Cedaredge's Newest Historic Plaque Hangs on a Cream Station

On a Tuesday morning in September, the Cedaredge Preservation Board met at Feels Like Coming Home Gift Shop on Main Street. They presented owner Cindy Starr with a plaque adding her building to the Cedaredge Register of Historic Properties. The Delta County Independent posted its story on the dedication on September 26, 2026.

The building at 270 W. Main St. started out as the Bouldin Cream Station, which opened in 1930.

That makes a cream station the newest piece of the register. That fits, because the cream station explains the rest of West Main better than any bank or hotel could. Most of the old buildings in the 200 block were built to take in what the farms around town produced and sell back what those farms needed. Walk the block with that in mind and the street makes sense from end to end.

One Cow, a Little Cash Each Week

In February 1930, cream producers around the Surface Creek Valley started organizing what became the Surface Creek Dairy Products Co-operative Association. The plan was to pool their cream, make it into butter, and sell the butter together in hopes of a better return. By May, the cooperative had taken over the Eckert Creamery.

The cream didn't all come from big dairies. The Delta County Independent's history of the station says many families on small acreages in and around Cedaredge kept a cow or two and a flock of chickens. The milk and eggs fed the family, and any extra cream and eggs could be sold. As the Great Depression set in, a family cow couldn't support a household, but it could bring in a little cash each week.

Bouldin was already buying cream, eggs, and poultry at his feed store next door. In April 1930, he bought the vacant lot beside it and started a building made specifically for handling cream. By the end of May, the cooperative had announced a receiving station for Cedaredge, and Bouldin's station opened that July.

The way it worked was simple. A family separated the cream at home and brought it into town. Bouldin's kept it cool until pickup. Then it went to the Eckert Creamery to be churned into butter and sold through the cooperative. Even a household with one or two cows could take part.

The town paper at the time, the Surface Creek Champion, said the new station had

"ample facilities for the proper care of cream"

and was handling "a vast amount of cream."

The key piece of equipment was a large concrete vat sunk below the floor and filled with water. Ten-gallon cans of cream sat in it to stay cool until pickup.

Why a Few Butter Points Mattered

The cooling vat mattered for a reason you could measure in cents. In September 1930, local producers met in Eckert to learn how the quality of their cream affected the butter made from it. They were told to keep their separators and utensils clean, cool fresh cream right away, and store it properly.

The speaker was Mr. Mitchell, production manager for the Challenge Creamery Association of California. He explained that butter was scored, and higher scores brought higher prices. At the time, butter from the Eckert Creamery averaged a score of about 90, with some batches reaching 91. Butter scoring 93 could bring about eight cents more per pound than butter scoring 89.

Mitchell told the group that good butter started long before the cream reached the churn.

So cold storage in town wasn't a convenience. It protected the price of every can that came in from the farms, which is why the cooling vat was the most important thing in the building.

Reading the 200 Block as a Farm Supply Ledger

The Surface Creek Valley Historical Society's walking-tour brochure has a 1913 photo of the businesses in the 200 block of West Main. The brochure says every building in that photo except the realty office on the far right is still standing. The signs in the photo include "Garage" and "Feed Store."

That walking tour came out of a partnership. In 2022, the Cedaredge Historic Preservation Board joined forces with the historical society, and together they produced an updated tour that includes buildings the town has designated historic.

Many of the stops have a gray "Historic Cedaredge" QR-code sign on the building. Point your phone's camera at it and you get an audio story from the society's historians. You can visit the stops in any order.

Here are the West Main stops listed in the brochure, with construction years where a source gives one.

The 1913 and 1912 dates come from an earlier Delta County Independent report on plaques the preservation board gave to Hawkins Barbershop and the Girardet Feed Store. That report spells the name "Girardet" and notes that the feed store site is now home to town hall.

