The Little Rectangle and Beyond: Exploring Boulder's Historic Black Community

HISTORIC BOULDER’S

Little Rectangle Tour

Tour Information

In the 1870s Boulder’s early Black settlers came West seeking a more favorable discriminatory climate. By 1893, O.T. Jackson, a Black entrepreneur and restaurateur, was listed as one of the city’s leading businessmen. However, the early 20th century brought increasing discrimination in employment and housing opportunities for a period a strong Ku Klux Klan presence. This tour focuses on the lives of some of the people who lived through these events, where they lived and attended church, and their accomplishments.

Walking Tour Notes

This walking tour will take approximately 90 minutes. The Goss Street and south of Canyon Boulevard portion takes approximately 45 minutes, and the north of Canyon Boulevard segment in which the buildings are more spread apart takes approximately 45 minutes.
Start the tour at 22nd and Goss streets. On-street parking is available on the residential neighborhood streets of this tour. Please stay on the sidewalk and do not enter onto private property respecting the privacy of residents. Use the crosswalk when crossing Canyon Boulevard.

Take the Tour

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What You’ll See on the Tour

Introduction, Unlike Boulder’s earliest white settlers, who came as single men--many of them miners—Boulder’s early Black residents primarily came as families. Some came with sufficient funds to purchase houses, while others spent their earliest days in what was called The Jungle, shown in the first photo, a shantytown south of the railroad tracks that is now the landscaped lawn between the Municipal Building and the library.

A notorious Black madame, Mollie Gordon, maintained her establishment in The Jungle although she officially listed her occupation as “laundress.” Often, however, the early Jungle residents moved on to homes of their own.

The homes of early Black citizens were usually small, simple frame what is called “vernacular” architecture. Notably different was the now-demolished brick house of the Lingham family at 2001 Mesa Drive which Frank Lingham, a mason, built himself in 1900. At the time of time of the 1880 census, there were some Black citizens listed living in what became known as the Little Rectangle—a flood prone area of Goss Street between 19th and 23rd streets that included the south side of what is now Canyon Boulevard. To appreciate the flood danger, take a look at the two flood photos of Goss Street during Boulder’s famous 1894 flood, looking both east and west. However, most Black families at that time lived throughout and on the edges of the community. Black families typically purchased an existing home instead of building with some notable exception including the home of educator and lawyer Ruth Cave Flowers at 2019 Goss Street. Although it was not entirely segregated at any time, the Little Rectangle became increasingly segregated during the 1910s and 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan made an appearance in Boulder County claiming a membership of 2,000 in the city when the total Boulder city population—men, women, and children—was about 11,000. By World War II, the Black population was decreasing, finding better employment opportunities in Denver, with a Latinx population replacing them. In fact, Blacks made up a larger percentage of the total city population in 1910 than they have subsequently.

The social life of early Black citizens focused on their churches. The earliest settlers attended white churches but by 1884 had organized into the Allen Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church at 18th and Pearl streets. In 1908 the Second Baptist Church organized, first meeting in homes, and in the 1940s building the church at 19th Street and Canyon Boulevard. Many of these early Black citizens are buried in the historic Columbia Cemetery. Music was a constant theme as several Black residents became professional or accomplished amateur musicians.

We have chosen some of both the more interesting and representative homes and buildings for your tour. A few have been demolished. In 1948 the Boulder County assessor took photos of all buildings extant at that time, so we have that record and sometimes even older photographs. And this tour is not just about buildings. It is also and perhaps more importantly about the people who lived in them—their families, their experiences, their stories.

Stop #2 - 2202 Goss St. Home of Oscar and Mary White. Oscar White, born in 1844, was a former slave from Louisville, Kentucky. He fought for the Union in the Civil War. He arrived in Boulder in 1880.

Oscar’s wife Mary arrived in Boulder later, and in 1890 they purchased this house at 2202 Goss Street. The historic photo featuring this house was taken during one of the frequent floods that Goss Street experienced. The boys in the photo are both Black and white, playing together with race making no difference.

