What makes Globeville special?

Globeville maintains a thoroughly distinctive sense of place. Like an archaeological site, every stage of its development is visible. Barns and sheds constructed from railroad lumber are present in many back yards. "Shotgun" houses on tiny lots still exist on most streets and generations of families occupy homes close to each other. Ethnic churches dedicated more than a century ago support robust congregations. Like life in a small town, everyone seems to know everyone. People look out for each other and take care of each other.

Globeville has endured shoddy treatment by the City of Denver, the division and destruction by two interstate highways, and inadequate city services. Encroachment from industry and gentrification threaten the community.

In 1991, in the face of overwhelming odds, 568 residents mortgaged their homes to pay lawyer Macon Cowels. On their behalf, Cowels sued the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO), the multi-national smelter trust. Globeville won remediation and restitution - a real David and Goliath story.

Residents are proud of their community and unified in defense of its survival. For more than a century, Globeville has persevered.

Lorraine Loreda Granado - Your Light Still Shines

Jim and Lorraine Granado enjoying the pancake breakfast
at Holy Rosary parish

But your light still shines
It's one small star to guide me
And it helps me to hold back the dark
Your light's still shining in my heart

A verse from "One Small Star" by John McDermott

The communities of Globeville, Elyria and Swansea have lost a shining star. Lorraine Granado passed away Sunday, December 8th at home surrounded by those who loved her. She was 71 years old.

Lorraine spent her entire life working at making this world a more loving, kind, respectful place for all people. Her many accomplishments include a successful class action lawsuit against Asarco, the creation of many youth and family serving organizations and non-profits, and the creation of a park for families in her community. Her efforts still shine throughout the neighborhoods she served.

A Rosary celebrating Lorraine’s life will be held at Romero’s Funeral home,
47th and Tejon, on Thursday, December 11th at 3:00 pm with a viewing
from 2:00 -3:00 pm.
Her funeral will be held at Our Lady of Grace Church, 48th and Clayton, on Friday, December 13th, at 10:00 am with her burial immediately following at Mount Olivet Cemetery. 

Lorraine Granado - Cross Community Coalition

“Look at all these wonderful opportunities to make it better.” Those were the words of Lorraine Granado, a fourth-generation resident of the industrial neighborhood of Elyria who wanted a better life for her three sons and her grandchildren. Where others saw interstate highways, heavy industry, pollution, unemployment and inadequate city services, Granado saw possibilities. Granado created the Cross Community Coalition in 1987, that brought together the neighborhoods of Globeville, Swansea and Elyria. *

The Coalition established its Family Resource Center in the shadow of elevated I-70 in a storefront at 46^th and Josephine, and offered classes in English, GED preparation, job readiness and studies toward citizenship. There were programs for young adults: after-school tutoring, leadership development, conflict resolution and environmental education. Classes were also available in small business development, housing rehabilitation and home ownership.

Through the organization, citizens successfully fought the city's proposed medical waste incinerator, and a tent city for the homeless. The Coalition also joined a class-action lawsuit that required the ASARCO smelter to clean up yards and compensate residents for decreased property values. 

In 2005, the Coalition moved into a new 9,000-square-foot community center at 2501 East 48^th Avenue. Poor health forced Granado to retire in 2009, but her efforts and those of the organization helped many individuals realize their goals, and the Globeville, Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods develop a strong voice for environmental justice.

On October 31, 2017, Denver Public Schools and CDOT's Central 70 project team dedicated the new east wing of Swansea Elementary to Granado. Her compassion, kindness and peaceful resolution skills brought diverse groups of people together to make positive changes in those communities. Although Granado couldn't be present for the event, a plaque near the main entrance to Swansea School commemorates her commitment to treating people with respect and love.
* The Board of Directors listed when the Cross Community Coalition was created included: Mary Miera Saragosa, Kenneth Mondragon, Michael Maes, Paul Garcia, Alvin Lewis, Shirley Castro, and Dana Louria. The Coalition was dissolved in 2011. Focus Points Resource Center occupies the space and continues the work.

