Barbara Fleming’s Passion for History
Fort Collins native and author shares insight on the history of the town she loves.
Barbara Fleming was born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado, went to CSU, and wrote for the Coloradoan newspaper. She is an avid writer who has published a plethora of books, most of which are based on her hometown roots, and the rich history this city has to offer. She volunteers for the Poudre Landmarks Foundation and hopes that the beauty and uniqueness of the Fort Collins she once knew, can be restored and kept forever.
Q: What sparked your passion for history and especially history about Fort Collins?
A: Well, I grew up here. I am a native and I have lived here most of my life. When I was a child I used to go to the old Pioneer Museum east of the Library on Mathews Street and just spend a lot of time there because it fascinated me. Actually when I went to college I wanted to major in history, that was in the 1950’s, I wanted to be a teacher and I was told I’d never get a job because I’m a woman. So I switched to English, but I have always had an interest in history.
Q: I too am a native to Fort Collins, have you lived anywhere else besides Fort Collins?
A: Yes, my husband and I lived in the Denver area for about 15 years. We moved back here (Fort Collins) in 2000. We retired and I never wanted to live anywhere else. We were fortunate to have housing so we moved back.
Q: What is your connection with the Avery House — how I got in touch with you?
A: I don’t have a particular connection with Avery House, except that I am a volunteer through the Poudre Landmarks Foundation, which is one of Avery House’s Homes. Every year they have a tour, a parade of homes of older, historic houses in Fort Collins, and they have a preview of that with images and information about usually the Monday or Tuesday before the actual tour. So for the last four years I have been doing the historic narrative for that preview.
Q: What do you wish more people understood about the history of Fort Collins?
A: I wish people understood how urgent it is to preserve the history and to preserve some of the buildings. We have lost so many buildings. It was only until about the 1970’s when it really began with the restoration of Avery house, when people here began to wake up to the fact that we were losing historic buildings and we have a unique and charming downtown area that I don’t want to see altered. I had just been reading in the paper about Larimer Square in Denver and how there is a proposal to build high rises there, and people are protesting strongly against that because it would ruin the historic character of it.
Q: If you could describe Fort Collins in the past in one word or phrase what would it be? And Fort Collins now what would it be?
A: I would describe it in the past, as a very contained little town, very insular. The small college, the small town bounded by prospect, hospital road, shields and riverside, it didn’t have much to do with the outside world, so I suppose insular might be a good word.
Now it’s very cosmopolitan.
Q: What inspired you to write multiple books about the history here?
A: Well, I always imagined myself becoming a writer until I realized it is very hard to make a living writing. I have written all my life, for a time I was a journalist and I wrote for the Coloradoan in the 70’s and after that I was a teacher for writing for a long time. I didn’t really have time to do much writing of my own until we retired and then it was history that interested me. For five years I wrote a column for a newspaper called Fort Collins Weekly, which is a free paper, and then I started writing a column for the Coloradoan in 2013. [The column] is called “A Walk Through History”, it’s in the paper every Monday.
Q: Do you still write for them?
A: Oh, yes.
Q: Do you have any plans for future books/topics you want to write about?
A: Well, I’m always writing. I, just last fall, published a sequel to my historical novel, “Journeying”, and I’m working on another book, but at the moment I can’t say when or if it will be published.
Q: What is the most historical landmark in Fort Collins?
A: Well I think that Elizabeth Stone’s cabin, which is on the grounds of what was the museum, the Carnagy building in library park, is the most historic, and yes it is still around. I don’t know how much restoration, if any has been done to it, but it has been preserved.
Q: What is the coolest/most interesting piece of history you know about Fort Collins?
A: Hmm. Well there are many stories. Boy that’s hard, there are so many different stories…
The most interesting story is the whole story of Elizabeth Stone, who came here in 1864 with her husband, and worked at the Fort, Fort Collins was a fort at one time, as a cook. She had a little hotel and cooked for the officers. And then when her husband died, they had come from New York, they were here about a year when her husband died and instead of going back to New York, here she was, a woman in 1865 on the frontier, on her own, she decided to stay there and she became an entrepreneur. She opened a brick mill and a flour mill and she became a beloved member of the community. She lived to be 94. And when she died, all of the church bells in town rang 94 times in her honor.
Q: What an amazing tribute to her. If you could go back in time in Fort Collins, when would you want to go back to and why?
A: Fort Collins was a wonderful place to grow up. It was a small town, it was safe, it was interesting. I spent a lot of time at the library, I practically read every book in the library. The schools were very good. We had excellent teachers, many of whom were maiden ladies because their fiances or whoever, had been killed during the war, and so they were unmarried and they devoted themselves to teaching, and that was their entire life. Many of the teachers who taught at the schools I attended are now namesakes of schools like Shepherdson school, and Tavelli, Bauder, I had Mrs. Bauder. So, I think that the Fort Collins when I was growing up here was really an ideal environment for a child. We had a lot of small businesses, the first major chain we ever had here was a Safeway on College Ave at Mulberry Street. There had been nothing south of that until that time. We had theaters with Saturday matines, we had City Park, although we didn’t have a pool, we swam with the fish in the lake, and there was a nice playground there. Which of course these days would horrify people because it didn’t have plastic equipment with padding on the ground. We had the street car, the street car was one of my favorite things. I rode it all the time back and forth. So, I think that’s where I would go.
I live in a house which was built right after WW ll to house veterans, that’s really when things began to change here. My father lived here for a good number of years with his second wife. After she died, I had got the house. So, I live in an older neighborhood, it has vestiges of the town I grew up in, with the big old trees, the wide streets, and the slower traffic.
Thank you Barbara for your time and your stories.
Find more about Barbara Fleming’s books.