Oscar worked as a laborer and teamster, and Mary worked as a domestic which is about all that was available to Black citizens in those days. One of things of which Oscar was most proud was joining with friends to mortgage their homes to buy the land in 1884 for the African Methodist Episcopal Church that stood at 18th and Pearl streets, northwest corner, for 99 years before being demolished.

The land was purchased from Boulder early settler James A. Maxwell and the deeds of trust were given to him and his son, James P. Maxwell. There is a street in Boulder named after the Maxwell family. You will hear more about the AME Church later if you take the north of Canyon Boulevard portion of the tour.

Mary was always an active member of the church. She was the first Sunday school superintendent, led fundraising, and helped with child rearing for congregation members. Mary was belatedly awarded a $30 per month widow’s pension for her husband’s service in the Civil War. She continued living here after Oscar died until she also passed in 1924.

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James was a former slave in Missouri and a soldier in the Union Army which always made his family proud that he fought for their freedom. His father was actually Irish.

In 1882 the Halls purchased the house at 2102 Goss Street from Robert Culver who had purchased part of the Goss Farm which he subdivided into what is called Culver’s Addition. They went on to buy other lots in the area during the 1880s. James worked as a plasterer.

In about 1890 they built a small house for their son Frank next door at 2118 Goss Street shown in the third photo. It was a two-room “hall and parlor” house. The parlor was the main room—a kitchen and sitting room combined—while the parlor was the private room, or the bedroom. 2118 had some additions during the years—as you can see in the photo–but was torn down a few years ago because of its poor condition.

James died in 1921, and Martha lived on until 1930 when she died in a fire in her house caused by her son Frank’s cigar. That is why the 1948 assessor’s photo of the house does not show it the way it was when the Halls lived there. James and Martha lie side by side along 9th Street in the Columbia Cemetery.

Stop #4 - Southwest Corner of Goss and 21st Streets, formerly 2038 Goss Street--Ray's Inn. - Delbert Ray moved to Boulder when he was two years old, having traveled here with his parents in 1914. The family lived in the next block at 1953 Goss Street. His father, Alfred Ray, was a janitor at the First National Bank on Pearl Street, and his mother Carrie stayed home with their children. His maternal grandmother Alice Baskett also lived just down the street. You will hear about her later.

Delbert attended Boulder schools and attended college out of state. Upon returning to Boulder, he worked at Perry’s Shoe Shop at 1913 12th Street [now Broadway]. In 1938, he married Texan Annie Barton, and they moved into their first home nearby at 1726 21st Street. In 1940, Delbert operated his own shoeshine business in the lobby of the First National Bank where his father worked.

He and Annie decided they wanted their own business. So, in 1946, they opened Ray’s Inn, a small false-front restaurant here at the corner of 21st and Goss streets that was built in front of their alley house. It was a very simple lunch counter with lots of tables catering to the area, and not just the Black citizens, but everyone, including university students. They offered outside seating and even jazz music at times. The historic photo of the restaurant is looking east on Goss Street. Together Delbert and Annie made the business a success. Even the Texans who came to Chautauqua in the summers came down the hill for Annie’s barbeque. And the neighborhood boys—a combination of Black and Latino at the time, came by for ice cream paid with money from they collected returning bottles to Bova’s Pantry that was located nearby on Arapahoe Avenue at the time. It was not long before Delbert quit his job at Perry’s to devote time to the expanding restaurant business.

By 1951, Ray’s Inn as actually listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide written by Victor Green, for Black motorists traveling across the U.S. It was the only listing in Boulder.

Delbert died in 1955 rather suddenly at the age of 43. He is buried in Columbia Cemetery, the pioneer cemetery on 9th Street and College Avenue. Annie tried to keep the restaurant going after he died but ultimately decided to sell it. Subsequently it went by such names as Mac’s Dinette and Casa Blanca, a Mexican restaurant. Annie eventually moved back to Texas to care for her mother , and died in 1979 at the age of 71. The restaurant was later demolished for this apartment building you see.

Stop #5 - 2019 Goss St. - Dr. Ruth Cave Flowers. Ruth Lolita Cave Flowers lived in this house at 2019 Goss Street off and on from 1921 until she passed in 1980. She and her sister Dorothy grew up Cripple Creek with their grandmother Minnesota Waters—she went by Minnie—who wanted the girls to get a good education so they moved to Boulder in 1917 when Ruth was 14.