Lalo and Eumelia C. de Baca, Community Leaders

“Cabeza de Vaca, head of the cow,” Lalo C. de Baca explained. “That’s the full name. There was a Spanish explorer named Alvar Cabeza de Vaca who spent about six years living with the Indians in New Mexico in the 1500s and we’re related to him. Of course, our name has shrunk from Cabeza de Vaca to Cabeza de Baca, C. de Baca and Baca. My dad’s uncle, Ezequiel C. de Baca, was governor of New Mexico in 1917. So we’ve been here awhile.
Born in 1919 on a small farm near Las Vegas, New Mexico, Lalo grew up in a family that included three girls and three boys. "We raised corn, beans and cows and it was real hard work...we were really poor but everyone else was too."
Like his Spanish ancestors, Lalo left his home in search of opportunity, arriving in Denver in 1936, and working a variety of temporary and seasonal jobs before joining the National Guard. His unit was mobilized in 1940, and he served in Fort Sill, Oklahoma during World War II.
1942 was a year of milestones, with Lalo being discharged from the Army, beginning a job at Swift & Company and marrying his childhood sweetheart, Eumelia Medina. Lalo and Eumelia would have seven daughters and one son, and instill in them a love for their Spanish heritage and culture.
Lalo moved his family moved to Globeville in 1960, "I bought the house on Sherman Street from Caspar Yeada because I could walk to work. I could walk everywhere I needed to go."
Lalo and Eumelia got involved in their new neighborhood right away. "I thought we ought to have light here on the street so I went to Public Service and got them to put it in." And Eumelia created a neighborhood watch, going from house to house to promote the program and wearing a whistle in case she was bothered by gang members. Lalo remembered, "There were some tough kids in the neighborhood at that time." Lalo and Eumelia became active in the Globeville Civic Association, battling the city's efforts to turn Globeville into an industrial area, and fighting the placement of halfway houses in nearby Denargo Market. There would be bigger battles ahead.
In 1997, Lalo, Eumelia and 390 of their neighbors filed a lawsuit against the the American Smelting and Refining Company, ASARCO, for contamination of the south side of Globeville. The company settled before the case even went to trial, agreeing to pay $12 million dollars to homeowners, renters and attorneys, and clean up the area south of I-70. 
A lot has happened in Globeville since the settlement. The south side of Globeville was eventually remediated, neighbors were compensated and the ASARCO site has been cleaned and redeveloped into warehouse space.
Eumelia passed away in 2003 and Lalo in 2014, but they are remembered in Globeville. C. de Bacas are held up as examples of persistence, caring for their community and the power of individuals to battle the city and a multinational corporation. They leave eight children, seventeen grandchildren, eighteen great grandchildren, four great great grandchildren, and a community that is grateful for their service.
 
* Between 1528 and 1536 Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca traveled between Florida, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. An exciting account can be found by Tony Horwitz, “A Voyage Long and Strange. Rediscovering the New World” 2008 Henry Holt and Company LLC.

newmexicohistory.org/people/ezequiel-cabeza-de-baca

 Eumelia and Lalo C. de Baca‎

Crossroads Commerce Park - No Trace of the Globe Smelter

 

Crossroads Commerce Park on the site of the
Globe Smelter. Photo ® Mary Lou Egan

Islands of fresh landscaping and parking lots surround new warehouses on the hill at 55th and Washington. There is no statue, no plaque, no historical marker to indicate that this site was once home to the American Smelting and Refining Company's [ASARCO] Globe Smelter. There is no mention of the men who worked 12 hours a day, six and seven days a week in crushing heat and toxic chemicals in order to separate gold, silver and lead from the ores that held them. There is no acknowledgment of the fact that, by 1900, the area’s three smelters, the Boston and Colorado, the Omaha and Grant, and the Globe, processed nearly two-fifths of the ore mined in Colorado. 1. 

Globe Smelter about 1900, William Henry Jackson,
Photo Denver Public Library

The Omaha and Grant, Globeville's largest smelter, closed during the bitter labor battle of 1903 and Globeville's first smelter, the Boston and Colorado, was gradually dismantled after a fire in September 1906. After 1906, ASARCO's Globe Plant was the only remaining smelter in the neighborhood.
The Globe Plant struggled. High-grade ores were harder to come by and newer technologies had been developed to treat low-grade ores at other plants. Demand for metals reached a high point during World War I and fell off dramatically afterward. In 1919, ASARCO decided to discontinue smelting at the Globe plant, “...closing down all stacks,” using the plant to recover valuable elements in ores shipped from other plants. 2. The work force of about 100 men extracted whatever was useful from the flue dust that arrived in covered railroad gondola cars, including cadmium, thallium, indium, copper and lead.

