Historic Preservation Commission Agenda and Packet 2022 05 16

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small National and Bungalow houses, as well as houses of rare forms or materials. The neighborhood was largely populated by immigrant miners in the early 1900s. By the mid -twentieth-century the Barclay Place demographics had shifted somewhat. The neighborhood contained a mix of working class residents (mostly miners) and low level white collar workers (stenographers, clerk, and salesman). Most residents were native- born by 1940 (United States Census Bureau 1910; United States Census Bureau 1940). LaFarge was constructed by 1909, as it appears on the 1909 Drumm's Wall Map of Louisville, and as early as 1906 (Bacon 2016). The house was constructed for or purchased by local businessman Eusebio Giuseppe "Joe" (E. J.) Di Francia in 1909. Di Francia, an Italian immigrant, was a prominent saloon owner in Louisville. He opened his first saloon at 740 Front Street in approximately 1891. He also owned other properties, including houses at 1013, 1029, 1034, and 1045 LaFarge. Di Francia reportedly built the homes at 1013, 1021, and 1029 LaFarge as dowries for three of his daughters. They were expected to live in the homes after they married. In the meantime, he rented the houses out to tenants. However, only one daughter married and lived in one of the houses prior to her father's death in January 1918. Di Francia's death placed his large family in financial strife (Bacon 2016) so his widow sold off all of the properties in Louisville in the 1920s. According to Clerk and Recorder records, in 1927, Maria Di Francia sold 1021 LaFarge to Winifred Davis. Northern Coal and Coke house Type C, 1907 1021 LaFarge is composed of a hipped- (Conarroe 2017:3) roof main portion with a smaller front - gabled room or entry on the side. The houses at 1013, 1021, and 1029 LaFarge Avenue appear similar or identical (i.e., 1021 LaFarge Avenue) to the Northern Coal and Coke Company's coal camp house Type C, which was designed by 1907 (Schwendler 2018). In the early 1900s, the Northern Coal and Coke Company and the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company constructed diverse types of houses for mine workers, and then sold many of the houses to private owners between the 1910s and 1930s after the mines closed. The house at 1021 LaFarge was in place before 1910, and possibly as early as 1906 (Bacon 2016), making it unlikely that the house originated at a coal mine. However, it is possible that private builders copied or borrowed from the coal companies' house plans, or that the coal companies created their first plans (including Type C) based on designs that were popular at the time. Efl