They first rented at 1912 Water Street [now Canyon Boulevard] until this house was built with local labor, including participation by the two girls. Ruth experienced racism in Boulder on her first day in Boulder when she and Dorothy were refused service for ice cream cones. In 1920, when Ruth finished high school, she was denied her diploma because the principal claimed she had not completed a physics assignment that she actually believed she had. However, Ruth was able to get into CU anyway where she paid for her tuition doing what she could to make money: darning socks, taking in laundry and ironing, washing dishes at restaurants—you name it.

Ruth graduated in 1924 with a degree in romance languages but was unable to obtain a teaching job in Boulder so off she went to South Carolina, coming back to CU in the summer to earn her masters degree in 1930. Later she earned degrees from the Universite de Poitiers in Tours, France [and while there journeyed to Berlin to watch Jesse Owens in the Olympics], a juris doctor from Howard University, and a PhD from the Catholic University of America—not too shabby for someone who could not get her high school diploma in Boulder!

She was married for a while to fellow attorney Harold Flowers whom she met in law school and was blessed with one son Harold Jr—“Sonny”—who became president of the Colorado Bar Association. Ruth ended her career living here at 2019 Goss—above is a photo of her at that time– and teaching at Fairview High School where she was finally awarded an honorary high school diploma. And her house was designated a local landmark in 1992.

Stop #6 - 2004 Goss St. - Caleb and Reona Allen - Caleb A. Allen was born in December 1876 in Atlanta Georgia, and by 1880 when he was four, his family had moved to Denver. His first marriage in 1908 was to Emma Bailey, which did not last more than five years. In 1915, Caleb married Reona Morrison, sister of the famed musician and bandleader George Morrison. George was the best man at their wedding, and George’s wife was Reona’s maid of honor. In 1921 the couple moved to Boulder and lived here at 2004 Goss Street.

This house was their home for the rest of their lives. The front of the house is virtually unaltered from how it was when they lived here. Their front porch welcomed their family and friends over the years. Although they owned the house outright, they sold it to Reona’s brother George Morrison in 1950. With no children of their own, they kept the house in the family.

Caleb was a janitor at the Mercantile Bank and Trust on Pearl and Broadway for many years , and Reona kept home. Both were proud and active members of Boulder’s Second Baptist Church. For many years. Reona was president of the Queen Alice Mission of the church, named for her mother. In 1959 Caleb was honored for 50 years of membership and service to the Masonic Centennial Lodge #4, shown in the above newspaper clipping photo. That same year, Reona preceded him in death. Caleb died in 1963 and both are buried in Boulder’s Columbia Cemetery. Caleb’s brother-in-law, George Morrison was a pall bearer.

Stop #7 - Southwest Corner of Goss and 20th Streets--George Morrison. George Morrison, in the photo with his violin, was born in Fayette, Missouri in 1891. In 1900, at the young age of nine, he and his older brother Lee made their way to Boulder. The two boys lived here and there in the vicinity of the Little Rectangle for a few years. They wanted to try to make a living on their musical talents—talent inherited from their musical parents--playing guitars and homemade stringed instruments—such as George’s corncob fiddle--for the mining communities in the Boulder foothills. They performed as the Morrison Brothers String Band.

Although George loved performing many kinds of music, he always considered himself a classical violinist. He took lessons and performed wherever he could, whether it was in Boulder or Denver, including at recitals, churches, parties, Masonic Lodges and many private social clubs in Denver.
Being in Denver often, he met and married his wife, Willa Mae, who came from a prominent Denver family. They lived in Boulder for a short time, but moved to Denver as most of George’s paying work was in the Denver area.

The photo of George was taken when he considered himself a serious violinist. In 1912, the Denver Statesman newspaper said of him: “Mr. Morrison is a young musician of promise. He has developed into an acceptable major number on a high-class program. His career is just beginning, judging from the wonderful strides he has made in just a few years.”