Cell house about 1926,
Photo used with written permission from Steve Stevens

During World War II, the Globe concentrated on recovering cadmium, a rust-proof element considered essential to the nation’s defense and used to coat airplanes, tanks and radio equipment. The company supplied nearly 60 percent of the nation’s cadmium, operating seven days a week.

An award from the National Safety Council in December 1960
for one million man hours worked without an accident or lost time from work.  left to right, Steve Stevens, Ralph Rickenbaugh, Jim Ryan, Margaret Philpot,
Max Coats, Lou Landers, Bill Miles
Photo used with written permission from Steve Stevens

The plant was considered a safe place to work, but the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act [OSHA] of 1970 changed the criteria for measuring safety in the workplace and would hold companies accountable to different standards. The result was more than twenty years of health studies, regulation, environmental claims and landmark lawsuits. By 2003, ASARCO was facing claims in excess of $100 million to cleanup its sites throughout the country. An environmental trust fund was established, but the money would not cover all the remediation that needed to be done. The EPA prioritized restoration of residences, businesses, schools, parks, which had been completed by the time the trust fund was set up. Work on the Globe Plant itself had not.
On August 9, 2005, ASARCO filed for protection under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and said it would then attempt to sell the property for “brownfield redevelopment,” a process in which a contaminated property is cleaned and developed for a nonpolluting use. In February 2008, the Colorado Legislature passed a measure that would allow a municipality to include unincorporated county land in an urban renewal project, but by the end of the year the economy was faltering and Brownfield Partners was unable to proceed with the acquisition. Gradually, collaboration, creative financing and federal loans allowed the project to move forward.
In May 2011, a public-private partnership was created that included both Denver and Adams Counties, the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA), the State of Colorado and developer EFG Brownfield Partners (who later merged with EnviroFinance Group), and its subsidiary, Globeville I, LLC. Denver and Adams Counties funded the infrastructure, and in 2014, Denver developer Trammell Crow agreed to buy the smelter site from EnviroFinance Group and build the biggest industrial park in central metro Denver. Today, the $85 million Crossroads Commerce Park contains warehouse, distribution and light-manufacturing buildings encompassing 1 million square feet and could bring an estimated 800 to 1,500 jobs to the Globeville neighborhood. 3.
Perhaps Trammell Crow would consider some visual commemoration of the Globe Smelter site that would honor the contributions of the immigrant laborers who toiled there and settled the Globeville neighborhood.

1. Fell, James E., Ores to Metals, The Rocky Mountain Smelting Industry, University of Nebraska Press, 1979

2. “Smelter to Cut Force to 100 Men,” Denver Post, May 28, 1919
3.  Trammell Crow signs on to redevelop ASARCO site in Globeville, Denver Post, October 29, 2014 

ASARCO clean up

The Globe plant began in 1886 as the Holden Smelter and was renamed the Globe in 1889 by Dennis Sheedy who took over the failing concern. Workers endured twelve-hour shifts six days a week, exposure to heat and toxic chemicals. But displaced farmers from Eastern Europe found meager wages and dangerous conditions preferable to starvation and conscription in the old country and lined up for available jobs. Houses were built nearby and the fledgling neighborhood was named Globeville. 
In 1899 the Globe joined the American Smelting and Refining Company, (ASARCO), a multi-national trust of smelters, mines and railroads. As valuable ores were depleted, smelting became more expensive and inefficient plants were closed - the company discontinued smelting at the Globe Smelter in 1919 and began recovering valuable metals in ore shipped from other ASARCO plants. 
During World War II, the Globe plant became the nation's largest supplier of cadmium, a corrosion-resistant metal used in paint, ball bearings and as a coating for aircraft, employing over 200 workers, many of whom lived in the neighborhood. It is that legacy of heavy metals and toxic processing that affects the neighborhood today. 
A series of lawsuits by neighbors led to settlements in 1993 and 1997. ASARCO replaced soil and vegetation around homes and businesses in Globeville and improved environmental conditions in the plant itself. But the transnational company that once seemed all powerful struggled financially and ASARCO filed for bankruptcy in 2005. In 2009, the ASARCO Multi State Environmental Custodial Trust was created and title to the ASARCO Globe Smelter property was transferred to the Trust. Globeville I, LLC is the contractor selected by the Custodial Trust to manage the completion of the remediation and ultimate sale of the ASARCO Globe Smelter property. On November 7th, 2012 a meeting was held at the Globeville Civic Association to present an update on the remediation efforts.
Community Outreach Coordinator Morgan Landers gave a brief history of the problems and the remediation efforts to date. Project Manager Chris Miller described the demolition of the plant, the grinding of brick and concrete, and the disposal of asbestos. Mary Hashem gave an account of the remediation of ground water and Joseph Harrington demonstrated the use of natural materials to strip heavy metals from the ground water. A question and answer period revealed neighbors' concerns about the effectiveness of the remediation and the kinds of development that might take place. The community expressed its hope that green industries, small business or hi-tech companies could be drawn to the area, and that jobs in the neighborhood might be available. Links were given to sources of information about the remediation process, submission of bids, training for jobs, health and environmental reports and community information. 

