About Us

Company Founder R. E. Sloan was an  officer during the Civil War in Union General William J. Palmer’s 15th  Pennsylvania Cavalry. After the war Gen. Palmer moved west to build the  railway for the Kansas Pacific Railroad into Colorado. He sent for Sloan  to assist him. Sloan, with a young family and a business in Pittsburgh,  declined his old commander’s request by demanding terms he was certain  Palmer would reject. However, Gen. Palmer wired him back, “Come  immediately.”
 

Sloan went on to spend twenty years on the Eastern  Slope, largely in the lumber trade. Then, in 1880 Palmer recruited him  to oversee the production and inspection of railroad ties for Palmer's  new concern, the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. To aid him in this,  Sloan recruited a cousin Alec Sullenberger and another Civil War  veteran, T. C. Graden. By July of 1881, Sloan and Graden had lain timber  into the lightly settled Animas Valley. After a brief and most likely  prefunctory negotiation with civic leaders in Animas City, the D&RG  founded Durango as the site of its depot and, more importantly, the  location for an ore smelter. From Durango, Sloan and Graden pushed  northward, into the mineral rich San Juans.

Sloan  and Graden went on to play important roles in the development of  Durango. Graden served two terms as mayor; Sloan's son-in-law and  grandson both served terms as mayor as well. The publicity-shy Sloan  founded the first large mercantile concern in the town, again turning to  Graden, a famously affable bachelor who had pioneered in Animas City,  as the face of the business. By the turn of the 20th century, The Graden  Mercantile Company offered fashionable dry goods and operated a flour  mill, a lumber mill, and a beef packing operation. Sloan moved his home  from Denver and retired in the flourishing town that had been nothing  more than a meadow at a bend in the Animas River when he first arrived  to scout for the railway. He died in 1932.
 

In February 1948, the  Graden Building suffered a catastrophic fire that began in the alleyway  separating the store and the warehouse behind. The structure was  destroyed. R. E. Sloan’s grandson Robert Ayres oversaw the construction  of a new building on the site at the northwest corner of 8th and Main to  be opened by the end of the year. Known as “The Nice Place to Shop,”  Graden’s outfitted generations of Durangoans before closing in 1986. The  building carried on, becoming one of the most desirable retail and  office locations in Durango. ​