Holyoke's courthouse is a New Deal landmark you can walk right up to

Next time you pass through Holyoke, slow down at 221 S. Interocean Avenue and really look at the courthouse. It is easy to drive by, but the brick building with terra cotta trim is a tidy example of Moderne style, the streamlined, restrained look that gave a small county seat something quietly dignified during hard times.

It went up in 1935, designed by Denver architect Eugene G. Groves and built through the Public Works Administration, one of the federal programs that put people to work during the Great Depression. According to History Colorado, it is the only surviving PWA project in Phillips County and the most intact of all the county’s New Deal work. The building has served as the courthouse without a break since the 1930s, so it is not a museum piece behind a rope. It is still where county business gets done, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

There is a good chance you have stood on its lawn already. Each June, Holyoke’s Dandelion Daze brings a classic car show and crowds to the courthouse grounds, the building looking on the whole time.

To read the history before you visit, see History Colorado’s listing for the Phillips County Courthouse.