Morgan Landers listens as Chris Miller describes the work that has been done so far.

Joe Harrington demonstrates how natural materials strip heavy metals from groundwater

Project managers Globeville I, LLC
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Remediation Contractors, Alexco Resource U.S. Corp

Once a Major Employer...

ASARCO's Globe Plant, once a major employer in the Globeville and surrounding neighborhoods, is now vacant. According to Globeville I, LLC, remediation of the environmentally contaminated site is on schedule, with the demolition of the external buildings completed in March 2012. Once cleaned up, the site will be home to a new "Globeville Commerce Center" with a potential 1.1 million square feet of commercial space. Although restoration of the area has been a goal of the community for a long time, it is hoped that the stories of the men who worked there will not be lost. 

51st and Logan, October 2011

51st and Logan, January 2012

51st and Logan, May 2012

55th and Washington, July 2016

Ghost of ASARCO

Each day, thousands of commuters pass ASARCO's Globe Smelter site with hardly a second glance at the Globeville landmark. Built in 1886, the plant operated first as a smelter that separated valuable metals from raw ore, then as a producer of specialty metals. The company closed in 2006, and plans for remediation and development of 77-acre complex are now moving forward. The many buildings and structures now being dismantled provide a glimpse of a 120-year-old company with an interior life of its own.
High, wire-topped fences surround the site and it's difficult to see all the buildings, but Steve Stevens, Safety and Personnel Manager from 1967 to 1988 recalls many of them."The tall building housed the Godfrey Roaster that roasted low-grade products from Amarillo and from Leadville, and East Helena, Montana. And there was the unloading building, the bag house, the calcine building, the tank house, and the solution department. They also had the retort department where they purified the metal, and the cadmium sulphide department where they made the paint pigment for cadmium yellow. There was the thallium department, the indium department, the litharge department, the casting department, the premelt room, the change house, the respirator room, the laundry room and the locker room.
"The two-story home near the 51st Street entrance to the plant was the superintendent's house from the old days when he lived on the property. The house contained an old safe with 'Globe Smelting and Refining' written on it. There are also ledgers with the names of employees - Slovenians, Croatians, Poles, Germans, Russians and some Hispanics - from a time when there were three shifts running seven days a week. 
"In the old days, we used to have a garden right on the property and we grew vegetables. And we had a baseball team and played for the championship in 1948 at Overland Park, beating Central Bank one to nothing."
Long gone is the housing provided by the company: the 125-room Globe Hotel for single men and the 10 or 12 houses along Sheedy Row, with accommodations for families. And there was the Globe Mercantile where men could cash their paychecks and purchase everything from food to bicycles.
"A lot of guys were very grateful for jobs at the Globe because they were able to raise a family and buy a house." 
It is hoped that the clean up of the site will also offer jobs and the opportunity for families to settle in Globeville. 

