John & Mary Felderman Farm, Northeast Corner of County Roads 56 & T, Clarkville, Yuma County, CO

Significance: The John and Mary Felderman Farm, located on the high plains of eastern Colorado in Yuma County, is a small family farm. The farm was established in 1906 and was operated by the Feldermans for almost four decades. The farmstead includes a 1912 hipped roof cottage with Victorian-style porch and dormer detailing, a large, gabled, wood frame barn, root cellars, shed, stable and well pump house. The Feldermans were unusual in that they raised horses rather than the traditional dryland crops and cattle. When the market for draft horses was replaced by vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, the farm owners adapted to other operations, including grain and beef cattle production, hog-raising and dairying. The Felderman Farm illustrates the adaptive nature of the high plains farmers of Yuma County, Colorado. Adaptation to the harsh, dry environment was and remains a common pattern in the history of the area of the Felderman Farm. In addition, the Felderman Farm house is an example of the late nineteenth century vernacular hipped cottage. The east (rear) and west (front) sides give the appearance of a hipped cottage and demonstrate a clear connection to one of the Colorado plains stylistic traditions of the closing years of the nineteenth century. However, the house is actually a combination of two such building forms connected by a central section that served as a living room larger than those typical of the earlier hipped cottages.
Survey number: HABS CO-129
Building/structure dates: 1906- 1912 Initial Construction