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Duff House -
923 6TH ST
 Print Listing
Historical Name -
Baker House; Baker-Duff House
Style -
Late Victorian/Italianate
Built Year -
1883
State ID -
5WL2263
Description -
This vernacular residence with Italianate details is a rectangular, one-and-one-half story, wood frame structure with an asphalt shingle, front gabled roof. Roof features include a shed-roofed wall dormer on the east elevation. It has a stone foundation and wood tongue-and-groove siding that is scored to appear like brick (Italianate detailing). It also has wooden quoins on all corners, giving the impression that it is brick (Italianate detailing). The main facade contains an off-centered entrance. The covered entry has triangular brackets supporting the hood, which may have been added later, as they resemble the Craftsman style and do not fit with the original characteristics of this house. Windows are narrow one-over-one double hunt with a triangular wood molding over the pair on the south elevation second story windows. There is a one-story bay window on the south elevation with decorative brackets and one-over-one windows and a box window on the east elevation with the same types of brackets and windows. The windows and decorative brackets are very characteristic of the Italianate style. The brick chimney is located in the center of the ridge.
Historical Background -
Local contractor and builder Joseph Moss constructed this house in 1883. Moss was an original member of the Union Colony, having joined and moved to Greeley in 1870. He and his wife came to New York from England in approximately 1852, and he served for the Union army in the Civil War before heading west in 1870. He died of Bright’s disease in 1903.
The first resident of the house is unknown, but city directories indicate that Frank E. Baker, a prominent local photographer, lived in the house with his family from at least 1898 until 1905. He came to Greeley in 1871 from Illinois and married Harriet E. Davis in September of 1872. His photographic documentation is important for the understanding of local history, particularly the photos of potato fields, which contributes to knowledge of agricultural history of the area. Baker took many of the photos which are in the City of Greeley Municipal Archives collection.
Luman Kimball was the first owner of the house, having purchased the property from B.D. Sanborn in 1882. He sold it to Elizabeth Tyroff in 1885, who in turn sold it to Joseph Joyce, Sr. in 1887. The Joseph Joyce deeded the property to Mary Ann Joyce in 1902, who in turn deeded it to William Joyce in 1921. City directories suggest it was probably used as a rental, because, according to the directories, the Joyce family never lived there. Their daughter Edna Joyce married Frank Lofgren on March 14, 1910 in Denver.
William Joyce deeded the property to Frank and Edna Lofgren in 1935. They lived in the house until Mrs. Lofgren died in June 1961. Edna Lofgren lived in Greeley all her life and was a member of First United Presbyterian Church and was active in the Democratic Party. Mr. Lofgren continued to live at 923 6th Street until he passed away in 1973. Frank Lofgren came to Greeley in 1892 from Nebraska, where he was born in August of 1886. He worked as an electrician for Home Light and Power for more than thirty-five years before he retired in 1952. Gertrude A. Duff, the daughter of Frank and Edna Lofgren, and formerly Gertrude A. Lofgren, has lived in the house from 1935 until the present.
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