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Englewood Historic Preservation SocietyPreserving Englewood Colorado History

September 8th - SaturdayEnglewood Block Party, from 3:00 PM - 9:00 PM. EHPS will have two booths: a historic society booth sharing local history and a beer sales booth. We need your help to staff both booths! Call Doug Cohn at 303-587-2407 or CJ Cullinan at 720-556-6770 and volunteer.

September 20th or 22ndTour the Lee Maxwell Washing Machine Museum in Weld County. The museum has two tours: 9:30 AM or 1:30 PM, weekdays or weekends. Wheelchair accessible, $7.50 tickets. Lunch self-pay at Eaton Country Club. Side tour to Swetsville Zoo. Enjoy art sculptures made from old machinery, (donation only) in Ft. Collins. Call CJ at 720.556.6770 to RSVP & Carpool.

September 24th - MondayInstead of our regular lecture EHPS will be hosting a hands on look at the artifacts in our history closet and storage areas. Please meet in the Altenbach Room at the Library at 2:30 PM and again at the BOB at 6:30 PM. You will get to view and work with artifacts from our past.

October 13th - SaturdayPlan on attending “History Camp Colorado” from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM at Arapahoe Community College. Cost is $39 and includes a T-shirt, lunch and quite a number of history talks to attend. For more info visit HistoryCamp.org/Colorado.

October 12th,13th,19th & 20thFridays & Saturdays: 7PM- 9PMGet Your Ghost On! Join the Gilpin County Historic Society for the 10th Annual Creepy Crawl in Central City. This 60+ minute walking tour features storytellers recreating bone chilling murders, ghostly encounters, and other supernatural tales, all based on true events from Central City’s colorful past. $15 in advance through www.eventbrite.com or $20 for walk-ups. For more information visit www.gilpinhistory.org or call 303-582-5283.

N E W S L E T T E R V O L . 7 N O 1 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8EHPS ~ 1000 Englewood Parkway ~ Englewood, Colorado 80110

Doug Cohn & Dave Paschal - EditorsLindsey Runyan - Graphic Design

OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Matt Crabtree President

Paul Skizinski Vice President

Jeff BarkerTreasurer

CJ CullinanSecretary

Doug Cohn Lecture Director

Ida May Nicholl Outreach Director

Sharlene BarkerEvent Director

Lindsey RunyanCommunications Director

Pat LamoeBoard Member At Large

Ken OhmstedeBoard Member At Large

Englewood Historic Preservation Society

MissionTo Preserve and share Englewood’s history.

Upcoming Events for Fall

DUES Are Due!

Please RENEW your membership in our society!

You can use the form in this newsletter or go to our website.

We thank you for your contribution.

THE HISTORY OF FLOODING IN ENGLEWOODHave you heard of the flooding on South Broadway a month ago? It has been called a one hundred year flood. I wondered about the history of flood-ing in our town. Here is what I found: Quincy is high; Belleview is high, east of Broadway near Franklin is higher. Water flows observed down the valley toward Tufts and Broadway.

We are all so sorry Rachel Haber lost her life and other homes were flooded on July 24th this year.

Perspective: No homes were built on Acoma, Bannock, or Cherokee as late as the 30s. There is a small creek in that valley. The brown sausage shaped thing in the upper left on the map is a stock pond for the dairy cows. The homes on Acoma, Bannock and Cherokee were built in the late 40s and early 50s. The creek was put in a small pipe in the alley between Broadway and Acoma. The SW Greenbelt put in place to catch flooding in 1973. About 3 dozen homes were removed to provide a course for the flooding. In 1998 and again in 1999, Urban Drainage and Flood Control urged the creation a drainage system for the flood zone in the area with two detention ponds

east of Broadway and a very large pipe that would carry flood water to the greenbelt. That flood preventive action was never done. The alternative was to build a large pipe from Clarkson west to Tufts and Broadway to carry the flood waters to the greenbelt area. This plan would have required the removal of some houses on Acoma and Ban-nock to make way for the 10’x10’ pipe.

That storm system upgrade was never done. This second choice would have handled a five year flood, but not the big one. On August 11, 1911 a heavy rain flooded out a party in Cherrelyn area of Englewood washing out Broadway. It damaged the farm east of Broadway. The neighbors helped with clean up. This is the only other big flood I could confirm in

South Englewood. Maybe it was a hundred year flood this past July!

