Site of a former residential neighborhood (1870 to 1924)

The area between Broadway and the present-day Boulder public library was once a small residential neighborhood that bordered the industrial area of town where ore from the mines was processed. Four of the properties in this neighborhood were located within the boundary of this proposed historic district. Because the area was regularly flooded and near dirty factories, it was an inexpensive place to live, attracting lower income and transient people. Recent research has confirmed that there were houses of prostitution and bootlegging, and short and long-term residents. Here are brief stories of a few of the residents:

1) Mrs. Mollie Gordon moved to Boulder around 1890 and purchased the house at 1034 Water St. (now called Canyon Blvd.), according to the 1900 Census, Mollie was a Black woman born in Missouri in October 1844. A newspaper article from 1891 mentions a well-attended reception at her home on Water Street where she played the violin. Her occupation is listed as "laundress" in the 1900 Census and as a “domestic” in the 1903 City Directory. She lived here until her death in 1904. .

It should be noted that 7 blocks to the east was the primary neighborhood settled by African American residents. It's known as the "Little Rectangle". There is a PocketSights tour of that neighborhood.

2) Maryette Kingsley owned four properties in the area by 1896. She was a white woman born in 1860 in Scotland. She is listed in the 1900 census as a “fancy housekeeper,” a Victorian euphemism for “Madam” in a house of prostitution. This is quite possible, since she paid a fine of $34.30 in August 1894 for costs levied “against inmates of her house” (about $1,200 today's money). Maryette died on July 14, 1902.

3) Emma Birge was born in Iowa in 1858, Emma, a white woman, came first to the community of Valmont and then to Boulder with her parents and siblings. Both of Emma’s parents died in 1898. Emma married twice and had one child, a daughter, who died young. The 1920 census revealed that she could neither read nor write and that she did “housework by the day.”

Just a few words about the demise of this residential area.....there was once a train track that was installed right through this area to bring students to the CU Campus. It required the demolition of several homes. When the design of Central Park was approved in 1924, the city purchased the remaining properties and demolished them.

Proceed to the next stop on the tour around to the front of the Municipal building.