2102 Goss St. - James and Martha Hall

Martha and James Hall moved to Boulder from Kansas with their three children in 1876. They may be the first recorded Black citizens to live in Boulder [although records were not maintained then as they now are]. Colorado had the reputation of being less discriminatory than Kansas, so they made our way farther west.

James was a former slave in Missouri and a soldier in the Union Army which always made his family proud that he fought for their freedom. His father was actually Irish.

In 1882 the Halls purchased the house at 2102 Goss Street from Robert Culver who had purchased part of the Goss Farm which he subdivided into what is called Culver’s Addition. They went on to buy other lots in the area during the 1880s. James worked as a plasterer.

In about 1890 they built a small house for their son Frank next door at 2118 Goss Street shown in the third photo above. It was a two-room “hall and parlor” house. The hall was the main room—a kitchen and sitting room combined—while the parlor was the private room, or the bedroom. 2118 had some additions during the years—as you can see in the photo--but was torn down a few years ago because of its poor condition.

James died in 1921, and Martha lived on until 1930 when she died in a fire in her house caused by her son Frank’s cigar. That is why the 1948 assessor’s photo of the house, the second photo above, does not show it the way it was when the Halls lived there. James and Martha lie side by side along 9th Street in the Columbia Cemetery.

Directions to Stop 4: Stop 4 is across 21st Street from Stop 3 on the southwest corner of 21st and Goss streets.