By 1913, George was placing ads in the newspaper for violin students at his studio on Tejon Street. He withdrew from Emmet Webster’s orchestra to create his own orchestra, and was prepared to offer first-class music for all occasions. By 1914, he was in the newspaper several times a week, playing classical music at various venues around the Denver area. Denverite Hattie McDaniel, later famous for her Oscar-winning performance as Mammy in “Gone With the Wind,” sang with his orchestra.

George experienced racial discrimination that same year when performing at Elitch’s Amusement Park. His orchestra was released from its contract with the park because the Black musicians could not be part of the Union. However, they still performed at many other venues in the Denver area, and eventually had a loyal following.

George died in 1974 at the age of 83, buried in the Olinger Cemetery in Thornton.
Although George did not live on Goss Street, many of his relatives did, grandmother, uncles, aunts, grandmother, cousins. Take a look at the family dinner photo above. George is on left. He recalls the Little Rectangle being a bustling place crowded with Black residents and some whites with increasingly some Latinx citizens as well. Also be sure to notice the little backlot houses—sometimes called “backhouses”—built to house family members and other Black citizens who could not find willing sellers to Black citizens elsewhere in the city. Addresses for the backhouses are 1915 ½ and 1935 ½. Look between the houses from the sidewalk.

Stop #8 - 1953 Goss St. - Anthony Ray. Anthony Ray was born in 1926, one of seven children born to Alfred and Carrie Morrison Ray who lived at 1953 Goss Street. He was the brother of Delbert Ray who operated Ray’s Inn one block east that you previously visited. Like many in his family, Anthony was musically inclined. He majored in music at CU and, according to a Daily Camera article, “was perhaps best known for his ability to tickle the ivories of both a piano and an organ.” He received several music-related awards including being chosen as cane bearer at his 1948 graduation. He also served in the infantry in combat in Korea and in Fort Knox, Kentucky where he served as assistant to a Catholic chaplain, shown in the above photo, and taught Latin to altar boys.

Anthony Ray was born in 1926, one of seven children born to Alfred and Carrie Morrison Ray who lived at 1953 Goss Street. He was the brother of Delbert Ray who operated Ray’s Inn one block east that you previously visited. Like many in his family, Anthony was musically inclined. He majored in music at CU and, according to a Daily Camera article, “was perhaps best known for his ability to tickle the ivories of both a piano and an organ.” He received several music-related awards including being chosen as cane bearer at his 1948 graduation. He also served in the infantry in combat in Korea and in Fort Knox, Kentucky where he served as assistant to a Catholic chaplain, shown in the above photo, and taught Latin to altar boys.

Anthony wrote a summary of life on Goss Street and in the Bouldder community prior to and after World War II. Here are some of the more memorable quotes from that summary.

“ There were no restaurants on ‘The Hill’ that would allow us to dine unless we were in the company of whites. The stores would sell us soft drinks, but we had to either drink them in the back or take them out! Somers Sunken Gardens [known as The Sink today] would not allow us in. The Cosmopolitan Club, a club peopled by foreigners and blacks decided to challenge the practice … They broke up into small groups of 4 -5 students and each group had at least one Negro. They invaded The Sink … Our home was the employment agency for whites who needed or wanted black help …Mom called Mrs. Somers [the owner] the next morning after the invasion and said ‘is it true that Negroes are now being served at The Sink?’ Mrs. Sommers had a conniption!”

Anthony also addressed the lack of housing for Black CU students. “[The University of Colorado] would accept Blacks as students but had no living facilities for them … [W]hen my parents started accepting roomers [and] boarders in 1941 we were paid $7.00 per week! I do know that my grandmother [Alice Baskett’s] fee was much lower . She paid my sister, Eujetta, $20.00 for ten weeks of being a maid, waitress, and dishwasher. That $20.00 went a long way for her.”

The Ray household hosted Paul Robeson who gave two concerts in one day at Macky Auditorrium. Anthony states, “The space of time between the concerts was spent by him in our home … the local hotels would not allow him to register! Many of the concert persons had to room in our homes because of the situation.”

Stop #9: 1935 1/2 Goss St.

This house is one of the remaining backlot houses.

