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Lombardi House -
1117 19TH ST
 Print Listing
Historical Name -
McMurdo House; Bowers House
Style -
Bungalow
Built Year -
1920
State ID -
5WL3713
Description -
This bungalow was built in 1920. It is a one-and-one-half story, wood frame structure, supported by a concrete foundation. The foundation walls have been faced with sandstone, and there is a basement beneath the dwelling, with the foundation walls penetrated by 3-light hopper basement windows. The home's exterior walls are cladded with painted salmon color square-cut wood shingle siding. The house is covered by a moderately -pitched cross gabled roof, with brown asphalt shingles, and with exposed rafter ends beneath the eaves. Decorative purlins and ridge poles 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 roof ridge. A large single-light fixed-pane "picture window" is located on the façade, on the south elevation. Otherwise the home's windows are primarily single and paired 1-over-1 double hung sash, with painted beige wood frames. The house's windows also feature distinctive, painted beige, wood surrounds, which create a false half-timbering motif around the windows. The house features a Craftsman style front porch on the south elevation. This porch has a tongue-and-groove wood floor, stone and concrete knee walls, stone pedestals, and delicate wood piers, which support a gabled porch roof. A stained natural brown solid wood door, with one upper sash light, and with a black metal storm door, leads from the porch into the home's interior. A side entrance is located near the north end of the east elevation, where a solid wood door, with an aluminum storm door, opens onto a concrete stoop.
Historical Background -
According to Greeley city directories, the home's first residents were Milo and Grace Eidson, who lived here between 1920 and 1922. Mr. Eidson, at that time, was employed as a civil engineer with the Engineering Construction Corporation. Mrs. Eidson was probably a homemaker, as city directories indicate they had four children. Following the Eidson family's relatively brief tenure, the property continued to change hands frequently until the late 1950s. The property's residents during these years included S. L. Music (ca. 1922-1924), William F. McFie (ca. 1925-1929), Ward and Edith McMurdo (ca. 1930-1934), Dr. William G. and Ollie Bowers (ca. 1935-1942), Russell M. and Marjorie Kingsley (ca. 1943-1955), and Robert M. Cooper (ca. 1956-1958).
Ward and Edith McMurdo were married at Marissa, Illinois on July 5, 1919. Following their marriage, they came west to Greeley, where Ward gained employment at the Colorado State Teachers' College. The 1931 Greeley city directory lists Mr. McMurdo's occupation as "Treasurer-CTC." Ward McMurdo passed away at a relatively young age in 1939. Mrs. McMurdo passed away many years later, in November 1978, at the age of 78.
Dr. William G. Bowers, who lived here in the late 1930s and early 1940s, was a chemistry professor at the Colorado State Teachers' College, and Russell Kingsley, who lived here in the late 1940s and 1950s, was the proprietor of Kingsley Service Station.
From 1959 until 2000, this property was the home of Mrs. Helen Tisdel. Mrs. Tisdel is the widow of Peras A. Tisdel, and for many years, she was employed as a dietician at the University of Northern Colorado.
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