HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

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HISTORICAL BUILDINGS PLACES

• A List of Several Historical Areas in and around
  Eads.

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Birds Eye View of Eads about 1933
The large buildings in the foreground stand today
but many are abandoned.
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Jacksons Barn
Built about 1915-1920. It was a dairy barn where
people from the town got their milk. It was
owned by the Jackson family. It was also a part
of the Demonstration Farm owned by the Jacksons
in the 1920s. It is currently being used as an
owl roost. The Kiowa County Economic Development
Foundation owns this now.
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Plains Theater
Built in 1947 by Woody Williams. The Crow family
bought it in 1961 and ran it until 1982. It was
then shut down. It was donated to the school by
George Crow in 1999. The school uses this
building for school plays and talent shows. The
students in the Class of 2006 are trying to get
the theatre renovated and show movies once again.
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Nipps Building
Built about 1913-1915 by Dr. Nipps. The building
held a number of different businesses including
cafes, a dress shop, and grocery store. It is
listed on the Colorado Historical Register and
was recently renovated with a preservation grant.
Today the new Bransgrove Building is a daycare
and houses the Social Services offices.
6
Goff Hotel
Built before 1900. Many travelers and the county
politicians enjoyed the famous hospitality of
Lizzie Goff. It was later a boarding house and
is now abandoned.
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Pool Hall
Built in 1918 by Devereax and Blakeman. It was
used for businesses through the years but was
primarily a pool hall. Jerry Adamson was the
last owner and ran the pool hall until the late
1980s. It has been vacant ever since and its
interior is in extremely poor condition. The
outside brick is still in good shape.
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Victory Theater
Built in 1918 by Devereax and Blakeman. It
served as a number of businesses. From 1939-1947
it was the Victory Theater owned by Woody
Williams. In 1947-1950s it was the Bentley
Jewelry Store. Since the mid-1960s it has been
vacant. It is in poor condition.
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Dentist Office
Built about 1915-1920. This building was a
theater and a skating rink. It was mainly a
skating rink for the local youth, but on the
weekends, chairs were placed on the floor so that
a movie could be viewed. In later years, the
building was used as a Remax Drug Store with
dentist offices following, including Dr. John
Hines office from the late 1960s until 1991. In
more recent years, the building was a video store
owned by Paul and Glenda Stoker. This building
was owned for a number of years by the Goff
family. It is now empty.
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Museum
Built about 1915-1920. It was originally the
Eads State Bank. It was also a café at one time.
It has been the museum since the early 1980s
and is maintained by the Kiowa County Historical
Society, Ruthanna Jacobs, President.
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Grocery Store
Built before the 1920s. It was called Sundays
Garage. Howard Sunday was an inventorand a
genius in mechanics. He sold and repaired Ford /
Lincoln automobiles. This building is now Crow's
Stop Shop Grocery Store.
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Eads Home
Built in the 1920s. In 1968, a man signed in to
the Rialto Hotel, as it was called all through
the 1960s, and rented the room downstairs by the
boiler. Some time later, while checking the
boiler, the owner, Lloyd Johnson, found bones.
The man was no longer there. All that was left
was a bloody suitcase. This building is currently
used as the Eads Home, a residence for mentally
disabled adults.
13
Flower Shop
Built 1915-1920. It was a number of different
businesses but served as Wissels Dry Goods from
the late 1950s to the early 1980s. It is now
Teresas Flower Shop.
14
Murdocks Building
Built 1915-1920. It was Schoggens Grocery Store
owned by Fern Schoggens. It was open from 1950s
to the late 1970s. In the 1980s there was an ice
cream shop in this building for a short time. It
is currently used for storage by Dave Murdock.
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Station by Underpass
Old Texaco building owned by Laura Greenwood.
16
Post Office
Built about 1915-1920. It has been remodeled
into the United States Post Office. Prior to
that, it was a cafe and the entrance was on the
angled corner of the block.
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Kelly Hardware
It was Millers Hardware in the 1930s. After
that, Chet Kelly owned it until the 1970s. It
has been vacant ever since and is used for
storage. The 20th Century Commercial Design of
the building is outstanding, particularly with
the decorative brick above the large windows and
door.
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Video Store
Built about 1915-1920. This was Crows Grocery
Store during the 1920s and 1930s owned by Clyde
and Bernice Crow. It is now a video store called
Flix that is operated by Charlie and Mary
Vasquez. George Crow owns the building.
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Fischer Station
Built in 1950 by Leonard Fischer. It was used as
a gas station and a garage. It closed in the
1980s. Since then it has been used for storage.
It was recently bought by Steve and Marilyn
Baxter who are fixing it up in order to provide a
usable building on Highway 287.
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Town Hall
The City Hall of Eads was dedicated on Oct. 7,
1937 and was built by the Works Progress
Administration workers. It was remodeled in
order to add a meeting room and additional office
space in 1993.
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Schools
The Elementary Gymnasium was built in 1927 and is
in outstanding condition. This building was used
as classrooms, a theatre, and gymnasium in the
past. It is now used by the school for
elementary PE classes and weighlifting
The Prairie Queen School was moved from rural
Kiowa County to be used as the Golf Course Club
House outside of Eads.
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Schools
Built in 1938 to replace the three-story school
building that burned down. First grade through
high school used this building until 1962 when
the high school was built. It is now the K-8
Elementary building and also houses the Eagles
Nest Preschool.
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Churches
Built in the 1920s. It is the oldest and largest
church in Eads. It is the Methodist Church and
is located on the corner of 11th and Goff.
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Homesteads
Kirby Homestead
Galatea Homestead
Built about 1908, and it is located about five
miles east of Eads.
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Homesteads
Weber Homestead
Homestead west of Eads
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Cemeteries
Built in the 1920s. The Eads Cemetery was moved
to this location from the Jacksons pond area.
It is controlled by a local cemetery board. Paul
Simmons is the caretaker. The Weber family
donated a gazebo and plot map that is located in
the middle of the cemetery. The stones face west
and sit on a hill.
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Towner Bus Tragedy
In 1931, 20 school children from Pleasant Hill
School, located between Towner and Holly, were
trapped on a makeshift bus during a 33-hour
blizzard. Five children and the bus driver died
on the lonely plains of Kiowa County in that
blizzard, and the event was broadcast via
newspapers and radio across the nation. There is
a marker that shows the spot the bus stalled
located in extreme eastern Kiowa County.
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Sand Creek Massacre Site