Top photo, Godfrey Roaster building

Second photo, cell house 1926

Third photo, warehouses A, B, and C in October 2010

Bottom photo, warehouses A, B, and C in January 2012

Globe ASARCO

According to historian Jerome C. Smiley in 1901,“...their [smelters] economic value to the city of Denver far exceeds that of any other industry; indeed, it may be said that it overshadows that of all other industries.”1. The remnants of one of the state’s most significant smelters, the Globe, rests on a hill just west of the neighborhood that shares it’s name. 
The plant began life as the Holden Smelter and was organized in 1886 by entrepreneur Edward R. Holden as a silver/lead smelter, using the latest technology. Holden was known as a promoter and speculator and had borrowed great sums from the Colorado National Bank to build the operation. When the smelter veered toward bankruptcy under Holden, the bank appointed Dennis Sheedy manager and he reorganized the firm as the Globe Smelting and Refining Company on January 16, 1889. A company store, hotel and houses surrounding the plant, once called “Holdenville” were then referred to as “Globeville.”2. 
The Globe Smelter was “integrated” with its own sampling works, crushing mills, roasting units, blast furnaces, refinery and was considered a major force in the industry. In 1899, the Globe joined a number of other smelting concerns to form a powerful trust, the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO), with the clout to negotiate rates for labor, freight, ore, smelting and political influence. 
The price of metals increased during World War I and mines and smelters prospered, but by 1919, market conditions had changed and many of the nation's rich ores had been depleted. The Globe discontinued smelting operations and turned to producing cadmium, becoming a leading supplier of the element used as a protective coating for aircraft during World War II. In 1993 the firm again changed direction and focused on the development of specialty metals, such as bismuth.
1993 is also the year a group of residents won a lawsuit against the corporate giant, alleging air, soil and groundwater pollution. A second group of citizens were awarded funds in 1997 to remediate the soil in the southern section of Globeville. ASARCO declared bankruptcy in 2006 and the plant sat empty and abandoned.
2011 marks the beginning of a new life for the area as EFB Brownfield Partners plans remediation and development for the property. It is hoped that an industry once so vital to the economy of the region could bring life and rebirth to the Globeville neighborhood.
1. Smiley, Jerome C. History of Denver, Denver, Colorado: The Times-Sun Publishing Company, 1901, page 556
2. Fell Jr., James E., Ores to Metals, The Rocky Mountain Smelting Industry, 1979,
University of Nebraska Press pg 149.

3. Contaminated Globeville May Get a Second Chance, March 24, 2011, 
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/27303143/detail.html

top photo. Globe Smelter 1890, Denver Public Library

middle photo, Globe Smelter about 1926, photo used with written permission from Steve Stevens

bottom photo, Globe plant today

Baseball in Globeville

Baseball was big in Globeville. Andy Jackson remembered, "The lodges had teams, all the packing houses, Armour & Company, Western Packing and Burkhardt, each had a team. The brickyards had a team that played at a ball field at 45th and Leaf Court on Sunday mornings. There were also ball fields at 49th and Washington and at 23rd and Welton. Lots of people played for several teams."

Top photo, 1923 team sponsored by the Gerhardt Mercantile Company.

Left to right, standing: Henry Heinz, Pete Shinall, Nick Walters, Pete Sterkel, Ollie Krieger, and Alec Hilzer, manager.

Left to right, seated: Henry Schlit, Horst Nickels, Charley Jack, Pete Spomer, Jake Sterkel, Henry Honstein, and Albert Tribelhorn, mascot. Photo courtesy Larry Summers.

Max Beer Parlor Baseball Team 1934. Photo courtesy of Paul Goreski

Sheedy Row

Dennis Sheedy’s Globe Smelter provided some company housing for its employees. The company built the Globe Hotel on Washington Street, a four-story building containing a kitchen, dining hall, and 125 rooms, where single men boarded two to a room, alternating shifts to use a single bed.

Houses for families were available in an area called “Sheedy Row,” east of Washington Street at about 54th Avenue. Betty Zalar Paprocki’s family occupied a two-story brick home with a rather large yard. “There were ten houses on Sheedy Row and that was the name of the street, Sheedy Row. It was a cul de sac just east of Washington Street. They were nice little houses and each one was a little different from the others. They each had a kitchen and dining room, and a small yard with room for a garden. My grandfather worked in the smelter and that’s how we got a house there."

Left to right, Betty Zalar, and her cousins Juanita and Bob Chermas, taken from the front porch of her home on Sheedy Row. Photo, Betty Zalar Paprocki