Early Mead Businesses

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1911 Business Directory for Mead (PDF file)

For a little over 20 years, Mead was a bustling community. At its peak the town had three general stores, a hotel, a combination grocery store and meat market, two saloons, butcher shop, filling station, two auto garages, farm implement company, two livery stables, a lumberyard, blacksmith shop, drug store with the post office in the back, lunch room, pool hall, bowling alley, hoe and harness repair shop, bank, newspaper, Ford car dealership, pickle factory, hay mill, pea hulling factory, Kunner's cucumber factory, library, movie theater, shooting gallery, fire department, at least one lawyer, and two doctors offices. 

In this photo, you can see Main street from about 1971. Clarks Lumber is on the right. The brick building on the left is the old Mead Town Hall and Assembly room. further down on the left you can see the Snider building, then the old M S Adams.

The original Main street was on 3rd street, now called Weld County Road 7. Most of the stores and businesses were located on the east side of the road as they were not subject to the "dry" clause in the property deeds that forbade the use or selling of alcohol beverages on land that lay within Paul Mead's original platted town. The first ordinance of the town addressed the need for liquor licenses for these businesses and at the same meeting that the ordinance was passed, three out of the seven applicants were awarded liquor licenses. The license was good for only six months after which the town trustees would revisit the matter.

In 1963, Pansy Ballinger remembered that the town was first built on Third Street (now WCR 7) and contained a store, saloon, barber shop, jail, livery stable, drugstore, hall, and a hotel. Sometime after 1910, businesses started moving up 4th St. which in now the present Main St.

The Colorado Telephone Company was granted a franchise for 25 years in Sept. 1908. This was the first direct line phone service in the whole state of Colorado.

In March 1914, the Town Board signed a contract with George Sethman for the construction of the Municipal Water Works system. They voted $11,000.00 of bonds for this purpose. People paid $5.00 for a year for each cistern and $1.25 per year for each lot for water used on the garden, trees or lawn.

The first fire hose was bought April 1915 from Eureke Fire Hose Company. This was reportedly in use up until the early 1960s. 

The first electricity was furnished by Western Electric and Light and Power Company in Oct. 1915. 

The town Library was was started by the Rev. Slatterback, pastor of the United Brethren Church. Mrs. Hazel Trimble and Mrs. Beulah Baxtrum served on this board. Books were collected and the library was kept open by the Extension club donating their time. After being closed for several years, the books that were still usable were given to the school. In 1961, the rest were sold and $96.00 was given to the Mead School for a card file cabinet to be used in their library.

The town lost most of its businesses in the early 30s during the Great Depression. By 1938, when the Depression was finally over, few new businesses started, and the older ones who survived, no longer carried large stocks of goods. To make make matters worse for the businesses, automobiles now made it more possible for people to easily run into Longmont, Berthoud, or Platteville to trade, bank, and see a doctor.

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