233 E. 1st Street

Description

Real estate appraisal card. 233 E. 1st Street, lots 4-5, block 23, in Salida, Colorado. The 1903-04 city directory indicated that Ada Jane McNichol (b. 1874) lived here and offered furnished rooms for rent in this building. Her family included her husband Alexander McNichol, an engineer with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and their two daughters. A nurse, Ella Nelson, roomed with them in 1903. Originally from Pennsylvania, Mrs. McNichol died in August 1905 at the age of thirty-two from blood poisoning. Mr. McNichol and his children continued to live here following her death. In 1906, the house included two boarders: Nora Duffy and Toff Wicks, who worked as a fireman for D&RG. Mr. McNichol was born in Schuyler, Nebraska on August 10, 1871. When he arrived in Salida 1894, he immediately began working for the railroad, first as a fireman and then as an engineer. Alexander McNichol and three other men died in a train wreck near Pando in September 1907, at the age of thirty-six. The train engineered by Mr. McNichol went out of control after the air brakes failed. He had only recently returned to work after remarrying and going on an extended wedding trip in the East. The funeral was held in this house and conducted by the engineers' lodge of which Mr. McNichol was chief. He was lauded as a devoted husband and father, "quiet and unassuming." Mr. McNichol was buried alongside his wife, father, and a brother in Fairview Cemetery. Following her husband's death, Mrs. Ellen McNichol continued to live here and offered furnished rooms for rent. The 1911-12 city directory listed Mrs. McNichol under furnished rooms. She was born in Guyes Mills, Pennsylvania in 1871. There were six people renting rooms in 1911-12, including a clerk at the Crews-Beggs Mercantile Co., an engineer, two firemen, and a restaurant owner. By 1920, Ellen McNicol had married Thomas J. Teller (b.1867), and they continued to live at this address. Thomas was employed as a truck driver at the Salida Fruit Company. He was born in Jefferson, Nebraska. There were three lodgers living with the Tellers in 1920, including one German and one Canadian. In 1930, no lodgers lived with the Tellers, who continued to reside here. Thomas Teller died in April 1934 at the age of sixty-six. He had lived in Salida for seventeen years. Ellen M. Teller died in July 1943 at the age of seventy-one. Prominent and longtime Salida resident Dr. C. Rex Fuller (b.1892) had an office at this address by 1951. He and his wife Marie Hermansen Fuller lived at 541 F St. They were married on June 20, 1914 in Kearney, Nebraska. They had a daughter, Barbara. Born in 1892 in Emerson, Nebraska, Dr. Fuller first came to Salida in 1916, to serve as house physician at the D&RG Hospital. In a 1959 newspaper interview, he recalled delivering babies in front of the fireplace, the only source for light, in the early days of Salida, when he was one of only five doctors in the Salida area. During World War I, he was a regimental surgeon from 1917 to 1920 in an evacuation ambulance company in El Paso, Texas. In 1920, he returned to working at the D&RG Hospital, where he worked until retiring in 1959. He continued his own private practice until late in 1960. Dr. Fuller died in June 1961. Dr. Leo J. Leonardi also had an office here in 1951. His residence was located at 303 E. 2nd. Two nurses at D&RG Hospital, June Billingham and Yvonne Robideaux, lived in this building in 1951. Also living here were Rockne and Kathleen Holmes. Rockne Holmes was an assistant manager at the JM McDonald Store. Harold R. Koster, Inc., is listed on an Assessor appraisal card as a previous owner. History Colorado's Architectural Inventory Forms have more information and are available at the Salida Library.