A City Emerges: Aurora’s First Fifty Years
Homesteading the Plains 1 6 0 a c r e s fr ee ! President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law on May 20, 1862, which paved the way for Europeans to build farms and ranches on land in the West including land that is now Aurora. The Act proclaimed that settlers could acquire 160 acres of free land if they were at least 21 years old, built a home on the property that was at least 12 x 14 feet, lived in that home for at least five years, and paid $18 in fees.
Some homesteaders, like the Gully family, remained on their property through the 20th century while others viewed their homesteads as a financial investment for future development. From this development, the city of Denver quickly grew and became a town with many satellites (an early term for suburbs), and developers saw the opportunity to sell property acquired through the Homestead Act as city lots to residents in the rapidly expanding Denver metropolis.
A New Town O r g an izin g t he Pl a in s Donald Fletcher, Thomas S. Hayden, and Samuel Marston Perry each bought land east of the Denver suburb of Montclair along Colfax Avenue. They plotted several possible subdivisions including the New England Heights subdivision, the Boston Heights subdivision, and the Aurora subdivision. The three investors formed the Colfax Trust Company in 1890. Since their properties happened to be adjacent to each other, they combined their holdings into a four square mile area between what is now Peoria Street on the east, Yosemite Street on the west, 26th Avenue on the north, and 6th Avenue on the south. The company sold large lots and designed various model homes, starting along Hathaway Street, (now known as Galena Street). As more and more people purchased property, the emerging town needed a name. Residents chose the name Fletcher after one of its founders, prominent Denver businessman and president of the Denver Chamber of Commerce, Donald Fletcher. When the town of Fletcher incorporated on April 30, 1891, there were approximately 100 people living in Fletcher, with 36 of them registered to vote. On May 27, 1891, the fledgling town of Fletcher held its first election to establish the town’s administration. Positions in the new town of Fletcher included mayor, treasurer, marshal, and Board of Trustees.
Rural Schools Bri n g yo u r ho r s e to s c hool ! Since the early days of settlement, small one-room schoolhouses were built throughout the newly created farmland. Local farmers donated land for and often helped build schools to provide opportunities for their children and neighboring children to learn. A committee of farmers interested in the success of the school hired and paid teachers.
Coal Creek School
Toll Gate School The Toll Gate one-room schoolhouse was located south of the intersection of Chambers Road and Mississippi Avenue on the Gully farm property. Rural teachers often boarded with their student’s families. Nell Kennedy, a student at Toll Gate, stated that the Toll Gate teacher commuted to the school from Denver on the tramway Monday and returned to Denver on Friday evening. During the week the teacher boarded with her family.
Homesteader John Lessig moved with his family to property near Coal Creek in 1871. Six years later he deeded a portion of his land to Arapahoe County “for school purpose.” A one-room schoolhouse was built to teach children who lived on the surrounding prairie but could not reach the schools in Denver or Fletcher. Coal Creek had a stable to keep horses for the children who rode to school each day. The schoolhouse had no running water, so the teacher and students used a water pump and outhouses behind the building.
The original Coal Creek building burned down around 1927, and residents rebuilt the school on the same site. Originally grades 1-8 were taught in the same room and later 9th grade was added. As was the case in many small communities, the building also served as a community gathering hall and hosted Saturday night dances.
Water and Fletcher T he n e e d fo r wa te r The High Line Canal only provided water for irrigation, it did not supply homes or businesses. In the late 1880s, Donald Fletcher created the East Denver Water Company intending to sell water to the new satellite town of Montclair. Fletcher built a system along Coal Creek many miles east of the new town, but suddenly had no customers because Montclair elected instead to buy water from Denver. In 1890, the newly formed Colfax Trust Company, started by Fletcher and landowners Thomas Hayden and Samuel Perry, began buying land along Colfax Avenue. This company launched a development campaign to create a new town and expand the East Denver Water Company. The gravity-fed water supply system consisted of 55,000 feet of water mains (mostly wooden stave pipe similar to one on view in the “Living Aurora” gallery) and a plan to build a dam across Coal Creek to retain water.
Fletcher diverted a water line from Colfax Avenue up Galena Street all the way to 26th Avenue to provide indoor plumbing to the new homes on Galena Street—quite a luxury at the time to have running water in homes.
Donald Fletcher
During one of the first town meetings of the newly incorporated town of Fletcher, Donald Fletcher convinced the members to purchase the East Denver Water Company for $150,000 with the promise that it would soon supply enough water for the growing town.
Unfortunately, the system was incomplete, and the Coal Creek dam was never built. By 1894, the system had dried up forcing the town to buy water from the city of Denver. The town of Fletcher paid for the East Denver Water Company through the sale of $1,000 bonds to 150 of its citizens. Since the water system was never productive and never turned a profit, the town did not have enough money to pay back the bondholders. Eventually the citizens banded together and sued the town for defaulting. The town of Fletcher slowly paid back the bonds finally making the last payment in 1956. The city also had to pay 65 years worth of interest. What began as a $150,000 investment ended up costing Aurora $400,000.
