201 F Street

Description

Real estate appraisal card. 201 F Street, NELy 25' off lots 11-13, block 31, in Salida, Colorado. This site was where the disastrous fire of January 1888 started in Salida. At that date, Peter Mulvany was completing a three-story brick hotel on the site. A workman dropped a spark into a pile of shavings and within minutes the building was engulfed in flames. The fire soon spread to neighboring buildings, and the heat was so intense that buildings seemed to melt. Losses were estimated at $175,000, with nearly 60 businesses suffering losses. The fire led to greater construction of brick buildings in the downtown district. This building, erected in 1895, housed a fraternal hall of the Knights of Pythias on the second story and the First National Bank on the first story. The building was referred to as the Jones Block in early city directories, presumably after one of the founders of the First National Bank, E.B. Jones. The First National Bank of Salida occupied the main storefront from the time the building opened until 1934, when it moved to 200 F St. In 1889 the Salida News reported that the First National Bank would open in January 1890. The bank was the successor of the Continental Divide Bank. L.W. and D.H. Craig, operators of a pioneer dry goods firm in Salida, started the private Continental Divide Bank, in 1885. They incorporated as the First National Bank in the latter part of 1889. Stockholders were among the most prominent businessmen in the community. Officers and directors included: L.W. Craig, president; E.B. Jones, vice president; Frank 0. Stead, cashier; and L.W. Craig, E.B. Jones, J.G. Hollenbeck, E.R. Naylor, B.H. DeRemer, A.M. Alger, and J.B. Bowne, directors. In 1894 D.H. Craig became a director and in 1895 cashier, a position he continued to hold for many years. By 1900, the bank was called "without question Chaffee county's leading financial institution." Robert Preston, who was president of the bank by 1900, bought controlling interest in the institution in 1903, and the Preston family retained control for many years. In 1902 the bank was described as being conducted along "conservative yet liberal banking lines." By the 1920s it was the county's oldest financial institution. The bank later became a Thatcher bank and then a branch of Pueblo Bank & Trust. Salida had a large number of fraternal organizations. The Knights of Pythias was an international fraternity founded in Washington, D.C. in 1864 by Justus H. Rathbone. The primary goals of fraternal groups were to promote friendship and relieve suffering. Principles of the K. of P. included friendship, charity, and benevolence. The organization sought moral uplifting and purification of society. Strict morality, absolute truthfulness, honor, and integrity were required of its members. The organization began during the Civil War and was the first American order ever chartered by an act of Congress. Members of the organization in Salida were primarily railroad employees. In 1889, the Salida News Holiday Edition recorded, "Iron Mountain Lodge No. 19, Knights of Pythias, is a very popular benevolent society in Salida. It has a very large membership among the people of Salida, and its meetings are always well attended." Members of the organization meet at the Odd Fellow's Hall before they erected their own building. The upstairs of the building reportedly remains much as it was during the time It was a fraternal lodge. By 1914 an office space at the rear of the building facing 2nd Street had been created. For many years, this was the office of Charles F. Johnson, Realty. Johnson was also secretary-treasurer of the Salida Granite Corporation in the 1920s. He was born in Indiana in 1856 and moved to Colorado in 1878. In 1888 he moved to Salida, where he became a civic leader and successful businessman. He was elected city clerk and recorder four times and also served as county treasurer. Koster Insurance and Salida Finance were housed in this building from 1934 to 1986. Harold R. Koster established a real estate, insurance, and loan business in 1923 and the Salida Finance Co. in 1949. History Colorado's Architectural Inventory Forms have more information and are available at the Salida Library.