1833 19th St. - Second Baptist Church

Grace Lingham lived in Boulder her entire life, a life centered here around the Second Baptist Church, now boasting colorful murals as an apartment building. Her parents, Frank and LuLu Lingham, came to Boulder in 1899 and first lived with LuLu’s sister Daisy Townsend at 2003 Bluff Street.

Frank and LuLu came from Kansas, both from large families, but their immediate family was small—just Grace, born in 1903, whose portrait is third photo above, and her brother Irving born a few years later in 1908. Frank worked as a laborer for most of the time, but he also had skills in carpentry and masonry. He built the family’s fine brick house at 20th and North Street, now called Mesa Drive. They were proud of that house which was the only brick house in town built by Black citizens. The house was quite a landmark because people traveling north on 20th Street had a prime front view of it--20th Street dead-ended there veering to the left to connect with 19th Street. Unfortunately, the house built by Frank Lingham was torn down a few years ago.

Grace did experience some discrimination growing up but felt like a Black person could live anywhere in Boulder. The family lived in a white neighborhood, and Grace played with white children in the fields behind her house. But Grace recalls that they were not able to be served in some restaurants and the movie theater had a special place for them, and brother Irving who was quite an athlete in high school and at CU, could not eat at some restaurants in towns to which the CU basketball team traveled.

Irving played in the CU symphony as well. He married and opened an upholstery shop at 19th and Pearl streets. Grace never married, and did housecleaning, and lived in the house until she was about 80 years old when she moved to senior housing where she passed away in 2000.

The Second Baptist Church was founded in 1908 by Grace's parents and other Black citizens when Grace was a little girl. The congregation first met in people’s homes, then in a carpentry shop for about 30 years, until they bought the land here at 19th Street and Canyon Boulevard, then called Water Street, in the early 1940s. Congregation members built the church themselves with each piece lovingly constructed. Note the stone work around the doorway. The congregation stayed here until they outgrew it, and in 1991 moved to the current larger location on East Baseline Road.

Grace was church clerk for 31 years, and was proud that her church continued to grow strong with a multi-racial congregation. The building is now a contributing building to the Chamberlain Historic District.

Directions to the next Stop: Stops 17-21 require more walking between stops than the stops you have already visited. If you desire to save those stops for another day or visit them by another mode, you may go directly to Stop 22.

Directions to Stop 17: Walk north on 19th Street and through the small park on one of its sidewalks continuing north to Pearl Street. Then make your way to 2418 Pine Street by way of any of numerical north/south streets and Pearl, Spruce, and/or Pine streets.

Directions to Stop 22: Take the alley back the way you came to 18th Street. Then turn right [north] on 18th Street to the intersection of 18th and Pearl streets. Stop 22 is on the northwest corner of this intersection.