Guide Line Review
History of Globeville, Colorado
Larry introduced Mary Lou Egan, fourth generation Coloradan – who has written a book about the history of Globeville. Globeville is an area of Denver which is bordered on the west at Inca Street (and includes part of the old smelter town of Argo), on the east by the Platte River, on the south by the railroad yards and north by 52nd Avenue.
Mary Lou had a great PowerPoint presentation and gave us a detailed history of the area as well as her family’s involvement. The first slide was a photo of the market at 45th and Sherman taken in 1913 – the Interurban trolley went this far to the north. The photo was of Mary Lou’s grandparents.
The story of Globeville contains themes that are repeated in American history:
• The lure of the West with the promise of mineral riches and homestead land
• The rise and fall of American industry – the smelters, railroads, factories, foundries, meat packing and brick yards
• The struggle of immigrants to maintain their heritage as they try to assimilate
Mary Lou divided the history of the neighborhood into three eras:
• From 1858 to 1878 the region was home to prospectors and homesteaders and primarily rural
• From 1878-1948 to area changed from a rural outpost to an industrial town and home to immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia
• Following World War II, returning veterans could obtain low-cost VA loans on NEW construction and began to move to new suburbs while the construction of two interstate highways displaced people (I-25 lopped off the western edge of the neighborhood, while I-70 cut Globeville in half east to west).
• New settlers, Hispanics and African Americans replaced earlier residents
In 1865 at the end of the Civil War, the country experienced rapid growth in manufacturing and investors looked for sources of cheap labor. Beginning in the 1870s, industries recruited immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia. Political unrest, a shortage of land, economic uncertainty, religious persecution and conscription motivated people to escape to America.
Early gold discoveries were “free” gold, flakes and nuggets that appeared in the streams. By 1864, the “free gold” was gone, and a process needed to be found to separate the metals - gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead - from the ore. In 1867, a professor of chemistry by the name of Nathaniel P. Hill perfected a process to release the ores, and built a smelter in Black Hawk – the Boston- Colorado Smelter.
• In 1878 a bigger plant was built north of Denver near the junction of the Colorado Central and Denver Pacific Railroads and a company town was started. This town was called Argo, named for the ship in a Greek myth, “Jason and the Argonauts” sailed by Jason as he searches for his birthright, the Golden Fleece. The Boston and Colorado was destroyed by a fire in 1906.
• In April, 1882 James Benton Grant rebuilt the Omaha and Grant Smelter, which had been destroyed by a fire in Leadville on land east of the Platte River (where the coliseum is today). The Grant Smelter was the largest in the area and closed in 1903. In November of 1882, Grant was elected Governor of Colorado.
• In 1889 the Globe Smelter was opened – it lasted longer. A metallurgist, Edward R. Holden, devised a way to release the ores. This system used enormous heat, and caustic chemicals like arsenic and cyanide – people developed silicosis from breathing these fumes.
• In 1899 the Globe and Grant smelters joined the smelter trust (American Smelting and Refining Company, ASARCO) to control the costs of transportation, ore and labor. The railroads and mines also jointed this trust.
• During WWII, the Globe was the nation’s largest supplier of cadmium.
Other industries in the area included working with sugar beets (generally from February to November), meat packing (close to the stock yards), smelters, and railroads. Many women were domestics or worked in a commercial laundry, and there was a box factory.
In the 1880s the people who settled were Swedes, Southern Slavs (Catholics who used the Roman alphabet), Poles, Volga Germans (Russians), and Orthodox Slavs (Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians, Ruthenians, Carpatho-Russians) who were Orthodox and used the Cyrillic alphabet.
In 1891 Globeville voted to incorporate. The first mayor was William Hanford Clark, who had arrived in 1858 and he headed a very diverse City Council.
1893 saw the Silver Panic (Sherman Silver Act repealed and the US returned to the gold standard) and a national Depression.
In a 1901 history of Denver by Jerome Smiley, he said that the new immigrants don’t speak English and were not assimilating. These immigrants stayed to themselves in ethnic enclaves. Most did not travel much until WWII when many were shipped off to war in Europe and in Asia.
