540 County Rd History - Louisville Grain Elevator

Home Browse Search

According to the UC-Denver report Eastern Plains and Front Range Grain Elevators of Colorado, citing Convery's biography of Mullen, In an effort to placate suspicious farmers who felt CM&E [the Colorado Milling & Elevator Company] was a monopoly guilty of price fixing, Mullen looked for ways to improve CM&E's image. J.K. instituted several measures designed to reestablish trust in his company. In order to provide a sense of local ownership, subsidiary mills acquired or opened by CM&E were named for the community .... In this connection, it should be noted that the first and longtime name of the Louisville Grain Elevator was the "Louisville Milling & Elevator Company," and it appears to have been selected for the public relations reason noted. Other legal owners of the building were the Northern Colorado Elevator Company and the Colorado Milling & Elevator Company. It was also called the "Denver Elevator" and the words "The Denver Elevators" were painted on the side of the building even while it was owned by the Colorado Milling & Elevator Company. Despite the name changes, all of these companies are believed to have been under the control of John K. Mullen. Date of Construction A review of the available evidence shows that the date of construction of this building was most likely 1905-06. (The Boulder County Assessor lists two improvements located at 540 County Road and gives the date of construction of both of them as 1936. However, the County has sometimes been found to be in error with respect to the dates of construction of Louisville buildings. The 1936 date is clearly not accurate with respect to the Grain Elevator building.) Different reports that have been written about the history of this building have given the dates of construction as 1903, 1904, 1905, and 1908. The 1908 Sanborn fire insurance map for Louisville showed the Elevator and stated the year of construction to have been 1903. However, an examination of the deeds reveals that it was not until August 1905 that The Union Pacific Coal Company sold the property to Peter F. Murphy, who then sold it to J.K. Mullen in October 1905. It seems unlikely that the structure would have been built prior to the transfer of these deeds. Also, in February 1905, the Longmont, Colorado Ledger newspaper reported that "Louisville, in Boulder County, wants a flour mill." While a flour mill is not the same as a grain elevator, the statement suggests that what Louisville may have more broadly been seeking was a way for its wheat farmers to easily get their wheat crops to a mill. The construction of a grain elevator would have fulfilled that need, and the appearance of the item in the Longmont paper could suggest that Louisville did not yet have a grain elevator. The Elevator, and Howard Moore as its manager, were first listed in the 1907-08 directory for Louisville, which could indicate that it was built before 1907. Significantly, the Elevator is not listed in the 1904 or 1906 Louisville directories. (A 1905 directory for Louisville appears to not exist.) For the foregoing reasons, it is believed that the Elevator was constructed in 1905-06. 4