Ukefest
Swallow Hill celebrates the ukulele with classes, jams, and workshops
MAY 2015
: PAGE 12
Mother’s Day
Unique activities to share on Mom’s special day
: PAGE 14
News of Central, South-Central and Near Southeast Denver Since 1978
Little Free Libraries: Building Community by the Book by Jill Farschman
Y
ou may have seen a Little Free Library (LFL) or several sprinkled in your neighborhood. As a nearly 20-year Platt Park resident, a few years back I started noticing these endearing birdhouse-style structures popping up in front yards throughout the neighborhood. On closer inspection, I discovered free books nesting inside rather than birds. The first such library was built in 2009 by Todd Bol of Hudson, Wis. as a tribute to his mother, a school teacher and avid reader. Joined a year later by social entrepreneur Rick Brooks, the LFL organization has been growing ever since. In January 2015, the number of registered Little Free Libraries worldwide was 25,000 and increasing daily. The principle is simple, take a book then replace it with another. “My wife and I read a lot, use our public libraries a lot and have a house full of books. I noticed a small Little Free Library in one of my walks and because I am a crafty guy, I built one for us,” shares local LFL steward Frank Miltenberger. “My wife, Joanne, always skepti-
THE LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES ATTRACT NEIGHBORS OR EVEN PASSING DRIVERS. From simple to ornate, traditional to Bauhaus, local examples span many styles. PHOTO BY TYLOR BELSHE.
: See LITTLE LIBRARIES on PAGE 27
The Past as a Foreign Country by Pam Marquez
I
n the fantastically rich collections of the Denver Public Library, a small cache traces the life of Frances Marie Kober, from a child of perhaps two years to her graduation photo from South High School. In the 1909 family photo in front of their house at 742 S. Emerson, she is flanked by her parents. There is so much that is familiar to us in the photo of their house: the family, the brick house, the fence, the garden. In later photos, Frances Kober appears as a student at Lincoln School, and then in her senior photo at South. In spite of different clothes and hairstyles, these again are settings that are very familiar to most of us. But if we look more closely, past the things we recognize, is this really our Denver, our neighborhood? The sign on the porch reads “Leave Orders for Express, Phone Brown 185.” Another sign,
hand-lettered, sits inside the screen door: “For Sale, Fresh Milk and Eggs.” Is the front fence really made of chicken wire? Going further, other pictures in this collection reveal an increasingly unfamiliar world. A 1910 shot of the
We think we know our neighborhoods. We certainly think we know our houses or our apartments, the parks where we run or walk, our libraries, schools and monuments. house (page 18) shows that a porch has been added to the house, and sidewalks run around the house, apparently recently poured. Fields surround the houses. The Kober house stands in a block that was still more rural than urban. Only far in the back is another house visible, perhaps facing South Ogden. The view from the back (page18) is even less familiar to
BOOK TRUST
Non-profit foundation funds child literacy programs : PAGE 11
us. It’s a barnyard. No lawn chairs, no grass. This isn’t the tidy little chicken run of today’s “urban farmers.” In this 1907 photo, Frances is perhaps two or three. The forms are laid for a sidewalk. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it makes my backyard look like a showplace. Similarly, Frances wears clothes that are a little less familiar to us than the dress in the 1909 photo. For historians, the Kober house is a center of production, meaning most of the goods the family needed – clothes, food, and more – were made in the home. Women in Denver in this period did what women have done for at least the last thousand years: supplement the household income with “egg money.” As in farming families, children played an important role as free laborers. This in part explains why families were generally much larger than families
LEGAL: BOUNDARY ISSUES
Legalities of fences and property boundaries : PAGE 13
: See HISTORY on PAGE 18
IN THIS 1909 PHOTO OF 742 S. EMERSON, Frances Kober and her parents appear before their house. The house is still recognizable today, although the chimney you see here is gone. PHOTO FROM DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY, WESTERN HISTORY COLLECTION, Z-756.
THE ART OF WAR
Veterans discover a creative outlet through the visual arts : PAGE 27
WATERWAYS RESTORATION New study to identify improvements to Harvard Gulch and the South Platte
: PAGE 29