The Denver Union Water Company bought the East Denver Water Company from the town of Fletcher in 1902, to expand the water system. The city of Denver effectively controlled the growth of Fletcher since the Denver Water Board had the final say on the number and location of new taps added to the system for newly constructed residential and commercial buildings. In 1924, the Denver Water Board also purchased the High Line Canal. Aurora remained reliant upon Denver for water until the completion of the Homestake Reservoir in 1967.
Water on the Plains T he b ig d it c h p roje c t As with many Colorado towns, the history of Aurora is tied to water. Irrigation on the plains east of Denver became possible as farmers diverted water from local creeks to their fields. At first, settlement in the area was small, and an adequate water supply was available. However, by 1870, the railroads brought hundreds of new settlers to the area and the demand for water rose dramatically. In 1879, the Northern Colorado Irrigation Company developed the High Line Canal to divert water from the South Platte River and send it to areas south and east of Denver. Primarily made up of British and Scottish investors, the company purchased right-of-way land from the railroad to sell as farm land. It also purchased water rights on the South Platte River and constructed 71 miles of flumes and ditches between 1879 and 1883.
Aurora Lake
Many farmers trying to provide food to Denver’s growing population and to support their own families found this new water source to be invaluable. The High Line Canal project got its name because it followed the high contours of the land, gradually declining in elevation.
Unfortunately, the water did not always reach the end of the canal and landowners tried to divert more water for their crops than allowed. The superintendent of the canal, or “Big Ditch” as it was known, employed “ditch riders” to police the canal and chase away kids who tried to swim in the water.
Building the High Line Canal
Many farmers worried about having enough water from the canal or other creeks for their fields and animals. Some farmers took to building small retaining ponds on their property to hold water in reserve. John Slattery, whose wife Jane was the sister of John Gully, was one such farmer. In 1892, he built a large storage reservoir on his property at what is now 16th Avenue and Kingston Street for his alfalfa fields. Known as Aurora Lake, it allowed boating and fishing, and Slattery also sold water to surrounding residents. The Aurora First Presbyterian Church now sits on the site of the former lake bed.
Who Lived Here? L i fe ar o u n d Co l fa x Ave n ue
During its first 50 years, agriculture remained the mainstay of the economy around the town of Aurora. Most of the crops and animals grown here were sold in Denver. Alfred H. Gutheil built a large nursery at Colfax Avenue and Peoria Street to provide plants and trees for commercial and residential customers in the Denver area. Colfax Avenue, the main transportation artery to Denver, sparked new businesses to benefit outlying farmers so they did not have to travel all the way to Denver for supplies and services. The 1930s Great Depression changed the look of Aurora’s Colfax Avenue; many businesses closed, but several other stores opened including two new milk depots. It was too expensive for the farmers to take their goods all the way into Denver, so they started selling it locally.
In 1920, the town used funds to pave Colfax Avenue. Workers paved the westbound side first, which caused traffic problems as drivers in both directions wanted to use the new road. Soon Aurora paved the eastbound lane and the avenue became an even larger thoroughfare for traffic across the metro area. Many businesses popped up along Colfax Avenue to capitalize on the increased traffic. Filling stations, markets, and taverns were always seen on Colfax Avenue, but now they shared sidewalks with motels, grocery stores, auto dealerships, and restaurants. World War I necessitated the construction of U.S. Army General Hospital No. 21, later renamed Fitzsimons General Hospital, on the Gutheil property at Colfax Avenue and Peoria Street. This military installation brought many new workers to Aurora who also bought or rented homes in the city and shopped in the local stores. It also meant that farmers who had occupied the properties moved out and military personnel moved into the community. Businesses reflected this change with fewer agricultural stores and the development of taxi and bus stops.
Who Lived Here? Fo r m in g n e ig hb orhoods As Denver established itself as a major city in the Rocky Mountain West during the late 1800s, it also became a clogged and dirty urban center. Affluent residents sought more open space outside the city limits for larger homes with property between neighbors. Donald Fletcher and his partners saw the opportunity to build a suburb for Denver and began selling lots and homes on the property they owned along Colfax Avenue.
Fletcher’s Colfax Trust Company first built homes on Hathaway Street (later named Galena Street) heading north from Colfax Avenue. It spaced out the Queen Anne-style houses and combined standard-size lots into larger allotments. This practice provided homeowners room to keep animals, plant fruit trees and a large garden, and build small barns and carriage houses on their property, something that was impossible in the cramped neighborhoods of Denver.
After establishing plots for homes along Galena Street, the developers moved west to Dallas Street to construct a new round of homes. Although these homes were built during the same period, the houses on Dallas Street reflected a different economic class of homeowner. The Dallas Street homes are still of the Queen Anne-style, but they are smaller and much less ornate. Dallas Street homeowners were more likely to be trolley workers, carpenters, and masons, while most of the residents on Galena Street were physicians, merchants, and engineers.