Mary Lou distributed maps of the Globeville area and gave us a short description of each numbered spot on the map:
1. The Friedens Evangelical Church at 45th and Lincoln (founded in 1915) the congregation may have formed as early as 1889 by immigrants from the village of Doenhoff. This congregation had a German-speaking pastor until 1960 when the church closed. Since 1965, the building has been home to the Greater Harvest Church of God in Christ, an African-American church.
2. Garden Place School – built in 1882, bricked in 1902, added on to in 1923 and is still there. This school had many immigrant kids as students and offered citizenship classes.
3. First German Congregational Church (1894) at 44th and Lincoln. The Russians also used the building while building Transfiguration. The congregation moved in 1974 to Arvada and this building is now owned by the City of Denver.
4. 4438 Sherman (1905) – St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – it is now a private residence. The church closed in 1980.
7. St. Jacob’s Croatian Lodge #12 – basically an ethnic fraternal insurance society. (1894). Lodges were insurance organizations who helped out if there were injuries on the job. There were many different lodges, Maximilian Malich, called “the King of the Slavs” arranged to bring over families. All the fraternal orders were supportive of organized labor, the Mill and Smeltermen.
9. Hispanics in Globeville came in the 1960s and 1970s and worked in the packing plants. There are many shrines along the street and religious all-night celebrations. (When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, there were already 11 churches in New Mexico).
10. (1908) – Western Slavonic Association (WSA) – founded in Pueblo, again an insurance agency as well as a clubhouse where members could get a bath, job, place to network. These lodges predate churches. This lodge was here until 1988 when it was moved.
11. Holy Rosary Church (1920) – this building has state historic designation. One of our members, Lupe Duran, lived in the 4700 block and her daughter went to Holy Rosary.
12. St. Joseph’s Polish Catholic Church (1902), which has always had a Polish pastor. Many software engineers moved here over the past twenty years from Poland. The Polish National Alliance came into being in 1889.
13. Argo Park (1880) the horse car line went from here downtown to Union Station. It had a bowling alley, zoo, theater, as well as a dancehall. It now has a Veteran’s Memorial honoring those who served in WWI, WWII and the Korean War.
14. (1898) Holy Transfiguration of Christ Orthodox Cathedral – the church was built through the efforts of several Orthodox fraternal organizations.
After WWII, veterans could get VA loans for 30 years – only on new construction so many people left the neighborhood. In 1948 the Valley Highway (I-25), which ran north and south, was started. In 1958, I-70 was built (runs East-West).
Globeville was annexed to Denver in 1903 and is now part of District 9.
Current Demographics of Globeville:
• 3,700 – population, who earn about 60% of the median income of Denver
• 65% are Hispanic
• 25% Anglo
• African-American – 10% African-Americans originally settle in the Stapleton Housing Projects (now demolished)
• 95% of the school kids get free lunch
Mary Lou showed us a photo of the Hindry Mansion – John Hindry was a cattle owner and built this Italianate mansion in 1873. He also built a playhouse that was a miniature of the mansion in 1878. Smelter fumes destroyed the nearby trees, sickened his cattle and horses and destroyed any hope of building a development of luxury homes. His wife died, his children moved away and he became a suspicious and lonely man. There were rumors that Hindry had riches stored in the house and he became the target of thieves. After several attempted break-ins, Hindry devised a booby trap, killing a couple of would-be burglars. One night, Hindry stumbled over the trap and wounded himself. He recovered, but moved to California in 1906, a bitter man. The house was said to be haunted and many brave Globeville children explored its empty rooms. In 1962, the house was destroyed by an explosion and fire. Bomaretos Market occupies the site today.
---- Nancy Brueggeman
Content copyright 2016. Rocky Mountain Guides Association. All rights reserved.
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WHAT: RMGA DECEMBER 2015 HOLIDAY PARTY
WHEN: December 14, 2015, 6:00—9:00 – networking and sign-in, then a short business meeting to introduce 2016 officers 7:00 -9:00 – enjoy the holidays.
PROGRAM: Holiday Event, presentation of the 2016 officers, and featuring a presentation on the history of Globeville. Our speaker will be Mary Lou Egan – 4th generation Coloradan. She is a member of History Colorado and has also written histories of Globeville as well as Holy Rosary Parish. She is a graduate of the University of Denver and was cited in the 5280 Magazine.
Recommend you print the map of Globeville, if you did not attend the program, in order to follow the write-up where Mary Lou discussed the original buildings and what is there today.
History of Globeville, Colorado