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Louisville Historical Museum <br />Department of Library& Museum Services <br />City of Louisville, Colorado <br />July2016 <br />La <br />City0r <br />Louisville <br />COLORADO • SINCE 1878 <br />920 Lincoln Avenue History <br />Legal Description: Lots 18 & 19, Block 2, Pleasant Hill Addition <br />Year of Construction: 1939 <br />Summary: The Barretta family first owned this home, followed by the Kasenga family, who <br />owned it for nearly forty years and were closely involved with the St. Louis School and St. Louis <br />Catholic Church that were, and are, just steps away from the house. <br />Development of the Pleasant Hill Addition; Date of Construction <br />The subdivision in which this house is located, Pleasant Hill Addition, was platted in 1894. It was <br />developed by Orrin Welch, the half-brother of Charles C. Welch, the man who started the <br />Welch Mine and played a prominent role in the founding of Louisville. <br />The block on which 920 Lincoln is located developed differently from other blocks in Old Town <br />Louisville. The St. Louis Catholic School at 925 Grant Ave., located just to the east of 920 <br />Lincoln, was a significant presence on the block beginning in about 1906. A few houses were <br />also constructed on the south side of the east side of the 900 block of Lincoln. The St. Louis <br />Catholic Church was located at 833 La Farge from about 1886 until 1940, and the corner at 901 <br />Grant is believed to have been vacant for several decades. The St. Louis Catholic Church was <br />constructed at 901 Grant in 1940. <br />With the St. Louis School operating at 925 Grant, much of the vacant land around it was used <br />for school playground purposes. This would have included the lots to the south of the school as <br />well as the lots to the north of it and behind it. Louisville residents remember dirt lots, at times <br />covered with red ash, that the St. Louis students played on. Also, there was no alley between <br />the school and the empty playground lots along Lincoln, unlike today. <br />The following excerpt from the 1909 Drumm's Wall Map of Louisville shows the lot numbers <br />and then -existing structures on the block on which 920 Lincoln is currently located: <br />1 <br />