Stop #10 - 1921 Goss St. - George and Mary Reeves. George Washington Reeves Jr, son of a minister, was born in Sturgeon, Missouri in 1876. He was one of seven children born to the Rev. George Washington Reeves Sr. and Mary F. Turner Reeves.

In 1900, he married Mary J. Morrison in Fayette, Missouri. Mary was sister to George, John and Lee Morrison. After the birth of their only child, Alice Cleora in 1902, they moved to Colorado, as did some of the other Morrisons. Their families were close friends and in 1908 they formed a band together. Elmer McVey, John McVey’s brother [you will here about John later in the tour], was pianist, Lee Morrison played cello, his brother George Morrison played violin, and George Reeves played the traps, also known as drums. Over the years the members of the band changed. In the above photo you can see that George Reeves was still playing traps, but Jack Morrison was on bass, his brother Lee was on flute, and George’s brother Joshua was on cello. They loved to entertain with family and friends and play at the Allen Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Although George loved playing music, he also had steady employment as a laborer , working a variety of odd jobs, which included helping out at John McVey’s billiard hall, working at a shoe shine parlor, and being a section-hand on the railroad. Mary worked as a domestic in addition to housing and feeding as many as six Black CU students, Their daughter Cleora was college-educated from the Kansas State Teachers College, but had to go South to teach. After World War II she returned to Boulder but could only find work as a cook in a sorority house.

The Reeves rented several different houses on Water Street [now Canyon Boulevard] and Goss Street , before buying their home at 1921 Goss in 1915. They lived at that home until their deaths—George in 1950 at the age of 74 along with Mary who died 10 years later. They are buried in the Columbia Cemetery.

Stop #11: 1915 ½ Goss Street.

This house is one of the remaining backlot houses.

Stop #12: 1903 Goss St. - Alice Baskett. Alice Baskett Iived here at 1903 Goss Street from the mid-1920s until she transitioned into the next life in 1953. Born in Missouri in 1865, she married young at age 15 to her first husband Clark Morrsion. Clark played the fiddle quite well, and Alice joined him on the piano. They never imagined in their early days together the musical prodigies that would be born to them. Several of their children as you have learned attained musical fame.

The family came to Colorado in spurts. Alice’s two sons Lee and George came as boys in 1900, and she didn’t see them again until she arrived in 1914. Widowed twice, she married George Baskett who took care of her children like they were his own. In those days Black students in the South had few options for college so some came to Boulder. Although CU admitted them, they were banned from student housing and many restaurants wouldn’t serve them, as you have heard from others on this tour.

Alice set up her home as the Baskett Boarding House, offering room and board, and soon many of my neighbors did the same—and the Little Rectangle was bursting at the seams with students and neighbors, taking solace in each other especially in the Ku Klux Klan days of the 1920s. They also took solace in their churches. Alice soon became involved with Second Baptist Church meetings, and in 1940 she organized the church women as the Busy Bees to keep it going strong. She was always the type of person who saw what needs to be done and did it! The Bees renamed themselves the Queen Alice Missionary Society in her honor that may have been a highlight of her 88 years much of which was spent right here at 1903 Goss Street, the largest house in the Little Rectangle.

Stop #13: 1631 19th St. - Lillian Wheeler. Lillian Beckley Wheeler, born July 6, 1900 in Tupelo, Mississippi, was the 21st of 22 siblings. Yes, 21 of 22! At 15, she married Thomas Wheeler whose father left him some farmland near Okolona, Mississippi. In 1924, with their son Lidell and daughter Mabel, the family moved to Boulder but kept the Okolona land.

They moved for two reasons. One, Tom had asthma, and his sister Lillie Belle had moved to Colorado where the climate helped her son who also had asthma. Two, the schools were not segregated here, and they thought their children would get a better education.

Did they experience discrimination in Boulder? Well, some. Sometimes the children were teased and called names. But they did not consider it overt like in Mississippi. Lillian participated with the Community Chest and Red Cross, and thought that only being allowed to sit in the balcony of the Curran Theater [now the Boulder Theater] was just silly.

Tom worked as a headwaiter at the Boulderado Hotel, but did not care for it, so he went back to the farm and commuted between there and Boulder, straining the marriage. They bought this house at 19th and Goss—1631 19th Street is the address– for $2500. When it sold years later it brought $150,000!

