834 Lincoln Ave History - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

3 Alvina Foss Pollock’s son Howard was born in 1939 and he married Mary Ann Waschak of Louisville in 1958. In January 1961, Alvina sold them the Foss family lots at 834 Lincoln Ave. As reported in the April 21, 1961 issue of the Louisville Times, they then purchased a two-bedroom cinder block house and had it moved to their lot at 834 Lincoln Ave. In a phone interview in January 2021, Mary Ann Pollock described the circumstances leading up to their moving of a house to the parcel at 834 Lincoln Ave. She stated that she and Howard had been looking for a house to buy, and they learned that a lot of houses were being sold and relocated from a particular neighborhood in Denver. They arranged to purchase the house and move it from its location at 1st and Steele in Denver. They located a house mover and arranged with Louisville contractor Alvin Fischer to put in a foundation for the house. According to the Pollocks, this house and other houses were being cleared away from the vicinity of 1st and Steele to make way for a shopping center. Based on that location, it appears that this may have been Cherry Creek Shopping Center, which was established in about 1949 as one of the first pedestrian shopping malls in the country, according to online sources. The shopping center was later expanded and this may have led to the need to clear away houses for further development of the area. Boulder County gives 1950 as the date of construction of the relocated house that was moved in 1961 to 834 Lincoln. Boulder County has sometimes been found to be in error with respect to the construction dates of Louisville buildings, so normally, other evidence is looked to. In this case, with the house having been originally built in a different locale, other evidence of a construction date could not be located. However, the cinder block construction and house design seem to be consistent with a 1950 construction date. Therefore, in the absence of other evidence, the construction date is assumed to be 1950. When the house movers brought the house from Denver, they brought it on County Road down Murphy Hill into downtown Louisville (just south-southeast of today’s Community Park). Mary Ann Pollock described the hill as being steep and the weather that day as being windy. The Pollocks waited at the bottom of the hill to watch the progress and make sure that the house made it down the hill. She described it as “scary but exciting” and she remembered hoping that the house would fit on the new foundation. She also described the cinder block house as having been well-built, with walls 12 inches thick. She stated that they did not tear anything down, but they added to it, including adding a family room, bedroom, and deck. She stated that they remade the existing small house at the rear of the property into a garage. The following photo and ground layout are from the County Assessor card and show the house in 1961, soon after it was moved to 834 Lincoln: