708 Grant Ave History - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Portas are listed as living at different addresses in Louisville on LaFarge and Jefferson when John Porta owned a pool hall. John and Katie Porta were divorced in 1924. Katie is noted later as working as a telephone operator in Denver in a 1926 directory. Lena Mossoni came to the US from Italy in 1902. She was married to Giuseppe "Joseph" Mossoni (1863-1923) who owned a grocery store in Louisville. The Mossonis are also associated with different addresses in Louisville and it is likely they did not live at 708 Grant. Giuseppe died in 1923 which may have led Lena to sell the house to Florence Smith. Lena Mossoni is listed in the 1930 census as living with her daughter Margaret in Los Angeles, CA. Florence May Summers Smith and Fultz Family Ownership, 1923-1986 Florence Summers (1897-1985) was born in Kansas and moved with her parents to Louisville in 1902. They returned briefly to Kansas and then moved back to Louisville in 1914 where her father (Plez Allen Summers) worked as a coal miner. The Summers family lived on Pine St. in Louisville and Florence married a coal miner, John Smith (1893-1920) in 1917. They had a one- year -old daughter, Evelyn, and Florence was pregnant when John was killed in an accident at the Acme Mine in 1920. Their son, named John, was born a month after his father's death. In 1923, Florence purchased the house at 708 Grant from Lena Mossoni for $100. It is unclear whether Florence lived at this address then but in 1925, she married Benjamin Franklin Fultz (1900-1965) who had moved to Louisville in the 1920s from Frederick, CO to work as a coal miner. They were married at the First Baptist Church on the corner of Grant and Pine. The Fultzes lived at various addresses in Louisville, including different houses on Grant St. and may have rented out the property at 708 Grant for about 10 years. Members of the United Mine Workers First Aid Team, 1936. Frank Fultz is the third person from left. Sometime in the 1930s, the Fultz family moved into 708 Grant with Florence's children Evelyn and John living with them into the 1940s. Frank Fultz worked as a miner and coal hauler and both he and Florence were active members of the Baptist Church. Frank passed away from a