C.H. King & Co.

The masonry building underlying what is seen here today was probably constructed in 1900 by C. H. King, an early Douglas merchant, to replace a smaller woodframe structure he had built in 1886 to house his new general merchandise store; and that 1886 structure was, after the FE&MV Depot, the very first commercial building constructed in Douglas. King also has the distinction of establishing the very first tent business in Antelope, the tent town that proved to be the historical precursor to Douglas. Since its original construction, King’s later, 1900 masonry building has passed through a number of owners and several incarnations. Sometime after 1911, he apparently sold out and transferred ownership of the building to another early Douglas merchant, George W. Metcalf, whose dry goods store occupied this location until 1915. Its subsequent owner, Robert T. Gentle, changed the name of the mercantile operation in the late 1920’s to the “Golden Rule,” and the business was operated under that moniker for nearly 60 years, becoming in the process a venerable downtown Douglas landmark. Given the ownership changes, and the local and national economic turns that have come to bear across the century since it was constructed, it is not surprising that the structure today bears almost no resemblance to its original self. At some juncture, the building was widened (toward the north), the original decorative brick parapet was removed, display windows were bricked in, and the front façade was radically altered, to accommodate a massive wooden awning and a modern, prefabricated storefront. And finally, the original brick face of the south façade was concealed beneath the seemingly inevitable layer of painted stucco. King is also credited with founding “C. H. King and Company of Casper,” which later became the Casper National Bank. C.H.’s personal life proved to have a significant bearing on national history in the late 20th century, when Gerald R. Ford, his paternal grandson, became 37th President of the United States.