carara.  Framed linen  blueprints  of the  building by  John J. Huddart, the architect, hang on walls of the main level.  Extensive restoration was done in 1984 and both the interior and the exterior are on the National Register.

I and M BUILDING   1920
223 Main Street  (NR)

Built by  pioneer cattleman, W. C. Harris,  it was purchased  while still  under construction by George  Henderson  and named  for his daughters, Isabel and Mildred.  The Classical Revival    style  building   was  designed   by architect  Eugene  G. Graves  and  features ornamental   cast  plaster ceilings and frieze moldings inside and decorative carvings and balusters on the front.

COLE HOTEL    c. 1913
114 ½ Main Street

The earliest  of the  remaining  commercial hotels  has stained  glass  transoms,  an iron balcony and decorated brickwork.  In early days small frame store buildings in this area were often destroyed by fire.

UNION PACIFIC DEPOT   1903
Main and Front Streets   (NR)

Purchased by the community in  1984,  it was moved   to  this   new  site   by  truck  and completely  restored.     Train service  to Julesburg and points east began in 1881, and the depot has seen visits by Theodore  Roosevelt,  Herbert Hoover (who was noted to  have a  hole  in his  shoe),  and Thomas Dewey.

STICKNEY BUILDING   1915
101-103 Main Street

Lee C. Stickney  sold a variety of items from appliances to tires in a 5 state area.  Behind this building at 120 South Front is the tire shop added in 1946, and behind that at 122 South Front was  Stickney Motorcycle,  built in 1901, where the business was founded

CHIPMAN-CUNNINGHAM COTTAGE AND HOUSE    1880-1910
119 and 123 S. 2^nd Street

Dr. Jacob Chipman brought his family to Sterling in the  1880s  and  built  the small Victorian house as their first home.  He built the larger house in 1910, using the bricks from the old Courthouse in the foundation walls.  These   homes  have  been   owned  and occupied by five generations of the same family.

OLD MASONIC TEMPLE   1908
114-116 N. 2^ND Street

This large  Neo-classical  building  served the Masonic Lodge,  which  had been  founded in 1883  and originally met on the second floor of the  Propst Store.   Organizers  from  Greeley traveled two days by horse and buckboard to attend the early meetings.

WATHENA MERCANTILE   1896
121 N. 2^nd Street

The only  concrete  slump block  façade  in  the downtown area was the home of A. H. Pettit and Company, when in 1899 it became the site of the town’s only gunfight.  Pettit apparently insulted W. H.   (Buck)   Cheairs’  wife.   This  led  to  a confrontation  in  Pettit’s  store  and  his  death.  Cheairs was convicted and imprisoned.

OLD CITY HALL   1912
214 Poplar  Street

It was built by William  Kaepernik at  a  cost of $13,208 and served as City Hall and  fire station until 1976.  The architect was John Huddart, who also  designed  the Courthouse.   The  exterior  is original  and  the  interior has  been  restored  or appropriately  remodeled.

POST OFFICE, FEDERAL BUILDING, AND COURTHOUSE   1930
NW corner of  Poplar and N. 3^rd Streets

Designed by architect James A. Wetmore and  built by  a Denver  firm  at a  cost  of $187,877, it formally  opened   October 24,  1931.    W.  B. Giacomini was nominated by President  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt  to  be Postmaster.

W. E. KING HOUSE
NW corner of N. 4^th and Elm Streets

This  house  was  built  in  1907  on  the Courthouse Square by Sterling pioneer W. E. King in the sub-zero weather of that winter.  It was moved in 1909 as were several other fine homes, in preparation for the building of the new Courthouse.

SID PROPST HOUSE
416 N. 4^th Street

This is the oldest house in Sterling, because it was built earlier in Green City, an ephemeral town farther up the Platte River,  and moved here in 1884.  It was used by Mr. Propst as a stagecoach station on his Greeley-Sidney line.   Later it was  the Fisher Hospital operated by pioneer doctors Hall, Chipman, Kellogg and Fisher.

OLD TELEPHONE EXCHANGE   1909
112 and 114 N. 4^th Street

Sterling’s first switchboard was in  Claude and Sam Ard’s Central Hotel on Main Street.  It was followed   by  this  building,  the   Colorado  Telephone   building,  constructed in Victorian Functional style with false pillars and iron capitals

BILL’S MOTORS  1926
Main and 4^TH Streets

Bill Pospicil  started selling  Kellogg  cars  in  Sedgwick and  moved to  Sterling  in 1929.   He sold   Durant  vehicles at  328  Chestnut  before moving to this building, which had been  built  with a touch of Spanish colonial style, for McClain Chevrolet.

