| |
Gonzalez House -
1119 19TH ST
 Print Listing
Historical Name -
Baab House; Sweigard House
Style -
Bungalow
Built Year -
1920
State ID -
5WL3712
Description -
The residence at 1119 19th Street was built in the bungalow form in 1920. The home is a one-and-one-half story, wood frame structure supported by a concrete foundation. There is a basement beneath the dwelling , and the foundation walls are penetrated by three-light hopper basement windows. The home's exterior walls are clad with painted white horizontal wood siding, with buff red color square-cut wood shingle siding in the upper gable end on the façade (south elevation). The house is covered by a low-pitched front gable roof, with grey asphalt shingles, and with exposed rafter ends beneath the eaves. Decorative purlins and ridge poles, with kneebraces, appear in the upper gable ends, on the north and south elevations. There are two red brick chimneys - one located on the exterior of the west elevation, and the other located on the west-facing roof slope. The home's windows are primarily single and paired 8-over-1 double hung sash.
Historical Background -
This 1920 house has served as a single family residence from the time it was constructed until the present. According to Greeley city directories, the home's first resident was Earl H. Pettit, who lived here for about three years. Following Mr. Pettit's relatively brief tenure, the property continued to change hands frequently through the end of the 1950s. The property's residents over these years included Mrs. Stella R. Brilhart (ca. 1925-1934), Oliver L. Parker (1935-1936), F.D. Healey (1937), Darrell Barnard (1938-1939), Lon E. Edwards (1940-1944), William R. & Esther (Schonstrom) Baab (ca. 1946-1951), and Laverne F. Harris (ca. 1955-1959).
Greeley city directories indicate that in 1922, William R. Baab was a student at Colorado State Teachers' College, and that in the 1930s, he was an attorney with his offices in the Greeley Building. According to her obituary, Esther (Schonstrom) Baab was born on August 12, 1909, to S.A. and Hannah Schonstrom in Denver. In 1931, she graduated from the Colorado State Teachers' College, and that same year, she was married to Mr. William R. Baab. Following the death of her husband in 1948, Esther re-enrolled at the college where she obtained a master's degree. Mrs. Baab and her two daughters, then moved to Farmington, New Mexico where Esther was supervisor of music for the school district's elementary schools. Later, Mrs. Baab became an assistant professor of music at Jacksonville State University in Florida, and she also taught continuing education in music and German at the University of Salzburg in Austria. After retiring to Texas, Mrs. Baab passed away on June 16, 1998 at the age of 88.
Between 1961 and 1996, 1119 19th Street was home of Mrs. Vera (Forsythe) Sweigard. Mrs. Sweigard had been born on May 4, 1901, in Griswold, Iowa, to Frank and Lenore Forsythe. Vera came to northeastern Colorado with her family as a young child, where they homesteaded south of Keota. In May 1920, she married Ross Sweigard of Greeley, and they subsequently farmed in the Keota, Buckingham and New Raymer areas. Mr. Sweigard passed away in January 1955, and six years later, Mrs. Sweigard moved to this house in Greeley. She lived here during her retirement years, until shortly before her death on August 5, 1996.
|