107 Lower D Street

Description

Real estate appraisal card. 107 Lower (or North) D Street, lots 14-17, block 2, in Salida, Colorado. This building was erected between 1898 and 1903. The building was known as the DeWeese Terrace. The following information is excerpted from the Salida Mail, 5 June 1900: James Watt DeWeese was born on a farm in Miami County, Ohio. He lived in Ohio until moving to Elkhart, Indiana, at age fourteen. There he completed a "rather brief' education and entered the Lake Shore Railroad shops, serving as an apprentice machinist. He was steadily promoted until he was a regular draughtsman in the mechanical engineering department, which employed 800 men. For two years he worked on drawings for locomotive construction. In 1887, he moved to Salida as a machinist and worked in the local railroad shops. He was sent to Gunnison as round house foreman, working there for three years. He then resigned and went East to study freehand drawing at the Cincinnati Art Academy. From there he traveled to California "in search of a location." In 1894, he returned to Salida and established a building and loan business. In the same year, he formed a real estate and insurance partnership with W.S. O'Brien. The partners bought out the agencies of D.H. Craig and L.P. Rudolph. In 1898. Mr. DeWeese bought out Mr. O'Brien. He also erected another terrace in the 100 block of East Sackett. In addition to his real estate and insurance business, Mr. DeWeese was also involved with the Salida Building & Loan association and a member of the school board for District No. 7. The terrace type multi-family residential building was very popular in Salida during the early twentieth century. In 1904, the Salida Record noted: "Salida has achieved considerable fame for its 'terraces' or apartment houses. A number of this class of buildings ornament the residence portions of the city, and year by year their number is being added to, attesting to their popularity as places of residence." The building attracted a variety of families, predominantly those of railroad workers during the early twentieth century. Other occupations of residents of the building during the first half of the century included the proprietor of a billiard hall, a driver, a waiter, a miner, and a saloon worker. An example of these residents was William T. Phibbs, who lived in 107 N. D Street during the 1920s and until his death in 1932. He was born in 1867 in Coldwater, Michigan, where he lived until age nineteen. He then moved to California, where he learned cigar making before moving to Denver, Aspen, and then Salida. His first wife died in Salida in 1913, and he married Laura Powell in Denver in 1915. The couple lived in Salida after their marriage. Mr. Phibbs was a partner in the Dubbs & Phibbs Billiard Hall and later went into business with E.E. Hutchinson, owner of the Best Laundry. The business operated in the same location for thirty-six years. The Salida Mail reported that Mr. Phibbs's "many acts of charity and kindness were unknown except to his closest friends." He passed away on 28 June 1932 and was buried in Salida. History Colorado's Architectural Inventory Forms have more information and are available at the Salida Library.