• Located 10 miles east of Eads
• Site of the 1864 massacre of Cheyenne Arapaho
  Indians by Colonel Chivingtons troops
• National Park and Monument

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Looking Ahead
This concludes the list of historical places in
the Eads and Kiowa County areas. Some of these
places need a little bit of work and could
definitely be used for something constructive in
the future. Other buildings have begun to fall
in on themselves and are barely standing. There
are several ways, though, that some of these
buildings can be repaired and used. There is no
sense in letting Kiowa Countys history go to
waste. There is much to see and much that can be
learned.
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Preserving Kiowa Countys History

• The first thing that should be done to save some
  of the buildings in town is to establish a
  historical district, especially for the buildings
  on Maine Street. The downtown buildings could be
  repaired and used for small businesses, such as
  an ice cream shop, coffee shop, antique store,
  etc. Some of the other buildings could be
  repaired and staged as they were when they were
  first opened. They would be simply a place to go
  look at. There would be small pieces of Kiowa
  Countys history in all of them and would be very
  interesting.
• Also, with Jacksons Barn and a small cemetery on
  the dump road so near each other, there could be
  a trail from one to the other. The barn could be
  used to show historical artifacts and such. It
  could be simply a place of interest.
• Create a Homestead Heritage Tour in the county by
  saving the old homesteads and making them
  historically accurate places where tourists could
  learn about homestead life.