Welcome to the CORTEZ CULTURAL CENTER

The E.R. Lamb Building

The Cortez Cultural Center has long been at the heart of Cortez. Located in a 1909 Historic Building, still known today as the E. R. Lamb Building, the current building was erected in 1908 after the Clifton Hotel fire destroyed the Lamb’s first enterprise. Determined that the new building should be fireproof, it was constructed of steel, brick and stucco. The pressed metal facade was shipped by train and wagon from St. Louis. The Lamb Mercantile sold a wide variety of merchandise.  After its closure, the building housed a furniture store, clothing store, sporting goods store and Western wear store, and rented out apartments in the second story. In the 1950s a clothing business once again moved into the building. Always a location of enterprise and public commerce, the building became the home of the Cortez Cultural Center in 1988.

The building has maintained much of its historical integrity, and the Center is currently working with a grant from the State Historical Society to restore the building’s roof.  

In the 1980s the building was known as the C.U. Center and housed offices and a lab for the McPhee archaeological project and Cultural Center. The Center itself was founded by many local residents who were alumni of Colorado University, and this group was instrumental in turning the then empty Lamb building into a Cultural Center. After many ups and downs with fundraising to purchase the building, the Center became the building’s owner in 1991. In the spring of 1991 Buford Wayt designed and started painting the Pueblo Mural on the north side of the building.