Historic Preservation Commission Agenda and Packet 2022 10 17

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SUMMARY: The applicant is requesting approval to demolish the existing easternmost structure at 555 County Road. According to the Louisville Municipal Code (LMC) section 15.36.020, a demolition is an act which removes "fifty percent or more of the roof area as measured from directly above," or "fifty percent or more of the exterior walls of a building as measured contiguously around the building". Under section 15.36.200 of the LMC, if the commission finds that the building may have historical significance under the criteria "no permit for demolition, moving or removal shall be issued for a period not to exceed 180 days from the date the permit application was accepted ... The commission will make all reasonable efforts to expedite resolution of the application or request." Staff recommendation: Staff recommends the release of the stay, allowing the applicant to move forward with the demolition permit currently in process with the City. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: Information from Bridget Bacon, Louisville Historical Museum The property at 555 County Road was part of the Parbois family ownership before Tom Milo purchased it in 1947. Milo was born in Macedonia in 1888 or 1891 (by different accounts) and came to the U.S. in 1907. Census records place him in southern Colorado in 1920, and recorded County records show that by 1924, he was working as a miner at the Monarch Mine just to the south of Old Town Louisville. The federal census records for 1930 and 1940 place him at what appears in both cases to be the Monarch Mine camp, where his monthly rent in 1930 (split with another miner) was $4 per month and in 1940 was $3 per month. The Boulder County website gives the date of construction of the original part of the structure as being 1950. Since Boulder County records are sometimes in error with respect to the construction dates of historic buildings in Louisville, other evidence needs to be looked to. Most typically, a construction date given on the Boulder County website for a Louisville structure draws directly from the 1948 County Assessor card for that property. In this case, however, the 1948 County Assessor card does not give a date, but the fact that that there was a card filled out for the house at 555 County Road in 1948 suggests that a house must have been standing on the lot at that time. Also, the County's date of 1950 contradicts other information acquired from interviews of former Monarch Mine camp residents to the effect that Tom Milo, a miner at the Monarch Mine, moved the house to 555 County Rd. from the Monarch Mine camp in about 1947 when that mine closed. This would mean that the house had to have been built before that time. This information about Milo having moved 555 County from the Monarch Mine camp was obtained from the May 2007 interview of Dorothy Berry Varra (1920-2018), Phyllis Berry Waters (1923-2020), and Wes Berry (1931-2013), siblings who grew up in and around the camp. Another building known to have been relocated from the Monarch Mine camp was the one that stood next to 555 County Road at 557 County Road, which was moved there by the Davis family, according to Jay Davis in a 2005 interview. Tom Milo first appears in Louisville directories as living at 555 County Road in 1949, another apparent indication that the house was there before 1950. In summary, this is an older structure that was relocated in about 1947. The original construction date is not known. 2