Davis House - Marcus Garvey Cultural Center - 928 20TH ST

 Print Listing Historical Name - Davis House
Style - Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements/Prairie Style
Built Year - 1909
State ID - 5WL4659

Description - This house is situated on the southeast corner of 20th Street and 10th Avenue. A planted grass yard with mature landscaping surrounds the structure and a concrete driveway runs along the east side of the house, connecting 20th Street to a garage on the southeast corner of the lot. Oriented to the north, the house rests on a buff-colored, rusticated sandstone foundation. A tan, brick veneer clads the exterior walls. Windows are generally one-over-one light, double-hung sash, with brown-painted wood frames, opening above buff-color, rusticated sandstone sills. Windows on the first story of the east and west elevations feature leaded transom lights with a simple, Prairie (or Wrightian) style wheat motif. Windows on the principal (north) elevation's first story are one-light, fixed frame. A tripartite window opens in the center of the principal (north) elevation's second story; it is comprised of one-over-one, double hung sash windows, with leaded transoms replicating the Prairie design. A window in the center of the east elevation's second story has been enclosed with brown-painted, horizontal wooden composition siding. A front-gable porch, with exposed trusses resting on elaborately corbelled brick piers (with a typical Wrightian design) and carved brackets, protrudes from the center of the symmetrical front (north) façade. Four sandstone steps approach the porch. The front doorway hosts an unusually wide, one-light, glass-in-wood-frame door, opening behind a wood-frame screen door. Sidelights flank the door. Pink-tinted concrete blocks retain banks approaching the basement doorway, which opens near the center of the east elevation. The doorway hosts a one-light, wood slab door. A hipped-roof porch, now enclosed with brown-painted, horizontal wooden composition siding, is attached to the rear (south) elevation. The porch is entered on its east and through a gray-painted metal slab door. Above the porch is a balcony or sleeping porch. Its southwest corner has been enclosed with brown-painted, horizontal wooden composition siding. A pressure-treated lumber deck, with latticework knee walls, extends west and south from the porch. An L-shaped concrete ramp, with flanking tan brick walls, extends off the southwest corner of the house. It provides access to a one-light, wood slab door on the south end of the west elevation. Marking the end and corner of the ramp are brick piers supporting squat, decorative wrought-iron standards and lamps. Engaged chimneys are located at the center of the west elevation and offset south of center on the east elevation. Brown asphalt shingles cover the cross-hipped roof. The very broadly overhanging eaves are boxed with brown-painted beadboard soffit and fascia. A corbelled belt course and masonry brackets below the eaves merge upward to form pairs of heavy, wood brackets, extending onto the soffit.

Historical Background - In July 1887, James M. Freeman platted Arlington Heights. The area was also known as Freeman's Subdivision and consisted of a large area extending south from downtown Greeley. Local tax assessor records indicate that the current house was built in 1909. City directories reveal that John Sidney Davis and Blanche Davis lived at this address from 1909 through 1940 and indicate that Blanche owned the property from around 1941 until at least 1954. John Sidney Davis was a prominent Greeley banker and financier. (His previous home, a 1903 Free Classic Queen Anne at 931 12th Street, was listed as a City of Greeley Landmark in 1998.) Joseph C. Ewing owned the property in 1957, and Dr. Cecily Grumbine owned it in 1959. The Alpha Phi sorority used the house between 1962 and 1988. Alpha Phi was founded in 1872 at Syracuse University. The property is currently owned by the Trustees of State Colleges in Colorado and retains the name "Davis House." The structure hosts the Marcus Garvey Cultural Center. The Marcus Garvey Center for Black Cultural Education was established in 1982 as a source of support for African-American students on the campus of the University of Northern Colorado. The staff and programs of the center aim to challenge, support, and to increase the retention and graduation of African-American students. The Davis House also accommodates the studio of KSRX, UNC student radio.