615 Jefferson Ave Historic Survey

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Resource Number: 5BL 11290 Temporary Resource Number: 157508434004 34. Site type(s): Urban residence 35. Historical background: This building is part of Jefferson Place, the first residential subdivision in Louisville. However, it was constructed much later than others in the subdivision. This property at 615 Jefferson has a connected history with that of 613 Jefferson (5BL11289) and has had several different owners. Boulder County gives 1967 as the year of construction for this property. The dates given by Boulder County have sometimes been found to be in error with respect to historic buildings in Louisville, and 1967 could have been the date of a remodel of the house. A 1965 building permit is on file for this address. No separate 1948 County Assessor card for this property was found, although the card for 613 Jefferson, which was first filled out in 1948 and then apparently updated in the 1950s, indicates through changes in the legal description that there was a period when the parcels at 613 and 615 Jefferson were owned by the same owners (to be described in more detail below). A listing found in the Louisville Historical Museum of addresses and owners relating to the installation of curbs and gutters in this neighborhood, believed to date from the 1950s, indicates the address and owner of 613 Jefferson but not 615 Jefferson. A review of a reverse directory created from the 1952 Louisville directory shows that the 1952 directory did not list this address. The property in question is outside of the boundaries of the Sanborn Maps that were done for Louisville in 1893, 1900, and 1908 (the maps focused on the downtown business district and La Farge Avenue only). The house does not appear on the 1909 Drumm's Wall Map of Louisville or on the Methodist Church map of Louisville that dates from the early 1920s, though the houses on both sides of it, 613 Jefferson and 617 Jefferson (5BL11291) do appear on these maps. Based on the evidence, it appears that the property was vacant until the current house was built in ca.1965 or 1967. The earliest property records relating to this parcel could not be located in the online Boulder County property records. For unknown reasons, the original transfer from Jefferson Place developer Charles Welch could not be found. In 1952, Margaret Gordon purchased this property from the Boulder County Treasurer. The fact that it was owned by Boulder County could indicate a default situation that would make the chain of ownership more difficult to trace. Also, the fact that there was apparently not a house here in the first half of the 1900s means that there was not a house address that could lead to a listing of the owner or resident in Louisville directories. The same year that she acquired it, in 1952, Margaret Gordon conveyed this property to Charles and Lena Metz. The Metzes had just purchased 613 Jefferson next door the previous year. Charles (born around 1881) and Lena (born around 1887) Metz lived in Lafayette before moving to Louisville. Louisville directories show them living at 613 Jefferson during their ownership. Charles Metz was a member of a prominent pioneer family of this area. 1965, Charles and Lena Metz conveyed the lots that make up both 613 Jefferson and 615 Jefferson to Mabel Sandy Sahm, a widow who had just lost her husband, Donald, that year. Charles Metz also himself died in 1965. The following year, in 1966, Sahm transferred the property at 615 Jefferson to her sister and her sister's husband, Auncy and John Venette. It appears that the two properties have had separate owners since 1966. (However, the Venettes are not listed in the 1966 Louisville directory as yet being residents at the address of 615 Jefferson.) It is believed that the two sisters, Mabel and Auncy, lived next to one another for about twenty years. The Sahm family would own 613 Jefferson for 41 years. 3