Real estate appraisal card. 415 E. 1st Street, lots 8-10, block 25, in Salida, Colorado.
This house was built between 1888 and 1895. The 1903-04 city directory indicated that the family of Samuel G. Vandenburg lived here. Samuel Vandenburg, born about 1855 in Ohio, worked as a railroad conductor. His wife, Emma, was born about 1868 in Illinois. Their son, Harry, was born about 1891 in Colorado. Also living with the family was a female boarder who worked as a dressmaker.
The 1911-12 city directory listed the family of Clarence Harvey Sunbury at this address. Members of the family continued to live here for many years. Salida pioneer Clarence Harvey Sunbury was born 6 April 1861, in Waterloo, Iowa. He came to Salida as a young man, in 1887, and he lived here for the rest of his life. He married Eleanor Sunbury (no relation to him) in Des Moines, Iowa, two years before coming to Salida. Mrs. Sunbury was born in Wisconsin and died in 1922. Together they had one son (Clarence Matthew) and three daughters (Merle, Bessie, and Erma). The Sunbury family was listed living on F Street in the 1910 Census. Mr. Sunbury lived for 19 years on a ranch near the Smelter bridge, known as the Sunbury bridge, and the railroad switch crossing his ranch was known as the Sunbury switch. He was living in this house with his daughter Merle by 1931, but had run the London Dairy for many years, as well as working as a conductor for D&RG for 45 years. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge and Scottish Rite Consistory at Pueblo. Mr. Sunbury died in May 1943, at the D&RG Hospital, after many years of failing health. His obituary referred to him as "one of Salida's oldest residents in both age and in years of residence."
By 1922, Merle M. Sunbury lived here. Miss Sunbury, a native Salidan born in 1889, graduated from Salida High School and attended Western State College in Gunnison. She worked as a teacher in Monarch for several years before returning to Salida. She worked as a secretary/bookkeeper for Dr. George H. Curfman by 1922. Following that, she worked as secretary at the Chamber of Commerce for several years, before becoming a nurse's aid and working at D&RGW Hospital for many years. She was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension and a member of the Topaz Chapter 27 Order of the Eastern Star. She was also a member of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. She passed away in 1965, when she was survived by two of her sisters, Erma and Bessie.
History Colorado's Architectural Inventory Forms have more information and are available at the Salida Library.
