Globeville FAM
WHAT: Globeville FAM Tour
WHERE: Holy Rosary School, 4688 Pearl
WHEN: October 18, 2017
ORGANIZER: Michael Pearl, Ph.D., C.I.T.M.
SEMINAR LEADER: Mary Lou Egan; Maryloudesign@comcast.net; 303-584-9812
Agenda
Globeville FAM Tour Itinerary
10:00 Registration, coffee and potica Holy Rosary School 4688 Pearl
10:30 Short description of what’s important – “Globeville 101”
Immigrants and ethnic groups fraternal societies – lodges churches caring for each other – Globeville Day Nursery Globeville Community Center Americanization – Garden Place School Emily Griffith Opportunity School
The War, the Highways, War with the city Displacement A new group of settlers
11:00 Walking Tour – everyone gets a map!
North side
- Holy Rosary - 1920
- St. Joseph’s Polish Roman Catholic Church - 1902
- Holy Transfiguration of Christ Orthodox Cathedral - 1898
- Argo Park – dedicated July 1880 “a Resort”
South Side
- Greater Harvest COGIC/Friedens
- Evangelical Lutheran Church 1965/1915
- Garden Place School
- First German Congregational Church 1894
- St. Paul’s Lutheran Church 1905
- Globeville Community House 1919
- St. Jacob’s Croatian Lodge 1892
- Globeville Day Nursery 1909
- Site of Western Slavonic Association 1908
Return Holy Rosary
2:30 Lunch (On Your Own) Butcher Block Café – 1701 38th St, Denver, CO 80216 www.butcherblockcafe.com 5:00 am ’til 8:00 pm
3:00 Depart Globeville
FAM – October 18, 2017
Gloveville
We met at 10:00 am in the lower level of Holy Rosary School at 4688 Pearl Street, where we enjoyed coffee and potica. Mike Pearl introduced Mary Lou Egan, our guide for the day. Mary Lou is a local historian whose family lived in Globeville and belonged to the lodges.
Mary Lou gave us a brief overview of Globeville, its beginnings and its inhabitants. The original settlers were horse traders, prospectors and the Arapaho. The immigrants who first populated Globeville were recruited from many countries between the 1890s and 1920s and went to work in the smelters, the foundries, brickyards, meatpacking plants and railroads in this area. In 1890 the smelters accounted for 20% of the city’s economy. In 1899 there were 18 smelters, and the men who owned these also owned the mines and the railroads to transport the ore to the smelters. In 1903 there was a big labor strike in Globeville. The Globe smelter was the nation’s largest provider of cadmium in WWII. The pollutants resulted in legal problems for the owners. They were considered “safe” workplaces before the OSHA laws of the 1960s.
Many of these immigrants came from Eastern Europe and Russia. Often they would work for less money than more established Americans. They were considered “of lesser quality” than earlier immigrants from Western Europe, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Many Swedes lived in Globeville. African Americans moved into the neighborhood from 1900-1920 and many are still in Globeville.
These later immigrants established fraternal societies (lodges) where they and their fellow immigrants could meet and socialize and so could their families. The lodges were insurance organizations. The oldest lodge was established in 1889, St. Jacob’s Croatian Hall was established in 1894.
There was not disability pay if the men were injured on the job so the lodges took care of the family and buried you if you died on the job. Many were buried at Calvary Cemetery, now the site of the Denver Botanical Gardens. In 1876 Riverside cemetery was started. The lodges also helped obtain employment, find the family a place to live and helped the immigrants learn English. The lodges were also important to union organizing. Banks would not loan money to immigrants, and the immigrants did not trust the banks so you might obtain a loan from the grocer. They generally married into their own language, religion and culture.
Generally, these immigrants were Catholic or Orthodox, had large families, didn’t speak English and had few skills that would translate into a trade. So these groups socialized together at their lodges or at church and lived in close proximity to one another. There were many languages spoken in the neighborhood – Russian, German, Polish, and various Slavic dialects.
In 1870 the railroads arrived in Denver. In 1878 the Boston and Colorado smelter moved from Black Hawk to the Globeville area. Nathaniel P. Hill (father of Crawford Hill) owned the smelter. Nathaniel P. Hill’s workers did not organize. The town was first called Argo (Greek myth). The next smelter arrived in 1882 (Graham) and the third in 1889. Globeville was incorporated in 1891 and its first town council was diverse.
Historically, Poland was divided in 1772 into three parts: Poland, Prussia and Austria-Hungary. Catholics were persecuted and all men were required to spend a six-year term in the Army. So they came to the United States and settled in the big cities: Cleveland, Chicago and other large Eastern cities. Germans came to the US and settled in lands that reminded them of Germany. Many came to avoid transcription into the Army and many came to avoid the constant conflicts in Europe.
The Russian Revolution in 1911-1917 made these immigrants unwelcome – the fear was that they might be anarchists. After WWI, the largest non-English speaking group was the Germans. In the 1930s, church services began to be conducted in English rather than German or Slovenian. The question became “How do you preserve your culture and still become an American?” The second generation spoke German at home and the 3rd generation spoke English everywhere. All enlisted to serve in WWII.
The neighborhood began to change after WWII. In 1950 the VA made loans on new construction only, so the veterans had to build elsewhere, rather than upgrade the family home in Globeville.
All went to Garden Place School – attended classes from November to April – the rest of the year they were needed to farm or work at home. Often the classes had more than 60 students.
The Valley Highway (I-25) cut off a chunk of Globeville and I-70 cuts the city in half.
Holy Rosary church was established in 1919 and the school opened in 1928. Currently they hold two services in Spanish and one in English each Sunday. It is the newest of the ethnic churches but had Irish Catholic priests. One priest was there from 1921-1959. The building was refurbished in 2009.
St. Joseph’s Polish Church was established in 1908 and still celebrates Polish holidays. The school next door used an old train station as the school until the school could be built. The attending priest here is still Polish.
We visited Holy Transfiguration of Christ Orthodox Cathedral (1898) and Father David gave us a short religious education about the church. The name “Cathedral” is an honorific, the bishop’s seat is in San Francisco. He also showed us many of the icons that are displayed in the church. The icons represent various events in Christ’s life, scenes from the Bible and the spirituality of these saints. The two dimensional view is done on purpose so that the faces always face you.
A shift in political boundaries developed a Greek/Byzantine “uniat”. The Jesuits worked on unity of all sects to knit together. Uniat of the Orthodox Church allows marriage, and use of English. The Greek Catholics used the local language, allowed marriage – Rome objected – hence the division.
We passed by Argo Park – once owned by Zang (Zang Brewing Co.) and it was an amusement park with a small zoo and of course served beer on Sundays.
We walked to the First German Congregational Church (1915) always a German speaking church. Bible-based, had a confessional – work and church were the congregants’ life.
Passed by Garden City Academy (1882) still in use – was originally a one-room school. Added on in 1902 and again in 1923 and then remodeled in 1995. Originally 50-60 students in a class, students spoke many languages, the teachers made home visits. There were also evening classes for immigrants.
Mary Lou gave each of us a map of the area showing the concentration of various ethnic groups and a handout with a general history of the area and the places that we visited. Look for this information on the website.
Written by Nancy Brueggeman
Photos by Winston Walker