801 Spruce St Historic Survey - Laserfiche WebLink

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Resource Number: 5BL 11320 Temporary Resource Number: 157508415008 41. Level of significance: NA National State Local — 42. Statement of significance: This house is associated with the historic development of Louisville as one of the early homes in Louisville's first residential subdivision, Jefferson Place. The property is significant for its association with European (Austrian, German and Italian) immigrant coal -mining families who flocked to Colorado's coal mining communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in search of economic opportunities they could not find in their own countries. Its first owners and long-time residents Leopoldina and Peter Fiechtl were German and Austrian immigrants. Peter and his sons, who grew up in this house, were coal miners, like many other Jefferson Place residents. The Fiechtl family owned this house, and 817 Spruce to the east, for at least 43 years. The subsequent owners, Peter and Savina Zarini were immigrants from Italy who also owned the house to the north, 804 LaFarge. Peter was a coal miner. Many properties in Jefferson Place were associated with the Zarini family. 801 Spruce remained in the Zarini family for over sixty years until 2005. 801 Spruce is also significant as a particularly intact surviving example of a small vernacular Louisville miner's cottage. While other examples of this local type exist in Louisville and in Jefferson Place, most have been more extensively altered. The house would be a contributing structure to a State Register and local historic district, as well as to a potential National Register historic district. 43. Assessment of historic physical integrity related to significance: The property's overall integrity is very good. The house has integrity of setting and location. Its integrity of association with the Jefferson Place subdivision is intact. Integrity of design is high, compromised only by an enclosed porch on the east side. Integrity of materials is high relative to other properties in Jefferson Place. The original wood siding is still in place. Many, but not all of the windows are the original wood sash windows. The roofing has been changed from the older wood shingles (noted on the 1948 Assessor card) to the present asphalt shingles. Integrity of workmanship and feeling are intact. VII. NATIONAL REGISTER ELIGIBILITY ASSESSMENT 44. National Register eligibility field assessment: Eligible Not Eligible X Need Data 45. Is there National Register district potential? Yes X No Historic District Potential: This building is contributing to a State Register or local historic district, and contributing to a potential National Register historic district. There is also potential for a small State Register historic district comprised of the extended Zarini family residences on the 800 block of LaFarge. Discuss: This building is being recorded as part of a 2010-2011 intensive -level historical and architectural survey of Jefferson Place, Louisville's first residential subdivision, platted in 1880. The purpose of the survey is to determine if there is potential for National Register, State Register or local historic districts. Jefferson Place is eligible as a State Register historic district under Criterion A, Ethnic Heritage, European, for its association with European immigrants who first lived here and whose descendants continued to live here for over fifty years. The period of significance for the State Register historic district is 1881 — 1980. Jefferson Place is potentially eligible as a National Register historic district under Criterion A, Ethnic Heritage, European. However it needs data to determine dates of some modifications, and to more definitely establish the significant impacts of various European ethnic groups on the local culture of Louisville. The period of significance of a National Register district is 1881 — 1963. Jefferson Place is eligible as a local Louisville historic district under local Criterion B, Social, as it exemplifies the cultural and social heritage of the community. European immigrant families flocked to Colorado coal mining communities, including Louisville, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in search of economic opportunities they could not find in their own countries. Louisville's Welch Coal Mine, along with other mines in the area, recruited skilled workers from western Europe. In the early years before 1900, most of the miners who lived in Jefferson Place came from English-speaking countries. Immigrants from England brought a strong tradition and expertise in coal mining. The English are widely credited with developing the techniques of coal mining that were used locally, and they taught these techniques to other miners. The British mining culture was instilled in the early Colorado coal mines. English immigrants also brought expertise in other necessary skills such as blacksmithing and chain forging. 7