The classical Fort Collins structure housing the city’s Museum of Art, long admired by area preservationists, has now won national attention as one of the most beautiful so-called “hidden gems” in the country.
That description comes from the website Love Vs. Design, which surveyed hundreds of public structures nationally before putting the Fort Collins building on its top ten list.
Located in the Old Town section of Fort Collins, the structure was completed in 1912 and originally served as the city’s post office.
The structure, according to the website, “blends classical symmetry with just enough ornament to feel elevated without drifting into grandiosity.”
Located at 201 S. College Avenue, the Renaissance-revival building has two stories and measures just under 16,000 square feet. The site History Colorado has also noted that the rectangular building is comprised of reinforced concrete “faced with limestone.”
Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the building was repurposed as an art museum in 1983 more than a decade after the post office was relocated to another part of the city. It was officially named the Museum of Art Fort Collins in 2018.
A second Colorado building also made the Love Vs. Design list: the Pueblo County Courthouse, which is described as featuring a “Beaux Arts formality with a warm Colorado sense of place.”
Built during a four-year period between 1908 and 1912, the courthouse was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and, according to History Colorado, is “southern Colorado’s largest and most elaborate courthouse.”
The Love Vs. Design listing pays tribute to the courthouse’s stone facade, rising in “strong, orderly tiers,” and punctuated by “carved panels and broad steps.”
The Love Vs. Design listing is the product of a St. George, Utah-based company specializing in custom wall papers and murals.
In selecting the various structures, ultimately numbering thirty-three, the company said it was looking for both grand and odd structures with a style that “tells you something about the era and the people” who built them.
February 10, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy Wikipedia
