On May 5th, 2023, Jim and Carol Burrill donated the Emma Malaby Grocery, along with the entire parcel of land it is on, which includes a stacked plank shed, barn, and well, to Historic Larimer County. The property had been in Jim’s family since 1906, when his great grandfather, Jacob Collamer, purchased the building from Benjamin Whedbee and hauled it to 313 N. Meldrum from N. College Avenue where it had been originally constructed in 1881 as a photography studio for George Wilkins.

On June 21st, Ron Sladek and Meg Dunn, with a few HLC members in the audience including board member, Sharon Danhauer, presented the property at 313 N. Meldrum to the Fort Collins Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) for a recommendation regarding landmarking the property. The HPC can’t designate a property themselves, but they can recommend that City Council designate a property as a local landmark.

The commission said that the nomination had been very thorough and they agreed with the applicants (HLC) that the property is significant in terms of events, people, architecture, and the potential to yield even more historic information in the future. (There are four areas of significance and a property only needs to be significant in one area to be considered a landmark. 313 N. Meldrum was found to be significant in all four! There is only one other property in Fort Collins that is also designated under all four areas of significance.) The vice-chair of the commission even said that he believed the store is worthy of being on the National Register of Historic Places, and he encouraged HLC to consider pursuing that designation as well.

After a very short discussion, the HPC unanimously passed a motion to recommend the Emma Malaby Grocery property to city council as a locally designated historic landmark. It is not yet known when the item will go before the city council, but if you are interested in reading the nomination form, you can find it in the HPC’s agenda from the 21st. The item begins on page 36 and the nomination form starts on page 39.