Montrose, CO — This week, City Councilors added two downtown properties to the city’s historic register, highlighting their cultural contributions to the history of the Montrose community.
On Tuesday, July 21, City Councilors designated the Lathrop Hardware building, with an historic address of 439 East Main Street, and the E. A. Lee Garage, located at 219 East Main Street, as historic properties.
In his presentations to the council, Senior City Planner William Reis said both buildings qualify for designation because they are each over 50 years old and are associated with the history of downtown Montrose. The City of Montrose’s Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously to recommend the structures for approval as historic properties.
The Lathrop Hardware building was the site of one of the city’s earliest and longest-lived hardware stores. Reis said JB Lathrop was born in 1855 and moved to Montrose from Kansas, where he previously operated a hardware store. When he moved to Montrose, he established the Lathrop Hardware store, which became the largest store of its kind in the Montrose community. Lathrop advertised heavy and shelf hardware including stoves, farm implements, and tinware, according to Reis's research.
Construction of the building was completed by 1890, and initially housed a furniture store. The structure was built using local stone, and remnants of the stonework can still be seen at that location.
Lathrop moved into the building to establish his hardware store in 1899 and sold the business in 1916. Since then, the building has housed a variety of different businesses.
Lathrop died in Montrose in 1943, and his home, also located on Main Street, is listed on the national and state registers of historic properties.
The E. A. Lee Garage is associated with the history of transportation in Montrose, having been an early automotive garage.
Edmund A. Lee was born in 1879 in Kurlesville, Pennsylvania, and came to Colorado with his parents as a baby. His parents had been in the freighting business in Leadville and Lake City and eventually settled on land near what is now known as Olathe, where Edmund went to school. In 1908, he married Maude Corey, and they had three children.
The Lee Garage building first appeared on Montrose fire insurance maps in 1908, described as a brick building with concrete floors that also housed some office space. The property also had an underground gas tank that was used in the automotive business, and a restaurant was located in the building.
Reis said Edmund Lee was involved with the garage until 1929, but the business continued to operate through the late 1950s. By the 1960s, the building had been sold and remodeled and became the town's bowling alley. By the 1970s, the building was remodeled yet again to become an army surplus store.
From 1972 to 2000, the structure housed the popular Jeans Westerner and has hosted a variety of businesses since it was last sold in 2022. The building has been heavily modified from its original construction, according to Reis.
The Lathrop Hardware building and the E. A. Lee Garage are the 17th and 18th structures to be added to the city’s Register of Historic Places since the program was created in the fall of 2019. The criteria for buildings to qualify for historic designation are contained in Section 11-3 of the City of Montrose Municipal Code.
City of Montrose Register of Historic Places:
City Hall: 433 South First Street, added on September 17, 2019
Potato Growers Association Building: 39 West Main Street, added on October 1, 2019
The Missouri Building: 347 East Main Street, added on March 17, 2020
The Block Building: 345 East Main Street, added on March 17, 2020
The former BPOE Lodge Building: 107 South Cascade Avenue, added on November 17, 2020
Montrose Fire Department No. 1 Station: 24 South Uncompahgre Avenue, added on June 1, 2021
Historic Montrose County Jail: 271 South First Street, added on July 6, 2021
Denver and Rio Grande Depot: 21 North Rio Grande Avenue, added July 20, 2021
S.H. Nye Building: 428 East Main Street, added March 1, 2022
Knights of Pythias Building: 33 South Cascade Ave, added November 1, 2022
Montrose Electric Light & Power Co., 44 S Grand Ave, added December 6, 2022
Montrose Radium Ore Sampler: 112 W Main Street, added December 6, 2022
Montrose Electric Light & Power Co. Building, 7 S Townsend Ave, added February 21, 2023.
Methodist Episcopal Church of Montrose, 19 S Park Ave, added August 1, 2023.
Coors Building: 134 North First Street, added September 5, 2023.
Montrose Post Office, 25-27 North Cascade Ave, added March 3, 2026.
Lathrop Hardware, 439 East Main Street, added July 21, 2026.
E. A. Lee Garage, 219 East Main Street, added July 21, 2026.
Learn more about the city’s history preservation efforts at CityofMontrose.org/History.