Goss Street was somewhat rural then. The Wheeler children would tend to neighbor Sarah Belle Williams’ cow in exchange for milk and butter. At age 39, Lillian decided to get a better education and studied home economics at the state teacher’s college in Greeley, now the University of Northern Colorado. She then decided she wanted to cut hair instead so in 1943 attended the beauty and barber college in Chicago. She received the first female barber’s license in Colorado.

Lillian taught adult education at Boulder High School and sewing to whites, Latinx residents, and Blacks with FDR’s WPA program. She was also busy taking in Black college students like some of her neighbors on the street. In 1945 Lillian moved to Denver to be closer to her children and continued barbering there as depicted in the above photo. Lillian passed away in 1999.

Stop #19: 1718 Canyon Blvd. - John Wesley and Emma McVey. John Wesley McVey was born March 22, 1855 in Mount Hope, Alabama. His mother was born and wedded into slavery, and took the name McVey, which was the name of her master. John never knew what happened to his father, but his mother bore nine children, and after the end of the Civil War, they moved to Junction City, Kansas. John stayed in Junction City, but the rest of the family moved east to Concordia, Kansas.

By 1885, John was living in Colorado, with his wife Alice and daughter Mamie. Alice passed away, and John married Emma Bailey in 1896, with whom he had seven more children over the next twelve years.

In 1900, John obtained a loan from the Boulder National Bank to purchase the property at 1718 Water Street, now Canyon Boulevard, from an estate. The stipulation with the bank was that he had to keep the property in good condition and insured. That was not difficult as he owned the Iowa Barber Shop and Pool Hall at 1530 Pearl Street—above is a photo of it in later years. It is now the site of a large parking garage. John employed a good number of friends and family as barbers and porters. He received loans to renovate the property to accommodate more business over the years. His shop was a community gathering place for many years and a place for amateur musicians including himself to play joyful tunes. Both 1530 Pearl and this house at 1718 Canyon witnessed a great deal of music. Junius Lewis, a Black gentleman with mining interests, often visited the family at this address where he stated he always looked forward to musical evenings. John and Emma’s daughter Hazel went on to play piano with George Morrison’s orchestra.

In 1913, John McVey was stricken with pulmonary tuberculosis and died on January 15. He is buried in Columbia Cemetery. Emma and most of his children, who had professional careers, ended up in Denver where the job opportunities for Blacks were more promising. Emma lived on until 1951. In 1995, the McVey house was designated as a City of Boulder landmark to honor the accomplishments of the McVey family in the community.

Stop #20: 2224 Pine St - Alexander and Jennie James. Alexander James was born in Virginia in 1850. When he first moved to Boulder, he worked as a laborer. But by 1885, he was a cook in hotels and restaurants such as the Silver Grill on Pearl Street and the St Julian Hotel on 13th Street.

After the death of his first wife Emmaline, he married Jennie Vince in 1881. She was the widow of fellow black pioneer George Vince. Jennie was 15 years younger than Alexander, and together they had six children, but only three survived infancy.

Along with Henry Stevens, who was Jennie’s son- in- law, and Alexander purchased the house at 2224 Pine Street in January 1889. Henry lived next door at 2220 Pine that just visited. It was here that Alexander and Jennie raised their children: Alphonso, Major and Georgia. Their daughter Georgia, married Lee Morrison, brother of famed musician George Morrison. They all lived together, so, you may imagine the music that was played in this house!

In 1896, Henry Stevens deeded his interest in this house to Sadie Jackson, wife of O. T. Jackson, who transferred her interest to Alexander 13 days later. Sadie was the owner of three homes on this block at various times during the 1890s.

Alexander lived in the house until his death October 16, 1927. He was buried in the Columbia Cemetery along with his family and other Black families of Boulder.

Stop #21: 2228 Pine St. - O. T. Jackson. O. T. Jackson was named after Oliver Toussaint, the Haitian revolutionary hero, which was a mouthful, so O. T. he became. He was born in Oxford, Ohio in 1862. His father was a landscaper descended from a line of freedmen since the Revolutionary War. As a teenager, O. T. started working in restaurants in Cleveland where he met his first wife Sadie whose family was Oberlin College-educated.

