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ILZ City <br />Louisville <br />COLORADO • SINCE 1878 <br />740 Front Street History (Updated May 25, 2012 & Feb. 3, 2016) <br />Legal Description: Lot 1, Block B, Original Louisville <br />Year of Construction: 1904 (see discussion below) <br />Architect/Builder: Fischer Family <br />Previous addresses used to refer to this property: 253 Front, 221 Front (under Louisville's old address <br />system that ended in the late 1930s); 744 Front; 742 Front. <br />Summary: This historic saloon building, the only one of Louisville's Front Street saloons to still be in <br />operation as a bar establishment, has strong ties to themes of Louisville's history relating to saloons and <br />restaurants, Front Street businesses, immigration, and Italians. The building is believed to have been <br />constructed by Louisville's Fischer family for the owner, E.J. Di Francia, who was an early Italian <br />businessman in Louisville. It was owned by two related Italian families for over forty years, then had a <br />series of shorter term owners from the 1940s to the early 1970s. It has been in operation under the <br />names of at least the following: DiFrancia's Saloon; Francia's Saloon; Front Street Cafe; Colorado Cafe; <br />Ferrbello's Restaurant; Primrose Bar; and the Old Louisville Inn. <br />Earliest Ownership <br />Not long after the town of Louisville was founded and officially platted in October 1878, Rebecca J. <br />Darrow purchased this lot and the lot next to it, as well as other lots, from Louis Nawatny, effective in <br />1878. Rebecca Darrow was the bride of Charles C. Welch, who was the prominent Coloradan who played <br />a major role in the founding of Louisville. Evidence strongly suggests that Louis Nawatny worked for <br />Welch. <br />The exact chain of ownership for the next several years couldn't be located, possibly due to <br />unpredictable variations in the spellings of names, but picks up again with the purchase of the property <br />in 1886 by H.L. Visser from Johanna and P.C. Nielson. In 1890, Visser sold the lot to S.A. Lemon. This was <br />a reference to Samuel A. Lemon, who was a Louisville blacksmith. Lemon sold the lot to Elizabeth <br />Strickland in 1891. She sold it to Robert Birkett in 1893, and he in turn sold it to Isaac Bond in 1901. <br />Isaac Bond was a prominent businessman in Boulder and served as mayor of Boulder from 1891 to 1893. <br />Born in Massachusetts in 1841, he is stated to have come to Colorado in 1871. An 1898 biography states <br />1 <br />