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Thompson House -
1121 CRANFORD PL
 Print Listing
Historical Name -
Palmer House
Style -
Bungalow
Built Year -
1919
State ID -
5WL3685
Description -
This bungalow residence is located on the north side of Cranford Place, in the block between 11th and 12th Avenues. Supported by a low concrete foundation, faced with red brick, the home has a full basement, with three-light hopper basement windows. The building is of wood frame construction, but its exterior walls have been cladded with blue horizontal aluminum siding. The house is covered by a low-pitched front gable roof, covered with red asphalt shingles, and with painted white exposed rafter ends beneath widely-overhanging eaves. Distinctive, decorative, purlins and ridge poles appear in the house's upper gable ends, as well as in the upper gable end of the porch roof. One red brick chimney is located on the south facing roof slope, and there is a large fireplace chimney on the exterior of the south elevation. The house's windows are a combination of paired 1/1 double-hung sash, and 1x1 horizontal sliders, all with Queen Anne, or cottage style, lights in their upper sashes. All of the windows feature painted white wood frames and surrounds. A stained natural brown solid wood door, with three leaded glass upper sash lights, and with a red metal storm door, opens onto a Craftsman style porch which covers the eastern 2/3s of the façade (south elevation). The porch features a concrete floor, red brick kneewalls, and tapered red brick columns, which support a gabled porch roof. A secondary entrance is located on the north (rear) elevation, where a wood-paneled door, with an aluminum storm door, opens onto a concrete patio, covered by a shed roof.
Historical Background -
Constructed in 1919, this house was one of over 200 houses which were constructed in the Cranford neighborhood during the 1910s and 1920s. According to Greeley city directories, the property's earliest residents were L.G. Bradfield and Mrs. Berte Guiles, who may have lived in a basement apartment. Bradfield and Guiles both apparently lived here a short time, however, as by 1923 they were no longer listed in the directory. In the latter part of the 1920s, and into the 1930s, the home was occupied by Hubert D. Eldridge, Earle Moor, and Walter H. Douglas.
In 1932 or 1933, 1121 Cranford Place became the residence of Frank S. and Anna Palmer. Born at New Haven, Connecticut on July 1, 1869, Frank S. Palmer came west to Greeley with his family at the age of eleven. After coming of age, Frank married his wife Anna. Born on August 13, 1884, in Sparta, Illinois, Anna had also come west with her family. She was fifteen years younger than her husband. According to their obituaries, Frank and Anna evidently had no children. After moving into this house in 1932 or 1933, the Palmers lived here as a couple for only a short time - until Frank's death on January 1, 1934. Professionally, Mr. Palmer had been an accountant. For many years he worked for local school district #6, followed by an 18 year career as a real estate clerk in the Weld County Clerk's office. Following her husband's death in 1934, Anna continued to live here until circa 1947. At that time she sold the property to A.L. and Lucile Knous (Knouse), and moved to Colorado Springs. Some years later, Anna returned to Greeley where she eventually passed away on May 11, 1973, at the age of 88.
Greeley city directories indicate that the Knous family lived here for only a few years, between circa 1947 and 1951. Wilhelm Witting then lived here briefly, circa 1952 and 1953, before the property was acquired by the John E. Hume family. The Humes subsequently lived and owned here through the end of the 1960s. In the early 1970s, Lawrence W. Dorsey was the home's owner and occupant. In more recent years, the property has mostly been used as a rental.
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