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Scott House -
415 13TH ST
 Print Listing
Historical Name -
Borgens House
Style -
Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements/Craftsman
Built Year -
1920
State ID -
5WLXXX8
Description -
This Craftsman style residence is a rectangular, one-and-one-half story, wood frame structure with an asphalt shingle, side-gabled roof. Roof features include exposed roof beams, exposed rafter ends, a front gabled dormer and wide overhanging eaves. It has a concrete foundation and lapped siding. The main façade contains a centered entrance. The one-story, full-width front porch is enclosed with multi-light wood frame windows and has brick piers with wood columns on the corners. Windows are multi-light-over-one, wood frame, double hung sash. There is a ribbon of three double hung windows in the front gabled dormer.
Historical Background -
Conrad Borgens, grandfather of the current owner Sandra Scott, built this house in 1920 at a cost of approximately $3500. Conrad worked as a carpenter and lived in the house with his wife Marie Katherine (Mary) and their children Fred, Carl, Reuben, Harold, Helen and Rienholdt. Conrad was born in White Russia in approximately 1876. His family farmed there and he served in the Russian Army, building wagons for carrying cannons, which is possibly where he got his carpentry skills. Marie worked as a cook in the house of Conrad’s parents in White Russia and she and Conrad married in approximately 1900.
Conrad and Marie came to Lincoln, Nebraska, coming to North America to Canada and then taking a train to Lincoln. Conrad worked in a butter factory in Lincoln and built a house there. Their first five children were born in Lincoln. Their daughter Helen, the fifth of the six children, was born in Lincoln in 1915. They came to Greeley between 1916 and 1920. After they arrived in Greeley, Conrad worked in the beet fields and did carpentry, renting houses until he built the house at 415 13th Street in 1920. According to Conrad’s granddaughter Sandra, he decided to build a house because he was tired of renting. He purchased the lot on which the house stands, which had a smaller house on it. He moved the house to East 16th Street. Daughter Helen was five years old when Conrad started construction by digging out the basement with horses. Sandra further indicated that Conrad finished the basement and put on a temporary roof and the family moved into the basement so Conrad could work and build the house concurrently. Conrad worked on houses around what is now the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), the interior of the UNC President’s house and the Meeker School on 9th Avenue.
Conrad became a U.S. citizen in the 1920s. His wife Marie had diabetes and was in and out of the Weld County Hospital. She died from it in 1939. Though a carpenter, Conrad also raised rabbits and sold the pelts, also had a cow and chickens. They knew everyone in the neighborhood, made up primarily of Germans from Russia and attended St. Pauls’ Congregational Church. During World War II, Conrad also worked as an interpreter for the German Prisoners Of War. Conrad continued to live in the house until his death in 1964.
Helen Borgens married John Dorsey in October 1941. They lived and worked in Portland, Oregon for several years before returning to Greeley in the mid-1940s. Their son Harland was born in Portland in 1943 and daughter Sandra was later born in Greeley. John operated Dorsey Service Station at 7th Avenue and 13th Street from approximately 1946 through 1982 and then worked at Producer’s Livestock. Helen was a homemaker and then worked as a cook for School District 6 and then also at the University Center of the University of Northern Colorado. They continued to live in the house until their deaths in 2001 and 2002.
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