Raso Building
About
461 Main Street, Grand Junction, CO 81501; block: 118, lot: 15, 16.Building was constructed in 1902, two-story brick commercial building with green metal plated facade on upper level. The 5th Street side of the building displays original brickwork of Classical Revival on upper level. The ground-floor level of the Fifth Street side has been covered with pink tile. Brick has been painted white and windows replaced with white painted cement blocks. Large, encompassing display windows are across the front above the display windows. It used to have large "Woolworth" lettering but was removed. George Currie purchased the lot in 1902.
Building History
The Elks Club was one of the first tenants, occupying part of the upstairs for its club rooms from 1903 through 1913. They rejected a first lease offered to them apparently because it was 42 pages long. The Knights of Columbus, train men, and other organizations also used the lodge rooms as sublessees of the Elks Lodge.
Offices were also occupied by Dr. A. R. Taylor, Ramey Bros. Realty Co. and several attorneys including Carnahan & Van Hoorebeke. Van Hoorebeke was founder of the Union Bank and Trust (now Norwest) and original owner of the Latimer House (1003 Main). The Fashion store rented the ground floor space with an entrance at 113 S. 5th Street and remained there until the late 1920s.
A fire broke out on December 1, 1904 destroying the Fashion Store, and most of Carnahan & Van Hoorbeke's law library. This encouraged the City of Grand Junction to move from a volunteer fire department to a professional one.
Other tenants of the building over the years include: Mesa County Building & Loan (A. T. Gormley, ca. 1928), Fraternal Order of Eagles (1931), William Weiser (nephew to W.J. Moyer), and Sam McMullin (1930s). One Polk Directory lists the Ku Klux Klan as maintaining an office in the building during the early 1930s.
The former Currie building has been known as the Raso Building since 1939. A few of the early clients remained upstairs in 1941; Tupper, Smith & Holmes; McMullin & Helman; and Arthur Taylor, physician. By 1956 a store of the F. W. Woolworth chain had moved into the entire ground floor of the building.
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