n/a - 1718 8th Avenue

 Print Listing Historical Name - Wiebking House
Style - Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals/Colonial Revival
Built Year - 1902
State ID - 5WL.5892

Description - The two-story, Dutch Colonial Revival home at 1718 8th Avenue faces west and also includes a full basement. The wood-frame, rectangular plan building has horizontal wood siding, a sandstone foundation, decorative sills and lintels on all windows and doors, and a gambrel roof with composition shingles, boxed eaves, a negligible overhang, and dentil molding at the roof-wall junction. A full-width porch and distinctive gambrel end dominate the west elevation (façade). The shed-roof porch features centered concrete steps, a balustrade rail with turned spindle posts, and classical columns; the north end has a large single-pane window with a rectangular transom, while the south end has two doors. The paneled south door with an eight-light transom provides entrance to the main floor, and the north door leads to the second floor, per 1996 remodel plans. Above the front porch, the gambrel end has wood shingles, an oval attic vent, and a canted oriel window with fixed diamond light transoms and dentil crown molding. On the south elevation, there is a diamond-light casement window, a single one-over-one window, a two-panel door with a large window that provides entry to the basement, a brick chimney, dentil molding at the roof-wall junction, three small, hipped-roof dormers with diamond-light casement windows, and two basement windows. The north elevation has a brick chimney projecting through a large gambrel-roof dormer with a diamond light window and decorative shingles; dentil molding at the roof-wall junction; two diamond-light casement windows and a single-pane rectangular window west of the chimney; an oriel window with a decorative frame and braces, and three hopper windows to the basement. On the east elevation, a shed roof covers an enclosed porch positioned left of center. The porch has a ribbon of three, six-light, wood windows. A narrow wooden open-step stairway with railings leads to a small wood platform in front of the door. A wood door with a square window leads into the porch. Above the door is a rectangular, single-light, fixed window. A one-by-one aluminum window is south of the porch while a ribbon of three wooden lattice windows with wood screens is to the north. The east gable end is covered with plain wood shingles and has two one-over-one windows.

Historical Background - Weld County Assessor’s records state that the home at 1718 8th Avenue was constructed in 1902. Greeley City Directories list the first occupants in 1910, electrician Albert L. Lindner and his wife Nellie. In 1917, Harry J. and Edith Gale Wiebking moved into the home. Mrs. Wiebking was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; her family moved to Denver in the early 1900s, and she received her elementary and secondary education there. After receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Colorado State College in Greeley, Mrs. Wiebking taught in Greeley Public Schools. Her positions with District Six included director of art and the first home economics teacher at Greeley High School. Harry J. and Edith Gale Wiebking were married on September 2, 1910. Mr. Wiebking was the president of the Goodman-Neill Clothing Company and later worked for Hibbs Clothing Company. Mrs. Wiebking was an associate dean of women, director of the women’s campus residence halls, and professor of English at Colorado State College from 1918-1949. Mr. and Mrs. Wiebking resided on campus for many years, serving as directors for Belford and Snyder Halls. She also served as a president of Delta Kappa Gamma, a national teacher’s sorority. Wiebking Hall, completed in June 1957, was named for Edith Gale Wiebking. She also received professor emeritus status in 1949, after her retirement. In the community, the Wiebkings were also members of Trinity Episcopal Church. Mr. Wiebking died on January 17, 1967; Mrs. Wiebking passed soon after on September 5, 1968. The Wiebkings are listed as residents of 1718 8th Avenue on and off from 1917 – 1966 (there is no City Directory for 1967, and the year 1968 had no information). On the years that they are not listed as residents, others lived in the home, usually faculty or staff from the university. In 1969, David L. and Helen C. Lonsdale moved into the home. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1970. Mr. Lonsdale worked as a professor at the university while Mrs. Lonsdale was a coordinator at Aurora Hills Middle School. In December 1995, Mrs. Lonsdale sold the home to John and Nancy Meredith; a letter to the City of Greeley planning department in 1996 noted that the Merediths resided at 5949 23rd Street and were remodeling the home for use as a rental property. They sold the home to the current owners, 8th and 11th LLC in October 2002. The home is now a rental property.