Did you know if you live in an older house in Denver, you can learn more about who lived there before you, how old your house actually is, and other fun facts about your home and area? Tracking the architectural history of your house can provide insight into your neighborhood’s legacy and paint a clearer picture of the location you chose to spend your life in.
Maybe your lot was built by one of the most legendary Boulder Colorado architects, or was inhabited by a famous person in a previous lifetime. Using a unique online tutorial from The Denver Public Library’s Building and Neighborhood History Collection in the Western History and Genealogy Department, you can pinpoint your home’s complete life cycle, who built the house, and if there’s any historical significance of the building, neighborhood, or surrounding area.
A number of factors can paint a clear picture of the complete known history of your house or building.
Using the Denver Assessor’s Office, look up your address using the Real Property Records website. This can provide an approximate date of construction but can be misleading or off by a year or two. You will find an additional name, block, and lot numbers.
Your address is needed for access to early building permits and other city records, although street names and addresses do change sometimes. Using this tool, you can also find property values and zoning information, as well as links to maps, photographs, or recent changes of title information.
Using real estate and fire insurance atlases collected by the library, you can find “footprints” of structures and detail how a neighborhood was developed. Though streets and numbers have changed over time, there are some resources to verify a building:
Using the library’s Digital Collections, many old photographs can be found of old houses and neighborhoods, which could shed light on even more history about your home. Search by street name or address, or neighborhood or district. If there’s a significant landmark near your home, try searching for that also.
The library states the Stephen H. Hart Library and Research Center at History Colorado also has a large collection of photographs and asking your neighbors or those living nearby could be useful as well. Finding who lived in your home before you may also lead to several old photographs.
Want to discover the thinking behind your house’s layout, or why the architect chose to put the den on the south side of the house, or the shed on the west side? You may be able to track them down. But keep in mind, most houses and buildings in Denver are not designed directly by an architect. If you don’t already have the building plans or didn’t discover them on the property, finding them can be impossible.
If the original building permit does list an architect, check the library’s catalog to see if your architect is listed. Here are some tips laid out by the library:
To find out more about your home and the surrounding area, try going for a full neighborhood search. Search the name of your neighborhood in the library’s catalog, and digital collections, ask the Western History and Genealogy Reference Desk for clipping files about your neighborhood or explore the history of selected neighborhoods in the Neighborhood History Guides exhibit.
Finding your house’s history can be a bit of a wild goose chase, but can help you understand the tales of the walls you’re living in. If you are seeking to build in a new neighborhood, contact your local architecture firm.
Image source: Depositphotos