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH   1918
S. 4^TH and Ash Streets    (NR)

The congregation first met in October 1878 in  a sod  school  house  in Old  Sterling.   In 1883 they  moved  to  a frame building in the new Sterling.   This was  replaced  in  1898   with a new building at Poplar and North 4^th Streets.   In 1918, under the leadership of Rev. Gatewood Milligan,  they   moved to  this  structure,  with its unaltered exterior and the original stained glass windows.

GRANT BROWN HOUSE
S. 4^TH  and Ash Streets

Little  is  known  about  this  imposing  home except that it was the home of Grant Brown who was a  prominent  real  estate broker in early days.  The carriage house also served as a barn with storage for hay in the upstairs.

OLD LIBRARY   1918
S. 4^th and Ash Streets  (NR)

Several Sterling women’s clubs, with the aid of a generous  grant  from  the  Andrew Carnegie Foundation, opened this library in 1918 with 2000 volumes.  The exterior is being restored and the interior sensitively remodeled  as a bed and breakfast.

PRINCE OF PEACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH  1895
S. 2^nd and Phelps Streets    (NR)

Mission services were begun in 1885, meeting in various   rooms  and  stores,  using apple boxes  and  boards  for  pews and  a  box draped  with  a  sheet  for  an  altar.    The addition to  the present building was built later.

C. F. LUTIN HOUSE  1914
129 Denver Street

Mr.  Lutin  and  his  brother  John came  to Colorado  in 1872  with  50 cents  between them.  They worked in charcoal manufacture in  the  mountains  and  in  freighting  on  the South Platte Trail with wagons and oxen.  The unaltered exterior has the original asymmetric façade.

WELLS COLE HOUSE  c 1896
201 Taylor Street

Mr. Cole was an early entrepreneur dealing in sheep,  cattle,  pigs and  the  construction  of rental  properties.    The  exterior  and  interior have  been  accurately  restored  by  the present owners.

W. C. HARRIS HOUSE  1910
102 Taylor Street   (NR)

Mr. Harris came to Sterling with his parents in 1875,   and   was  a member  of   the  first graduating class  of  Logan  County High School.  He entered the cattle business in 1906 and became one of the largest cattle feeders in the United States with extensive holdings in grain elevators in several states.

GREAT WESTERN SUGAR FACTORY  1904
S. Front and  Factory Streets

The principal cash crop in the valley until 1985 was sugar beets.  9000 acres  were harvested at $5.00  a ton in 1905 and the factory employed 275 people in shifts, with a $10,000 payroll.   The record year was 1930, when 224,000 tons were processed.  The engine  near the  water  tower   moved beets  from  the dump  to the  factory.  Field  men  and  other  workers  lived  in  the factory  apartments  one block north at  S.  Front   and  Cedar.   This building was also used to house Italian prisoners of war during World War !!.  The large house near the factory was the manager’s house.

ST. ANTHONY’S CHURCH  1911
S. 3^rd. and Cedar Streets  (NR)

The Church was founded in 1888 and began as an outgrowth of masses held by itinerant priests in  tents and  station  houses  for the laborers  who  built  the  railroads.    It  was named  for  the  patron  saint  of a Sterling pioneer  and  devoted  supporter  of  the Church, Anthony Giacomini.  The first frame church   building  was destroyed  by  a high wind in 1890, and was eventually replaced by this building, which has its  original  exterior  and a  well restored interior, which may be viewed by calling 970-522-6422.

ST. ANTHONY’S CONVENT     early 1900's
303 S. Third Street

Built  as  a home  by  Judge  Hinkley,   it was purchased as a home for the nuns teaching in St. Anthony;s School across the street.  The exterior has the original distinctive brick and thin line mortar, and leaded beveled glass.  It is again  a private  home  although  the third floor chapel has been retained as the facility is used for retreats by the lay Franciscans.

BUSSE HOSPITAL
124 N. 7^th Avenue

With five beds on the ground floor and three employees,  it  was  begun  by  Mrs.  August Busse,  wife  of the  pastor  of nearby Peace Lutheran  Church.     It  was  used  in  the  flu epidemic of 1918 and served as a maternity hospital until the late 1940s.

J. CONRAD LUFT HOUSE   1902
1429 Highway 14  (NR)

This  two  and  one half  story  Queen  Anne house  was  built as a  display  home  by  the Huffman Brothers, local carpenters, in the 300 block  of  Poplar  Street.   It was moved to the present site with a winch and rollers in 1925 to serve  as a  home  for  Mr. Luft’s  family  of  15 children.  He had come to Sterling from Russia in  1909  as  a beet  laborer,  and  became  a successful farmer,  rancher and cattle feeder.