533 Lincoln Ave History - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Before the death of John Robert Thirlaway in 1932 and before Louisville's address system changed in 1939, the address of the family home at 537 Lincoln was 36 Lincoln Ave. Starting in 1936, Elsie's address began to be listed in directories as 30 Lincoln Ave., different from 537 Lincoln's address of 36 Lincoln. This is another indication that 533 Lincoln was added to the property in about 1935. According to the daughter of Alberta Thirlaway, Elsie Thirlaway turned one of her houses, either 533 or 537 Lincoln, into a boardinghouse for miners during the Depression after the death of her husband in 1932. She reportedly rented the house to three or four miners at a time. 537 Lincoln was significantly larger than 533 Lincoln and for that reason may have been the location of the boardinghouse. Another indication that 537 Lincoln was the location of the boardinghouse is that even before 533 Lincoln was constructed, Elsie Thirlaway began to demand formal assignments of wages from certain local miners, which may have been a necessary way for her to collect rent due to her during the Depression. These assignments of wages were recorded with Boulder County. She hired Alberta Thirlaway, the widow of a Thirlaway cousin, to help her at the boardinghouse during the Depression. In the 1930s, Elsie Thirlaway's daughter, Lucile Thirlaway Rowe, also was a co-owner of some or of all three lots at various times. In 1940, the Joe and Kathleen Wilkinson family was listed as living at 525 Lincoln, which is believed to be a reference to 533 Lincoln. Their children were Nora and Gladstone. According to a 1942 issue of the Louisville Times, the Wilkinsons moved out of the house believed to be 533 Lincoln in 1942, and Aaron and Martha Morrison and their family moved in to the house. Although people in the Louisville community were overall similarly situated in terms of class, many residents could not afford to purchase houses or wanted the convenience of rentals. Also, according to many current Louisville residents, for a long time there were more people interested in purchasing houses than there were houses to purchase. As a result, many people in Louisville rented or lived in temporary housing. Census records show that it was common for a family to rent a house, and that it was also very common for people to live in the outbuildings of relatives or to rent outbuildings. Although the rental market was very active, there were not official records kept of rentals. Christoff Ownership of Property, 1945-1948 In 1945, Elsie Thirlaway sold Lots 8, 9, and 10, consisting of both 533 and 537 Lincoln, to Chris Christoff (1893-1956). However, the 1940 census indicates that he may have already been living in that location. Christoff had been born in Bulgaria. It is believed that he was one of a number of Bulgarian coal miners brought in as strikebreakers during the 1910-1914 coal mine strike in 3