Helping Denver houses tell their stories Website gives historians a hand By Kelly Kennedy Special to The Denver Post Sunday, June 23, 2002 - Heather Tudhope knows knows her walls can't talk - not with 100 years of wallpaper glued to their surfaces. But if they could? They might begin with a story about the interior designer who used the 1901 American foursquare as a showcase during the 1920s. She papered every flat surface in the house, including the ceilings. They might also tell stories about the home's original owner: a Leadville miner who saw Colorado's silver boom coming to an end and quickly changed careers, going into insurance. And they might solve some mysteries, such as why there's a closet-sized second-floor room with a baby-blue night-sky border with tiny stars as its original decor. That suggests a nursery, but the room also has a door leading to an outside staircase. Because Tudhope's walls can't talk, she's doing it for them. The Capitol Hill homeowner is part of a growing group of people who have begun researching the history of their homes. Many do it because they hope someone famous once slept in their bedrooms. Others hear footsteps on the staircase and want to know the names of their ghosts. Still others want to know what the kitchen looked like before the era of linoleum and Harvest Gold appliances so they can restore it to its original grace. "Every older home has an interesting story to tell," said Betsy Green, author of "Discovering the History of Your House . . . And Your Neighborhood" (Santa Monica Press, $14.95), which was published in May. "People are spending more time and money fixing their homes, and you kind of bond with it. You find things - maybe a signature or a tin soldier, or the purple woodwork that makes you think, "Now who could have done this?' " In Denver, the job is made easier by an on-line tutorial recently developed by the Denver Public Library's Western History/Genealogy Department. To start, all a home sleuth needs to do is visit the "building history" page at gowest.coalliance.org. The site, which historians developed within the past year, shows homeowners exactly where to get building permits and how to use the Sanborn Map Co. atlases, and includes abundant information (including old photographs) about Denver neighborhoods, architecture styles and local landmarks. Most of the data, including building permits and Sanborn maps, is available in hard-copy form at the Western History/Genealogy Department at the library. "We've been getting a couple of hits a day at the website," said Bruce Hanson, a reference librarian who loves to pour over the old maps and permits. "Finding the history of your home makes history more personal. You end up with a better understanding of Denver and Colorado." Though he admires the website, Hanson said it's important for people to ask for help from humans, as well. He has manila folders filled with clippings that might include a real estate listing from the 1940s, or a neighborhood walking tour guide from the 1970s, or a house scrapbook that someone donated in the 1980s. Librarians also can lead researchers through the general index for old newspapers that include headings such as "Denver Apartments" or "Denver Neighborhoods" that might be hard to find in a random search. Tudhope, owner of the 1901 foursquare at 901 E. 10th Ave., began her search at the library. "We knew we were going to renovate the house, and a lot of things had changed," she said. "You wouldn't want a 1901 bathroom, but some things we wanted to take back to how they had been originally done." First, she wanted to know what style her house was. She and her husband, Roby Sherman, bought the home in 1999. "I just did Web searches for foursquares," she said. "It's also called a Denver square or a Denver box. Then we went to the Western History Department and searched the city and public records." There they hit house-history gold: "Our theory is that the original owner, Thomas Daly, was an insurance agent after the mines started going bust who also built a couple of homes to make money," she said. "What was cool is we were able to find a picture of him and his son." As Tudhope made more discoveries, she began keeping an on-line scrapbook at www.interealm.com/house/house-history.htm The site includes pictures of the house, pictures of the original owner, facts about the neighborhood, names of previous owners and even a description of the day they found writing on the wall. "Somebody had moved a wall in the '20s to make a bedroom and a hallway, we think," Tudhope said. "When we knocked it down to put it back where it was originally, my stepson said, 'Hey! There's writing on the wall!' " The writing said, "Huebner & Huebner General Contracting - Painting and Decorating Sept. - 1929." On the library's Sanborn maps, they discovered that their porch had probably been added during the 1920s. The Sanborn Map Co. atlases were used to assess fire risk for insurance, and they showed the shapes of the houses and where they were located. Rather than distribute new maps every year, the company sent out updates to be pasted on the original map. Tudhope could see where her porch had been pasted on to the map. As she became more interested in her home, she also started researching her neighborhood. A gas station once sat catercorner from her home. A hotel once stood where the Wild Oats store is now. The Capitol Hill neighborhood used to be full of stone mansions that were ripped down to make room for strips of stores or apartment buildings. "My plan is to do a scrapbook of everything we did in the house," Tudhope said. "I'd at least duplicate it and leave it for the next owners, just for fun." Tudhope's research also may increase the value of her home. Shelleen Baraldi is a real estate agent for Remax Northwest Realty who has worked with owners to try to sell their historic homes in the Denver area. "If you get it added to the historic register, it makes it difficult to buy because there's a long list of things that must be done to maintain it," Baraldi said. "But it certainly adds to the value. People who are specifically interested just get elated when they find someone who knows something about the house." Baraldi became interested in historic homes when she owned one in Brighton that was built in 1910. "I liked learning about how they built something back then," she said. "And it was fun. There were a lot of people in town who would say, "Oh, you're the little girl who bought the old Foster place.' " Green, the author of "Discovering the History of Your House . . . and Your Neighborhood," said real estate agents often come to her house-history research classes "because they find that the history can help (a home) sell faster and for a better price." She began teaching the classes after she moved into a 1908 American foursquare in Western Springs, a suburb of Chicago. "I just started getting curious," Green said. "I went to the local historical society and said, "Here's my address. What do you have?' " As it turned out, they didn't have much. She went back with a list of previous owners and discovered the house was built by a Swedish-American carpenter. Then the historical society found a picture of the house from 1912. "This is the kind of thing people will kill for," Green said. "Before I moved into that house, I wasn't really interested in history." Afterward, her whole family became involved in the project. Her teenaged daughter took a string with a hook on the end to the carriage house behind the main home and started "fishing" for history between the wall studs. She found it: lead soldiers from WWI, old olive jars, board games and a Swedish language newspaper that had been published in Chicago in the early part of the 20th century. "I became so interested that I started teaching classes," Green said, "but there weren't any good books out there." She decided to write one of her own. Green contacted every state's historic preservation society and found a lot of similarities about how people should begin: with appraiser codes, street name changes, Sanborn maps. But she recommends asking if there's something specific in each state or city. For example, New Orleans has a notorial directory that contains sketches of every house built until 1920. In Denver, the water connection records can give homeowners a good idea of when their home was first occupied - unless, of course, it was built before the sewer lines went in. On Sanborn maps in the West, she discovered that many lots first had log cabins built at the rear of the property where families lived until the frame home at the front of the property was finished. She also recommends persistence when doing research. "Rephrase questions," she said. "Go in and ask again when somebody different is at the desk. I know of some people who have had luck running an ad in the local paper. And donate a copy of your scrapbook to the local historical society. You can't guarantee that the future owners will care as much as you do." Tudhope said she wasn't thinking about the value of the home when she began her search. She hopes to live in the home for a long time. "It's just fun," she said. "It's just interesting to find out who was there before." All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post or other copyright holders. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed for any commercial purpose