The urge to go West brought them first to Idaho Springs and Denver where he operated restaurants and catering services, and ultimately to Boulder in 1892 where he lived for 15 years. O. T. first operated an oyster house on 13th Street and then the Stillman Hotel and Café on Pearl Street. In 1893 he was included in Boulder’s list of the state’s leading business and professional men that included the mayor, judge, county clerk, attorneys, merchants, and manufacturers, of which he was proud and the only Black on the list. In 1898 O. T. was engaged as the first manager of the Chautauqua Dining Hall, see the photo above, able to hire a mostly all Black staff, giving them better jobs than they could otherwise obtain.

He and Sadie lived here at 2228 Pine Street for eight years. She was the real estate manager of the family also owning at one time the two houses to the west. She unfortunately died of a brain tumor in 1902 so O. T. moved out to his small farm next to his dinner club named Jackson’s Resort shown in the fifth photo above. The club featured musical entertainment located on what is now the northeast corner of 55th Street and Arapahoe Avenue, which was out in the country back then. In 1907 he closed the resort after ten years when the county went dry. O. T. then moved to Denver where, thanks to Governor Shafroth, he started his 20-year plus career as messenger for Colorado governors—with the notable exception of Klan governor Morley for two years in the 1920s.

His final enterprise was founding in 1910 the African American Dearfield agricultural colony in southeastern Weld County, which prospered at first but started failing after World War I. There is archaeological work going on there now, and the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. O. T. died in Greeley in 1948, having outlived two marvelous and talented wives, and without heirs.

Stop #22: 2418 Pine St. - Charles and Georgia Moseley. Georgia Moseley lived at 2418 Pine Street for many years with her large family. She married Charles Moseley after the death of his first wife, Amy. Charles was an 1884 charter member of the Allen Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church where they were married.

Charles had two children with Amy–Mazie and George. After Amy passed away and Charles married Georgia, they had more children—nine children altogether. Take a look of the photo of the children above. That was a lot of children for a 1207 square foot house! The house had a vernacular wood- frame construction. It was very simple with what some called “folk” architecture. The columns may be the same ones from when they lived there.

By 1900, Charles was “acting crazy,” and he would find himself in “strange” circumstances. In 1903 a Boulder County court declared him insane. He was sent to the asylum in Pueblo where he only lived another year before passing away. His remains were brought to Boulder, and he was buried in Columbia Cemetery.

This house stayed in the family for at least 80 more years. The children and grandchildren always called this home, and even though Georgia eventually moved to Chicago, she kept it in the family. However, in 1992 after being in the family for 106 years, her heirs lost the house for failure to pay the taxes.

Sources

Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, Colorado
A Legacy of Missing Pieces: The Voices of Black Women of Boulder County, 2002, edited by Polly E. Burgos McLean, Ph.D
“The Black Community of Boulder, Colorado,” 1996, unpublished paper by Dan W. Corson
History of Second Baptist Church, Boulder, Colorado from its website

Appreciation

Special thanks for this project go to Dan Corson, Kathryn Barth, Ann Cooper, Wendy Hall, Nicole Docimo and the staff at Carnegie Library for Local History, Natalie Feinberg Lopez, Polly E. Burgos McLean Ph.D., Michael Matts, Kenneth McVey, Melanie Muckle, Minister Glenda Robinson, Kayann Short Ph.D, and Carol Taylor.

Photo Credits

Historic photos are courtesy of Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, Colorado except as otherwise noted below.
Contemporary photos were taken at the direction of Historic Boulder, Inc. by Ann Cooper and Darcy Sherman.
Historic photo of Chautauqua Dining Hall is courtesy of Carnegie Library for Local History/Museum of Boulder Collection.
Historic photo of Lillian Wheeler in her barber shop is courtesy of Polly E. Burgos McLean, Ph.D. from A Legacy of Missing Pieces: The Voices of Black Women of Boulder County.
Cover page of the “Negro Motorist Green Book” is courtesy of the New York Public Library.