Looking Back At The 1st Building on Fort Collins’ College Avenue

For many years, Fort Collins' College Avenue has been brimming with different businesses.

But it all had to start somewhere.

The first building ever erected on College Avenue was put up by brothers Jay and Clark Boughton/Bouton (note: they went by both spellings) in 1872, according a City of Fort Collins history lesson presented by local historian Wayne Sundberg.

The two-story building had a wood frame. It was located where the current Opera Galleria is today in Old Town Fort Collins.

Jay was an attorney who ran his law office out of the first level of the building. Clark was a writer who ran the Fort Collins Standard newspaper out of the second floor.

Both held important early roles, as Jay would go on to be Fort Collins' first town attorney and Clark became the superintendent of the local school district.

According to Sundberg, their first building was eventually moved and torn down. But their legacy lives on today, with the Opera Galleria located in its place in the heart of Old Town Fort Collins.