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A path-breaking woman, an historic house, and a big-hearted church – these three have come together in a unique, community-centered project that needs your support. Will you help members of a little church – Family of Christ Presbyterian in Greeley – save, move and restore a beautiful Foursquare home designed by one of Colorado’s pioneering female architects – Bessie Smith – in 1907? The home, presently located at 1115 11th St. in Greeley, faces the wrecking ball. Owned by the city, it stands in the way of plans for a new municipal building. Worried about the house’s endangered future, members of Historic Greeley Inc. approached Family of Christ for help. The church’s congregation, strongly supported by their extended network of community garden partners, has risen to the challenge. They have pledged to raise the money needed to save this house, rehabilitate it, and make it into a safe place for building relationships across generations, sub-cultures, races and economic groups in our community.
Not surprisingly, it costs a lot to move a big old house and set it on a new foundation. Just the estimated upfront expenses approach $118,000. Transporting it down the road is only step one. Utility lines and traffic lights must be moved, a basement foundation constructed, and engineering fees and permits paid. How can a small congregation of fifty members afford such a project? Well, that’s a good question. Alone and by ourselves, it’s going to be tough. But this historic home is a community asset, and saving it will be a community-wide project. Already people are coming together to make it happen. Already the City of Greeley, anxious not to lose a house designed by its first female architect, has agreed to kick in $15,000. Members of the non-profit preservation advocacy organization, Historic Greeley Inc., have also pitched in and will cover some of the fees. We greatly appreciate this financial assistance. We feel inspired by how people are getting on board, even before the house is hoisted onto girders and transported across town. BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!
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What will the house be used for?
Relationships . . . Relationships . . . Relationships!
It will provide a comfortable, inviting and safe place for building potentially transformative relationships across our community between different generations, cultures, language groups, races and faith-based organizations. In addition to hosting church clusters, workshops, retreats, book groups and education classes, it will be in every sense a community building, open for all. Among its possibilities are the following:
- A pay-as-you-can cafe
- A youth center adjacent to Greeley West High School
- Garden-to-table dinners
- Space for classes (yoga, cooking, tai chi)
- Community meeting space
- Wedding receptions/Private events
- Emergency shelter/Guest housing
- Children's activities/Day-care
- Office space for local non-profit agencies
- Expansion of our Vecinos food pantry
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In summary, just like Family of Christ church which opens its doors to all, this house will have open doors for everyone in our community as well.
Why is it so important to save this property?
In the words of Greeley’s Historic Preservation Specialist Betsy Kellums, “the house is significant as an example of the work of Greeley’s first female architect, Bessie Smith. She designed several other Foursquare houses including the Southard House; the National, State and Local Register designated Plumb Farm House; and the State and Local Register designated Coronado Building. . . The significance and integrity of the house make it eligible for designation on the Greeley Historic Register.” Furthermore, “the house retains sufficient integrity to convey . . . historical significance for reflecting the heritage and cultural development of the City.”
What is the condition of the house?
The exterior is noticeably dilapidated, needing repairs to gutters and windows as well as work on siding, painting and roofing. The City of Greeley stripped the interior down to the studs and lath in order to remove all asbestos from the home. Structurally it is very strong, being constructed with fir and redwood as the primary building materials. All plumbing and electrical infrastructure has been removed, essentially making the interior a blank slate to start anew.
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So who exactly is Bessie Smith?
Bessie was a local girl, born on June 14, 1882 to Greeley contractor Franklin W. Smith and his wife Mary. According to historian Peggy Ford Waldo, she graduated from Greeley High School in 1899 and then studied architecture by “mail order” via the International Correspondence School. Her program of studies paid off when she was hired in 1901 by Bearrensen Brothers as “the only lady architect in Denver.” Two years later she moved back to Greeley where she set up her own practice in association with her father’s firm, Hall & Smith Contractors (“A Lady Architect,” Greeley Tribune, 29 January 1903). Between 1903 and 1910, when she and her family moved to San Diego, she designed many commercial and residential buildings praised as both aesthetically pleasing and practical. Among these are the following:
- Coronado Building
- McElroy Block
- Southard home
- Thompson Building on 7th St.
- Dr. Hughes residence (SW corner 11th Ave & 17th St.)
- Howard Rae residence (11th Ave. between 13th & 14th Sts.)
- Rectory of Episcopal Church
- C.L. Moore residence
- J.M. Ferguson residence on 10th Ave.
- The home we’re saving at 1115 11th St.
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Family of Christ sounds like a unique church. What’s it like?
We are an Open-Minded, Open-Hearted Community of Faith in the Christian Tradition. As an inclusive, progressive Family of faith located in Greeley, Colorado, we seek to make religion as intelligent as science, as appealing as art, as vital as the day’s work, as intimate as home, and as inspiring as love. Among all the Greeley churches, Family of Christ is unique. We represent something different from your traditional, mainline Protestant congregation. Our church is justice-seeking, open and affirming, growing in multi-cultural diversity, welcoming people regardless of creed, ability, sexual orientation or gender identity.
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We practice our faith by following in the path of Jesus – acting with compassion, providing hospitality to the stranger, working for justice, and always seeking to know God and ourselves more deeply. We are comfortable with questions and reject the rigidness that comes with dogmatic certainty. We take seriously our commitment to care for one another, the Earth, and the marginalized in our community.
Rather than to “hold out” for a peaceful world in an afterlife, our mission as a spiritual community is to actively build a new earth now, one that includes authentic relationships, social and ecological justice for all, and fosters peace through Jesus’s radical love of all humanity. In faith, we open ourselves to be active co-participants in God’s dream through prayer, study, and relationship-building within our church, wider community, and world.
Virtually every one of its members (presently numbering about fifty) volunteers (or has volunteered) for one or more local charities and non-profit organizations. Our much-loved pastors Nate & Jenn have worked and lived in Latin America and have led the effort to welcome Spanish speakers into our community. We run a heavily utilized food pantry for our migrant neighbors whom we call Vecinos. We have set aside part of our land for The Ubuntu Community Gardens and Orchard, which has attracted an enthusiastic, energetic and multi-cultural crowd of gardeners. And we have a popular theatre ministry, The Greeley Garage Sale Theatre, whose talented and dedicated members produce two plays a year, most recently The Glass Menagerie and The Laramie Project, donating proceeds ($2,500 in 2015 to the Matthew Shepard Foundation) to charities and non-profits. In our mission statement, the church declares itself to be “an open and affirming faith community sharing a commitment to public ministry, a belief in social justice, a healthy distrust of authority, an affinity for progressive thought and action, and an abiding faith that God looks kindly upon those who question.”
What about Colorado State Historical Fund grants?
The house is not eligible for State Historical Fund assistance until it is first designated on the local Greeley Historic Register. In turn, that cannot happen until it is moved and firmly set on its new foundation. Just as soon as we can, we intend to work with Historic Greeley Inc. in applying for a Colorado State Historical Fund grant to help pay for rehabilitation expenses. It is the purpose of this crowd-funding campaign to help defray up-front costs (estimated at $118,000) for moving and setting the house on the church’s property at 2410 35th Ave. in Greeley.
Can you be more specific about the up-front expenses?
The cost of moving the house, building a new foundation, and conducting the necessary site work totals approximately $120,000. Through member contributions, partial grant funding, and a stipend from the City of Greeley, our church has been able to secure $100,000 toward the project. Contributions given through this online campaign will allow the church to secure the historical house to a its new foundation, which will open up a myriad of grant funding possibilities for the house’s rehabilitation, most notably from Colorado State Historic Preservation. To see a complete financial plan for this project, click here.
