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Louisville Historical Museum <br />Department of Library & Museum Services <br />City of Louisville, Colorado <br />November 2008; updated April 2016 <br />Cityof <br />Im Louisville <br />COLORADO * SINCE 187t4 <br />1800 Plaza Drive, Louisville, Colorado <br />According to the Boulder County Assessor's website, the property at 1800 Plaza Drive is owned <br />by Michael Schonbrun & Susan Juroe and occupies "Lot 3 Louisville Plaza 2" in Louisville. The <br />County Assessor's records state that the house was built in 1910. This date has been <br />corroborated by other sources. <br />The photos and map included in this report are from the collection of the Louisville Historical <br />Museum. <br />Northern Colorado Coal Mining Strike of 1910-1914 and the Construction of this Building <br />The building at 1800 Plaza Drive was constructed in 1910. Because of the purpose for which it <br />was built and what it was used for, this structure represents a significant historic period in <br />Colorado and labor history, as it was at the center of events during the Coal Wars in Colorado. It <br />is also one of the last remaining mine structures (that is not a mining camp house) from the <br />coal mines of northern Colorado, of which there were 163. <br />This building is discussed in, and photos of it appear in, the book Once a Coal Miner: The Story <br />of Colorado's Northern Coal Fields (Pruett Publishing, 1989) by Phyllis Smith; the book The <br />Louisville Story (1978) by Carolyn Conarroe; and the film Louisville (1994) about the history of <br />the City, produced by the City of Louisville. This report draws extensively on these sources for <br />information about the labor conflict that relates to this building. <br />Smith writes that in 1910, coal miners in Colorado's Northern Coal Fields, which extended from <br />Marshall to Firestone in Boulder and Weld Counties, earned only about $3.10 a day and the <br />exact amount was determined by the tons of coal that they actually mined. After months of <br />tension and negotiations, during which the union's demands for a pay increase were turned <br />down, a strike was called in April 1910. It has been estimated that 2700 miners in the Northern <br />Fields went on strike. <br />1 <br />