Christmas postcards 1910

These postcards are to and from family members and are dated 1910. The printing is beautiful with gold ink, complex graphics, many colors and some embossed surfaces. The message side is often used as we would use a phone call "will arrive by train on Thursday" or "please send a money order." Some notes are surprisingly personal and tender, considering how visible the content would be: "missing you tonight." Denver was much smaller, too. One card is simply addressed to the Globe Mercantile, Globeville and apparently arrived there alright.

45th Avenue Pharmacy

This photo used with written permission from Lauren Summers, grandson of Carl Gerhardt

Ex-Lax, ice cream, fountain service, Coca Cola, 7-Up - the details in the photo of Heck’s Pharmacy on 45th and Sherman tell the story of another era in Globeville.  Unlike the quick, one-stop retail shop of today, the drugstore looks like the kind of place you might like to hang out. Lydia Gerhardt Heck remembered, "My husband worked at the drug store on the corner, and we lived next door. The depression years down in Globeville were very hard and it was nip and tuck for a few years. When liquor came back in 1932, he got an alcohol license and that helped him pay the rent and kept him going until the war. During the war, everybody went to work, made big money and spent money and then he did OK."

Bottom photo used with written permission from Lauren Summers. The man with the hat is Carl Gerhardt, Harry Heck’s father-in-law.
Top photo, the same location in 2010, Mary Lou Egan

Argo Park

The Rocky Mountain News described Argo Park as “…a delightful retreat on the banks of the Platte…whose grounds have been prettily laid out… a charming suburban retreat.” The occasion was the dedication of the park on July 25, 1880, a decade before Globeville existed as a town. The park, which extended from Logan Street on the West to Washington Street on its eastern edge, was intended to serve the residents of Argo, the company town built by the Boston and Colorado Smelter, as well as the citizens of Denver. Philip Zang purchased the “resort” in January, 1885 and made improvements that included a theater, dance pavilion, bowling alley, ball fields and a small zoo. The park was home to the Strawberry Festival, picnics, band concerts, athletic activities, community gatherings and “pleasure parties of all kinds.”1. Welsh workers from the Boston and Colorado Smelter held annual eisteddfods, or singing contests, in remembrance of customs in their native land.
Martha Kulik Birch remembered, “It was one block square and they had a dance pavilion with an orchestra. People used to work hard all week and then come on the streetcar and dance under the stars. 
In the summer, there were swings, sandboxes, and a little cement wading pool for us kids. When I was about nine or ten [1917], we had this wonderful, husky teacher named Mrs. Roosevelt who wore a middy blouse, a big skirt, and carried a big whistle. We kids never ran wild because everyone obeyed her. She showed us how to make baskets by soaking rattans, and at the end of the summer, we each had a little basket.”2.
The park diminished in size as various owners sold parcels for development, and became part of the Denver parks system when Globeville was annexed in 1902. As part of the New Deal, a swimming pool and changing rooms were added in 1940, and a memorial honoring Globeville veterans killed in World Wars I and II was dedicated on August 25, 1948. More recent improvements have included a lighted baseball and softball field, basketball court, playground, and picnic tables. The pool underwent $1 million in renovations in 2005, a “sprayground” was added in 2007 and walking path in 2014.

1. Rocky Mountain News, July 25, 1880
2. An interview with Martha Kulik Birch with her niece Debbie Strein.
3. Fell, James E., Jr. Ores to Metal: The Rocky Mountain Smelting Industry. Lincoln: 
University of Nebraska Press, 1979
4. www.recreationparks.net/CO/denver/argo-park-denver

Top photo, Miss McCammon taught the third and fourth grades - 

photo of her class taken in 1914 with the dance pavilion in the background. 

Photo used with written permission from Minnie Boge Herbert.

