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King Self Storage -
707-15 7TH ST
 Print Listing
Historical Name -
Clayton Lumber Co./King Lumber Co.
Style -
No Style
Built Year -
1886-91
State ID -
5WL4103
Description -
Multi-component facility with two-story brick building on west end and one-story section on east. Two-story building has flat roof and cornice with molded and corbelled brick with brackets. Four segmental arch windows on second story have shared sill course (windows are boarded up). Large glazed area on west end of façade has glazed door and large plate glass windows. East of this is storefront with inset entrance flanked by angled walls; door has large rectangular light. Large two-part plate glass windows on either side of entrance are sheltered by fabric awning held by metal braces. Brick below windows; clerestory windows above are covered up. East of this is one-story section, which has side gable roof with shaped parapet on east end and firewall dividing it into two parts. Front (south) of this section has openings filled in with painted brick, central flush panel pedestrian door, and two overhead metal sectional garage doors; vertical paneling around garage door openings. East wall of this section has two glass block openings on upper wall. Wing toward rear has painted brick wall on east and band of covered up clerestory windows above this. The rear wall is painted brick and has a series of sectional overhead garage door openings.
Historical Background -
Sanborn maps indicate that this property incorporates buildings shown on the 1891 map. The lumberyard was not present in 1886, but a two-story building is present, perhaps the eastern section of the current two-story portion. In 1891, this part housed an office with a lumber shed attached to the rear. Both parts of the two-story section of the facility appear on the 1906 map, as well as one-story facilities on the east. (A 1870 two-story building on the western end of the property housed the Greeley Tribune; this building was razed in 1903). The western two-story building (erected between 1903 and 1906) apparently became part of the lumber yard between 1909 and 1918; in the latter year it was a lumber warehouse; earlier the western section held an office (1906) and a plumber (1909).
The 1892-1910 city directories indicate that the one-story part of the facility was the site of the Clayton Lumber Company. The Clayton Lumber Company is mentioned in David Boyd's 1890 History of Greeley and the Union Colony: "There are three firms transacting business in lumber and other building material. W.L. Clayton, who has gone into the business recently, about fifty car-loads." W.L. Clayton was elected to the state senate in 1900. A circa 1900 photograph shows that the eastern two-story building was then the Greeley Produce Company and the western half was a printing company. In 1913 R.E. Mayfield occupied this facility.
Leonard L. King and Matt Preston purchased the Clayton Lumber Company in 1913, creating the King & Preston Lumber Co. Both two-story buildings were part of the lumber company by 1918. Leonard King had been part of the management of Clayton Lumber for four years. King had previously been associated with a lumber business in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and the family had moved to Greeley in 1909. In 1916 King bought out Preston and incorporated under the name King Lumber Co. In 1916, the King Lumber Co. remodeled a one-story brick building as an office; in 1921, the two-story building to the west was remodeled as a store and office by the company. Leonard King retired and moved to California in 1925. His three sons, Earl, Neil, and Leon, then bought the business. Earl King became president of the company in 1925. In 1931, the company expanded, opening a branch at Loveland managed by Neil King. W.D. Farr notes that the lumber yard also sold a lot of coal. The corner next to the bean warehouse (the east end of this building) was used to store cement. The family-owned business was still in operation at this address in the 1970s. Today the facility is known as King Self Storage.
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