Little Dry Creek, the one that flows by the Surplus Store flooded in1909, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1927, 1933, 1953, 1956, 1953, 1965 and 1973. Floods on Little Dry Creek caused lots of damage to homes and businesses. Neighbors helped with the cleanup. John Nicholl, an Englewood engineer, Ida May’s husband, county commissioner and visionary solved the problem on Little Dry Creek when a dam was built at Holly and Arapahoe Road in 1967. That dam has also kept Centennial and Cherry Hills from flooding.In 1913, residents of Englewood con-tributed to the relief of Mrs. Julia Guth-rie and her three children, who were made homeless by the Englewood flood. Many other times, neighbors

helped with cleanup and recovery, taking care of their neighbors!

I think it is wonderful that neighbors, the Red Cross, the City are helping with the recovery this year.

By Doug CohnPhotos: Englewood Public Library

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1913 Flood

1956 Flood

1933 Flood

1963 Flood

THE CHERRELYN GRAVITY AND BRONCO RAILROAD

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By Doug Cohn

Photos from Englewood Public Libray

The Cherrelyn horse car in Englewood is the best-known horse drawn mass transit vehicle in the United States and perhaps the world. This car is unique because the horse rode down the hill after pulling it up the one-mile long track along Broadway from Hampden Avenue to the town of Cherrelyn at Quincy Ave. The trip up hill took about 15 minutes. The downhill ride took about 5 minutes unless a strong north wind required the passengers to get out and push the car to the bottom of the hill. The horse car was in service from 1892 to 1910.

During the 1890s, a Denver banker named Kountze and the Broadway Investment Company saw an oppor-tunity to convert farmland into homes way out in the country. Transportation to the site was essential since the Denver Tramway Company street cars stopped at Hampden. The promoters talked with some imaginative people who came up with a solution to this problem. M.C. Bogue and his wife Harrietta decided to run a horse trolley. The got three horse cars from Denver Tramway that had just converted to electric streetcars. (Denver’s first light rail system).

Bogue build a ramp at the uphill end for the horse to climb onto the rear platform of the car. There was a

ramp at the bottom for the horse to dismount for the trip back up.

A number of horses pulled the car. The most famous was Old Dick. He was the last horse to haul the car and died just a few weeks after the line was discon-tinued in 1910. Some say he died of a broken heart.

There were several drivers including Bogue, Robert Haddow, John Matthews, Stan Lassla, James O’Brian and a man named Voth. Mr. Voth’s grand son owned the Sir Speedy Printing store on South Broadway in Englewood. O’Brian took over daily operations in 1902 and bought the line from Mr. Bogue in 1908. The line continued service for two more years until its franchise expired and Arapahoe County refused to renew it. In November 1910, the line ceased operations.

During it’s hey day, the Cherrelyn horse car was a major tourist attraction. Most of the riders wanted their pictures taken with the horse and car.

In 1911, the horse car was sold to Mr. Liebhardt. His children used it as a playhouse for many years. Then in 1950, Liebhardts’s heirs offered the car to the Englewood Rotary Club. The Rotarians invested $500 to refurbish it and then gave it to the City of

Englewood. In July 1964, Walter Cobb had a life-size horse made to complete the exhibit. The original horse car with the horse now proudly stands outside the library at the Englewood Civic Center.

ENGLEWOOD HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETYEHPS c/o Englewood Library ~ 1000 Englewood Parkway ~ Englewood, Colorado 80151

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IN A HISTORY MAKING ADVENTURE!We have a broad-based mission, including the restoration and preservation of historic buildings, accepting,

cataloging and displaying donated artifacts, recording, transcribing and publishing the oral history of Englewood and its residents, providing interesting and educational lectures each month on historical subjects,

and reaching out to our local schools to assist with instilling a love of history in the students.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT AS A MEMBER, A VOLUNTEER, AND AN ADVOCATE!We welcome new members at all levels of involvement: positions of leadership, administration,

committee chairs and volunteers, or simply furthering our mission by supporting us with your annual dues.

Name________________________________________________ Date _____________________

Address________________________________________________________________________

City________________________________ State ____________ Zip ______________________

Phone________________________ Email ____________________________________________

New Member Renewing Member $__________ check enclosed to:

M E M B E R S H I P A P P L I C A T I O N We are a 501c3 non-profit organization. Dues and other contributions are tax deductible.

Annual membership rates include: Individual $20, Family $35.