What's New

Do You Know This Building?

Restoration to the back of the Otis Senior Center.

Answers:

1.a) Washington; 2.c) 1915; 3.d) all of the above

This simple wood frame building is located along the main street of Otis, a small agricultural town on the high plains in northeastern Washington county. The town began in the 1880s when the Burlington railroad was laying tracks on its way to Denver. The post office opened in 1886 and the town was platted the following year. In the first five years, the town boasted a train depot, newspaper, bank, drugstore, a lumber company, and a well with a windmill that supplied water to the town and the railroad. The population grew to 150. Eastern Colorado and the Plains states were hit hard by drought in the 1890s, forcing many homesteaders to walk away from their land. By 1900, the town’s population dwindled to 50 with only one business surviving.

However, with the turn of the century came new hope for the plains. State Agricultural Colleges working with state and federal agencies were developing “scientific dry farming” methods that included drought resistant crops, along with new methods of crop rotation, tilling and irrigation. The result was two new homestead acts--one in 1909 that increased claims from a quarter of a section (160 acres) to half a section, and the other in 1916 which again doubled the land of a claim making a full section (640 acres) available to those attempting to farm and ranch on the plains. These acts and a nationwide general economic growth brought another period of prosperity to Otis that continued for almost two decades. Incorporated in 1917, the town reached its peak population of 900 by 1926. However, the Great Depression and the terrible dust storms of the 1930s would cause another decline and by 1933, the population in Otis dropped to just over 500.

This building, constructed by J. W. Kilpatrick circa 1915 during the second wave of prosperity, initially opened as the Crawford Pharmacy. In 1930, William and Lottie Schliesfsky purchased the building and operated it as a variety store for many years. While the ground floor of the building was dedicated to commercial endeavors, the second floor functioned as the first meeting hall in Otis and the scene of musicals, Chautauqua events, and public forums. Vinyl siding once obscured the upper story windows, but a State Historical Fund grant aided in the restoration of the two windows. Schliesfsky’s Dime Store is listed in the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties.