As Colorado's first main street mall project, this became a prototype for similar projects in Boulder, Denver, and other communities. Mature trees and raised landscape beds border a narrowed, curving street enlivened by outdoor sculpture, fountains, and typical main street stalwarts—a classic, golden brick S. H. Kress and Company store with gilded trim and signage, at 546 Main, and the Decoesque Mesa Theater (1910; remodeled), 538 Main. Verner Z. Reed, Denver mining magnate, financed the Margery Building (1905), 519–527 Main Street, an elegant, two-story red brick with second-story bay windows beneath a roof-top balustrade. Next door is the two-story brick Montgomery Ward store, formerly the Fair Building (c. 1890, William Moyer). The First National Bank (1910), 115 North 5th Street (northwest corner of Main Street), is an imposing cornerstone for the mall. This five-story buff brick structure wears Neoclassical trim, including ornate first-floor pilasters, an exaggerated cornice, and antefixes. Across Main Street is a new Norwest Bank building with a gracefully curved glass entry facade mirroring a shiny chrome buffalo made of car bumpers. A grand stone arch from the demolished Canon Block is now a free-standing sculpture in the Norwest Bank parking lot.
On the former site of town founder George Crawford's home at 362 Main is the two-story, gray brick Reed Building (1908), which housed a J. C. Penney store. In 1985 it became Dinosaur Valley, a storefront branch of the Museum of Western Colorado that exhibits dinosaur skeletons and animated re-creations. Other buildings display terracotta Art Deco detail above newer, lookat-me storefronts.