Middle and bottom photos, Argo Park today, Mary Lou Egan

201 East 45th Avenue

The building at 201 East 45th Avenue dates from 1882 and has been a grocery for most of its life. Lydia Heck remembers hearing that the structure was one of the company stores of the big Globe Smelter Company. The building was purchased by her father, Carl Gerhardt, in 1922 and operated as a one-stop shopping venue with everything from canned goods, freshly-made ethnic sausage, cleaning supplies, material for sewing, to toys and penny candy. Larry Summers remembers, "Grandpa would be near the door on the right, where they had a long counter like they had in dry goods stores, to measure yard goods. He would sit on a stool near the door, and, when people came in and out, he would visit with them and “dun” them for payment on their account. Right in the middle of the store was a post with a couple of phones on it, pads hanging on nails and clerks taking orders. Groceries would be gathered in a collapsible box and clerks would go all around and deliver the goods in company trucks." Carl Gerhardt sold the store in 1945, just as supermarkets were moving into the area and residents were moving to newer homes in the suburbs.

Today, the location seems to be a private residence.

Photo at top, Globe Mercantile about 1915. Andy Jackson is the middle fellow in the white apron. Photo used with written permission from June Jackson Egan

Middle photo, Gerhardt Mercantile in 1932. Photo used with written permission from Larry Summers.

Bottom photo taken in 2009 by Mary Lou Egan.

Konstanty Klimoski

Many of the early arrivals to Globeville's Polish community, including Konstanty Klimoski, Piotr Skomorski, Andrew Kowalczyk, Gabriel Cymanski, Andrew Mantych, Jan, Jacob, and Frank Wargin came from the Russian sector of Poland. In the old country, they were subjected to political and religious persecution. It's not surprising that when they settled in Globeville, these men embraced the opportunity to shape the institutions important to them. These men were active in forming the Polish National Alliance, an ethnic, fraternal organization, and were also among the founders of St. Joseph’s Polish Church. Prominent among these leaders was Konstanty Klimoski.

Steve Klimoski remembers, “My grandfather, Konstanty Klimoski, was a big deal in Globeville. In those days, he was like a millionaire because he owned the Cozy Movie Theatre, this huge house at 48th and Washington and had one of the first automobiles in Globeville. He arrived about 1885 and worked in the Grant Smelter. Then he went into business for himself because he had all these kids. He put Wacie [Walter] into the grocery business and Joe Klimoski in the beer joint business, the JK Cafe. He contributed his time digging the foundation for the St. Joseph’s Church, donated a window in St. Joseph’s and one in Holy Rosary Church.”

Thanks from Holy Rosary

Thanks to all who made the Holy Rosary bazaar a success. We were able to introduce the parish to the neighborhood, get to know our neighbors, have a great time and make a little money. Check out all this historic parish has to offer. Mass each weekday is at 9 am, Saturday at 5:30 pm. Sunday at 8, 10 and 11:30 am (Spanish). Religious education begins the week of September 5th. Call 303-297-1962.

Tradition Continues at Holy Rosary

In the photo of the first Holy Rosary Parish bazaar in 1919, the men are wearing suits and the ladies are in their native Slovenian and Croatian dresses from the “old country.” They are hoping to raise money for their new church and one can imagine that there was singing, dancing, ethnic food and games.
Holy Rosary will continue this tradition on Sunday, August 29th from 8:30 am to 8 pm in the school parking lot. There will be music, dancing and ethnic food favorites from pancakes to potica and tamales. Music and entertainment will begin at 11:30 with Matachin dancers, live bands, a DJ and Slovenian accordion master, Joann Birsa. Activities for the children include face painting and pony rides. Historic Holy Rosary Church will be open for tours at 1 pm after all the Masses.

Holy Rosary Parish is located at 4688 Pearl Street in Denver, off of I-70 and Washington Street in the Globeville neighborhood. For more information call 303-297-1962 between 9 am and 1 pm.

1919 bazaar photo courtesy of Holy Rosary Church

photos of pony rides and potica by Mary Lou Egan