Mcnary-chalfant House on its way to landmark status
Home built at cherry orchard in 1920
Loveland’s City Council gave the first nod to designate the Mcnar y-chalfant House as a historic landmark Tuesday, which would cement the centur y-old building’s place in the histor y of Loveland’s cherry industry.
Built by Norah and Henr y Chalfant in 1920 next to the prolific cherry orchard once owned by Norah’s father, W.P. Mcnar y, the house today stands as a monument to Loveland’s rural past at the busy midtown intersection of Eisenhower Boulevard and Garfield Avenue.
Nikki Garshelis, staf f liaison to the city’s Historic Preser vation Commission, said the motivation for preser ving the Mcnar y-chalfant House and other significant buildings is maintaining Loveland’s sense of place.
“Not only is it an educational resource, but it also preser ves these structures that are part of Loveland’s histor y,” she said. “This house, for example, is completely unique to Loveland, and it helps give us our sense of histor y. It’s connected to our past and the cherry orchard industry, to Mcnar y and to World War II, when the industry was sort of phasing out.”
If the council votes once again to approve the designation on its consent agenda March 16, the house will be protected against demolition or renovations that could damage its historic and architectural value. The home’s neighbor to the nor th, the KelleyCoffman House, earned its local historic landmark designation in 2018 as well as a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
The Chalfants built their home in the Prairie School style of the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, which is characterized by horizontal designs meant to imitate the treeless landscapes of the American Midwest. Garshelis said the building is one of just three Prairie School homes built in Loveland.
Architectural features such as the house’s hipped roof and broad, overhanging eaves are typical of the school. At the same time, its simple design and long, low-pitched roofline are more characteristic of the American Ranch style that was emerging at the time.
W.P. Mcnar y acquired the cherry orchard that became the site of his daughter’s home in 1911. In a presentation first delivered to the Historic Preser vation
Commission by city staf fers, Mcnar y was described as a Civil War veteran and retired Presbyterian minister who went on to become one of Loveland’s most successful cherry growers.
The city’s cherry business boomed in the late 1920s — at one point, Loveland was said to boast the largest orchard west of the Mississippi.
Henr y and Norah Chalfant lived in their home from 1920 until 1957, long enough to watch the cherry industry decline, with a crop-killing “hard freeze” in 1954 spelling the end of commercial growing.
The Mcnar ys and Chalfants no longer own the property, but Garshelis hopes the house at 1404 N. Garfield Ave. will continue to tell their stor y, so long as it’s protected.
“The big word is ‘preser vation.’ It would be protected now locally,” she said. “You know you’re in Loveland because of these historic buildings like the Mcnar yChalfant House, or the First National Bank Building, or the El Centro Building. If ever yone understands what it means to retain our identity, we’ll have more of chance to preser ve these places.”