Grand County Administration Building - Hot Sulphur Springs CO

City:: Hot Sulphur Springs, CO
Site Type:: Courthouses (State & Local), Civic Facilities
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
Started:: 1937
Completed:: 1938
Designer:: Robert K. Fuller
Contractor:: Amoul Jones
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Public Works Administration (PWA) lent Grand County $33,750 to help build a new county courthouse in Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado, in 1937-38—now the Grant County Administration Building. The project’s total cost was $75,733. (PWA Docket No. CO 1060-R.)

The Grand County Courthouse, designed by Robert Fuller, is a good example of the Classical Moderne style popular at the time. The exterior of the two-story structure is clad in yellow brick. The central section is slightly elevated and projected forward, with suggestions of flanking columns, and the two wings have four rows of windows.

An annex was added to the courthouse in 1969-70 that closely followed the style of the old building; it was designed by Fuller & Fuller Architects. Subsequently, a new courthouse was built behind the old one – which then became the County Administrative Building.

There is a very nice display inside the building of its history, with photographs and plaques, but, curiously, there is no plaque or mention of the PWA’s role in financing the courthouse.

Source notes

Record Group 135: Public Works Administration; Projects Control Division; Entry 52: Indices to Non-Federal Projects; Report No. 5: Status of All Completed Non-Federal Allotted Projects, page 161.

Plaques and photographs at the site

Site originally submitted by Joan Greer on July 24, 2022.