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The Sulphide Building

Known as the Handy & McGee Block, this building was erected by William B. McGee & N. F. Handy in 1891 to house their wholesale and retail grocery business. The architect was D.A. Bradbury who used the 19/20th Century American Movements/ Commercial Style. Red stone, golden pressed brick, and metal cornice were the materials used. McGee came to Colorado from Massachusetts hoping to cure his asthma. Handy, also from Massachusetts, came to Cañon City in 1882 as a youth of 18 due to his health. Handy and McGee were the Fremont County agents for John Deere plows and agricultural implements.  While not one of the fancier buildings downtown, it has some distinctive architectural elements such as the decorative cornice which replaced the parapet in a 1901 remodel when the building was sold to Lyman Robison for $19,000 and renamed “Sulphide Building,” after another of Robison’s mines. There is a band of foliate cutout sand-fluted brackets, decorative insets and a corbel table terminated by band pellet molding. The upper facade is divided into four bays by brick pilasters with stone trim and vertical grooves.

A series of grocery stores and meat markets operated here. The 1895 Sanborn map shows the YMCA and other offices on the second floor. The YMCA moved and the Cañon Business College occupied the second floor by 1930. The school eventually moved to bigger offices; and rooms have been home to doctors, lawyers, and other various professionals over the last few decades.