Historic Preservation Commission Agenda and Packet 2009 09 21

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712 Lincoln A ve.~ Louisville~ Colorado According to the Boulder County Assessor's website, the property at 712 Lincoln is currently owned by Susan and Stanley Feagler and occupies Lots 15, 16, and 17, Block 8, Pleasant Hill Addition in Louisville. The County Assessor's records state that the house was built in 1915. However, the house appears in the correct location on the 1909 Drumm's Wall Map of Louisville. The County information has at times been found to be inaccurate with respect to the year of construction of Louisville homes, and looking at all of the evidence, one would have to conclude that the house at 712 Lincoln was built no later than 1909, and perhaps earlier. (Conceivably, it was constructed in 1904, the year in which Giacomo Fiori both purchased the property and married his bride from Italy, Maddalena). The house was owned by two families between 1904 and 1990: the Fiori family for thirty-four years, and the Arlo and Daisy Wilson family for fifty-two years. The property at first consisted of only Lots 15 and 16, and it was on these lots that the house was constructed. Lot 17 was to be acquired later. Orrin T. Welch and the Establishment of the Pleasant Hill Addition The subdivision in which 712 Lincoln is located is the Pleasant Hill Addition. This addition was platted and recorded with Boulder County in 1894 by Orrin T. Welch. Orrin Welch was the half brother of Charles C. Welch, the prominent Colorado businessman who played the major role in the founding of Louisville and the opening of its first coal mine, the Welch Mine, back in the 1870s. In the 1890s, Charles Welch was still involved in the development of the town, in this case through the transfer of property to his half brother, Orrin, in 1893. It is not known if Orrin paid Charles for the property that would become Pleasant Hill, or if it was a gift from Charles as a family member. Fiori Familv Ownershio. 1904 - 1938 Giacomo Fiori acquired Lots 15 and 16 from Orrin Welch in 1904. Giacomo, later known as James, was born in Italy in 1867 and came to the US in 1893. Maddalena, having been born in Italy in 1882, was fifteen years younger. According to her obituary, she came to the US in October 1904 and married Giacomo in November 1904 in Louisville's St. Louis Church (the marriage may well have been an arranged one). Giacomo was a coal rmner. Giacomo and Maddalena resided in Louisville until 1911 or 1912, at which time the family relocated to Frederick where they started a store, Fiori Mercantile. However, Giacomo, then Maddalena after the death of Giacomo in 1935, continued to own the property at 712 Lincoln. It may have been rented out during this period, perhaps even to the Wilson family who later purchased it.