Bouldin's feed store, cream station, a garage, a hardware store, and a cash store all stood within a few doors of each other. The building where the Champion was printed is on the same stretch. The barber shop and the theater are there too, but most of what lined this block was built to serve working farms.

One building on the list ties the farm story to the founding of the town itself.

The Town Was Voted Into Being at the Lumberyard

The brochure lists a few important historic buildings away from Main Street. One is the Cedaredge Lumberyard at 200 SW 2nd St. The others are the Co-op Telephone Exchange at 140 SW 2nd St., the Rock House at 230 E. Main St., and the Community Methodist Church at 210 NW 3rd St.

The lumberyard has the bigger story. On April 16, 1907, 79 of the 115 eligible townsfolk met at the Cedaredge lumberyard and voted to form a town, the first in the Surface Creek Valley. They elected Charles Blanchard as the first mayor. He ran the Blanchard and Stockham store at 205 W. Main.

The brochure also says the town's first commercial buildings went up along an old Ute trail we now know as Grand Mesa Drive. The last of those buildings, the Wm. Hart Barber Shop and Pool Room built in 1904, was torn down in November 2021.

That loss explains much of why the register and the plaques matter. The oldest strip of commercial buildings in town is already gone, and the 200 block of West Main is what's left.

Where to Start and Where to End

Here's a route that works on a fall morning:

1. Get coffee at Cedaredge Brewin. It's a drive-through trailer in the lot in front of the Antler Collection and Bloom's Grooming at 455 S. Grand Mesa Drive. Owner Ray Vasquez is a Paonia resident, and the Delta County Independent reported in June 2026 that his new trailer had seen early success.
2. Walk the West Main stops from 110 to 260, then continue to 370 W. Main, across from Cedaredge Town Park. The building at 370 was built in 1909.
3. Make 270 W. Main your long stop, since that's where the newest plaque hangs.
4. Finish at Pioneer Town, 388 S. Grand Mesa Dr.

The brochure says the tour leaves out the many historic buildings in Cedaredge that are private homes.

Some of those homes already have plaques. In past years, the board honored houses built by local builder Robert P. James, including 370 NW Third St., 235 SW Third St. (1912), and 370 SE Deer Trail Ave. (1908). They're private homes, so enjoy them from the sidewalk.

Pioneer Town Holds the Rest of the Farm Story

Pioneer Town is a museum of nearly 6 acres, two blocks south of Main Street on part of the old Bar-I Ranch. The historic buildings on the grounds include the Peterson Cabin (1885), the Coalby Store (1906), the Stolte Fruit Packing Shed (1909), and the Austin Train Depot (1909). The three stacked-wood Bar-I silos, built in 1916 and 1917, are on the National Register of Historic Places.

These buildings follow the same thread as Main Street. The Bouldin station held cream until it could go to the creamery. The packing shed prepared fruit for market, and the depot was where shipments left the valley.

The packing shed is also the venue for the society's next event. "Harvest Harmonies: An Autumn Concert with Harps & Hammers" is on Sunday, October 11, 2026, at 3 p.m. in the Stolte Shed. Robin Freed and the Harps and Hammers Ensemble will play show tunes, Celtic jigs, hymns, and a few surprises. Proceeds benefit the Surface Creek Valley Historical Society.

The museum's website lists hours as Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's closed Monday and Tuesday.

The brochure lists admission at $5 to $7, with discounts for children, seniors, and veterans. The site doesn't post a closing date for the season, so check the hours before you go later in the fall.

If you own an old home, barn, or other building in the Cedaredge or Orchard City area that you think belongs on the registry, the brochure asks you to contact [email protected].

Plenty of acreage around the Surface Creek Valley still has a story like the Bouldin cream run behind it: an old milk barn, a packing shed, or a ditch that once watered an orchard. At Needlerock Mountain Realty, we like learning that history alongside the people who own these places, and we're always glad to talk through what an older outbuilding or homestead parcel might be worth today. Find Your Place in Colorado.