1631 19th St. - Lillian Wheeler

Lillian Beckley Wheeler, born July 6, 1900 in Tupelo, Mississippi, was the 21st of 22 siblings. Yes, 21 of 22! At 15, she married Thomas Wheeler whose father left him some farmland near Okolona, Mississippi. In 1924, with their son Lidell and daughter Mabel, the family moved to Boulder but kept the Okolona land.

They moved for two reasons. One, Tom had asthma, and his sister Lillie Belle had moved to Colorado where the climate helped her son who also had asthma. Two, the schools were not segregated here, and they thought their children would get a better education.

Did they experience discrimination in Boulder? Well, some. Sometimes the children were teased and called names. But they did not consider it overt like in Mississippi. Lillian participated with the Community Chest and Red Cross, and thought that only being allowed to sit in the balcony of the Curran Theater [now the Boulder Theater] was just silly.

Tom worked as a headwaiter at the Boulderado Hotel, but did not care for it, so he went back to the farm and commuted between there and Boulder, straining the marriage. They bought this house at 19th and Goss—1631 19th Street is the address-- for $2500. When it sold years later it brought $150,000!

Goss Street was somewhat rural then. The Wheeler children would tend to neighbor Sarah Belle Williams’ cow in exchange for milk and butter. At age 39, Lillian decided to get a better education and studied home economics at the state teacher’s college in Greeley, now the University of Northern Colorado. She then decided she wanted to cut hair instead so in 1943 attended the beauty and barber college in Chicago. She received the first female barber’s license in Colorado.

Lillian taught adult education at Boulder High School and sewing to whites, Latinx residents, and Blacks with FDR’s WPA program. She was also busy taking in Black college students like some of her neighbors on the street. In 1945 Lillian moved to Denver to be closer to her children and continued barbering there as depicted in the above photo. Lillian passed away in 1999.

Directions to Stop 14: Walk north on 19th Street to Canyon Boulevard. Then turn left [west] and walk along the south side of Canyon Boulevard to 1718 Canyon Boulevard.