There is this brick building on West Mulburry Street. It looks abandoned. It’s an historic building in Fort Collins:
The Grange Hall
Granges were originally estates belonging to English feudal lords but in the U.S. a grange was a meeting place for farmers and their families.
The “Empire” Grange
Like the Left Hand Grange we visited in Niwot, the early granges helped establish land grant colleges and promoted electric/telephone services into rural areas. Organized in 1904, the grange hall was completed in 1912 built from bricks left over from the construction of the local sugar factory. Lee Maxwell‘s grandfather Robert Maxwell donated the land.
And in the basement of the Empire Grange:
Central Heating
Provided by this Detroit Stove Works Jewel Gravity Hot Air Furnace. The Detroit works made furnaces like this from 1880 to around 1920. It looks to have been converted to an oil burning furnace in the 1950’s. Behind the furnace is a (more) modern natural gas forced air furnace that heats the building today.
Also in the basement
Some dancers getting ready for a dance upstairs.
A light saber dance
Apparently on some evenings there is folk dancing at the Empire Grange. On this particular evening the female dancers wore Princess Leia Slave costumes.
