804 Walnut St Historic Survey 2000

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Resource Number: 5BL8029 Temporary Resource Number: NIA Architectural Inventory Form (Page 3 of 5) V. HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS 31. Original use(s): Commerce and Trade / Department Store 32. Intermediate use(s): Commerce and Trade 1 Grocery Store 33. Current use(s): Vacant 1 Not In Use 34. Site type(s): Commercial Building / Dwelling 35. Historical Background This building was constructed in about 1906, and was initially owned by Lawton and Nellie McCorkle who ran a general store here. Two years later, the McCorkles moved their business to Second Street (Main Street) where they ran McCorkle's City Market until 1948 when they sold it to Charles and Quentin Thomas. The store at this location, meanwhile, was taken over by Michael and Ora (Massaro) Forte in about 1908 or 1909. The Forte's ran the store - a grocery and general merchandise business - into the early -to -mid 1930s. In the early years, the Forte family probably lived in the rear of the building. After Ora's father, Joseph, passed away, however, they moved into the house across the street at 801 Walnut Street, which had been Ora's childhood home. Michael and Ora, who had been married in 1903, raised a large family during the years they operated the store here. Their children included: Leonard (b. 1904); Lorina (b. 1905); Virginia (b. 1907); Olivia (b. 1909); Alice (b. 1910); Joseph (b. 1912), and Patricia (b. 1923). Ora Forte passed away at a relatively young age in 1937. Michael never remarried, and did not pass away until 1968, at the age of 96. By 1936, the store here at Walnut and LaFarge was being run by Nestor and Alice Soupley, although it still may have had the Forte name. The grocery store eventually closed, and this property became a residence for the Soupley and Benjamin Lippis families. For a while, in the late 1940s, the Pillar of Fire Church held services in the building, while the pastor and his family lived in the rear. In the 1950s, David and Delpha Ruby may have lived here. The building has sat vacant for much of the past thirty to forty years, from the early 1960s to the year 2000. 36. Sources of Information (Boulder County) "Real Estate Appraisal Card - Urban Master", on file at the Boulder Carnegie Library. Conarroe, Carolyn. The Louisville Story, Louisville: Louisville Times Inc., 1978. "Forte" no author, n.d. (Biographical manuscript relating the history of the Forte family, on file at the Louisville Historical Museum.) Polk'sBoulder County Directory [generally published annually], Denver, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City: R.L. Polk and Company Publishers. Polk's Longmont City Directory, [generally published annually], Denver, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City: R.L. Polk and Company, Publishers, 1966 - 1997. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, dated August 1893, November 1900, and August 1908.