City Upgrade No l o n g e r a s m a l l town
By 1928, the town of Aurora had a population of 2,174 - enough residents to upgrade in status from “town” to “city.” The town clerk filed papers with the Colorado Secretary of State to formalize the change, and in March of 1928 it became official. The City of Aurora held its first election to replace the Board of Trustees with a City Council. The City also took the opportunity to upgrade many services offered to its expanding population. Now that Aurora was a full-blown “city,” it was allowed to create special assessment districts to raise money for public projects. In 1929, the city passed ordinances to create the first districts for a sewer system and street improvement. Construction also began on a new fire station.
Would You Move Here? B u y n ow in Aurora ! Residents also wrote statements highlighting Aurora’s amenities including:
Early town developers were quick to find new residents, but once they sold the original town plots, population growth slowed. Citizens realized they needed to step up and encourage new people and businesses to move to Aurora or the town could dry up. The Aurora Improvement Company was started in 1908 “to beautify Aurora by the planting of additional shade trees, parking and generally improving the district.” The Company published advertisements in Colorado newspapers – some as far away as Telluride – to promote the city as an ideal place to purchase property.
“Judging from the amount of lumber sold to builders in Aurora and from personal observation, I should judge that you are moving things in your neighborhood. The locality is, in my opinion, an ideal one and its accessibility to Denver’s business district by trolley, and its geographical location, with our two great boulevards, Colfax and Montview, running directly through Aurora, all lead towards the rapid increase in its upbuilding.” – B.F. Salzer, president of the Central National Bank of Denver and proprietor of the B.F. Salzer Lumber Co. of Denver.
News clippings from The Daily Journal in Telluride, Colorado, 1908.
Time for a New Name! Ch a n g e fr o m F l e c t c her to Aurora Donald Fletcher lost much in the economic fall of 1893. As the new town struggled to grow during the late 1890s depression, Fletcher quietly left the state abandoning all of his real estate debts. By 1907, the town of Fletcher petitioned the Secretary of State for a name change. The official reason remains unknown but many speculate the citizens did not want to be associated with their, perhaps deemed by some, unscrupulous founder. The town board chose the name “Aurora” from one of the original subdivisions along Colfax Avenue.
The town government also re-organized, establishing permanent standing committees including Fire and Water, Building, Finance, and Animals Running at Large. Officials took the opportunity to modify the town code, prohibiting a large number of activities including: drunkenness, gambling houses, prostitution, and animal speeding.
The town’s population rose from 202 people in 1900 to 679 in only ten years. Another 700 residents lived outside of the town limits but still benefitted from Aurora services. By 1917, there were almost 1,000 residents, a number that would rapidly increase with the onset of World War I.
Town Hall R ent a l s avail ab l e - on l y $5! In addition to a new name, Aurora constructed a brand new Town Hall building. In 1906, the Town Hall was built by David McKay for a cost of $5,070. The two-story brick building housed the town council, jail and fire cart. The second floor provided a meeting space for local community organizations including the Odd Fellows, Rebekahs, Masons, and Eastern Star.
Aurora residents could rent the space for $7.50 and non-residents for $15.00. Eating and subletting was not allowed in the space. A stage was added to the Town Hall in 1907 for $118. New rental rates were established in 1907: $5.00 for citizens of Aurora, $7.50 for non-residents who were invited guests of the town, and $10.00 for all other non-residents.
Aurora Police Department Tow n M a r s h a l R.W. Hormell became Fletcher’s first Town Marshal. He spent most of his time occupied by enforcing Ordinance No. 9, which prohibited animals running at large within the city. Hormell quickly resigned, and M.J. Taylor took his place. Soon after, Taylor also quit. The town purchased a marshal’s badge as an incentive to keep the new marshal, W.F. Roe, from leaving as quickly. The town seemed to be unimpressed with its marshal and voted on January 4, 1905, to eliminate the position. The vote failed, so Fletcher retained the marshal.
In 1906, in addition to enforcing the city’s ordinances, the marshal’s duties included preparing a chicken pen to house the town fire wagon until the completion of the Town Hall construction. Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the marshal’s job was making sure that no one buried human bodies within 300 feet of Colfax Avenue.
Aurora’s most colorful town marshal, Alfred Gaines “Pop” Stitt, moved to Aurora in the early 1900s where he purchased a house at 9811 Colfax Avenue. As the town marshal, Stitt cleared snow from the streets and sidewalks and repaired culverts after farmers broke them by driving steam-powered threshers through town. Marshal Stitt patrolled the town by horse, ladies bicycle and later, a Ford Model T car. Many Aurorans remember Pop’s parrot guarding his buckeye tree, the only one in Aurora. The parrot could frequently be heard screeching “Pop, the boys are stealing the buckeyes!”
Marshal “Pop” Stitt
The Aurora Fire Department Every m a l e ove r 1 6 invite d to join ! Initially, the town of Fletcher relied on the satellite (1890s term for suburb) of Montclair for its fire service. In February of 1906, Fletcher acquired a 55-gallon chemical Nott Fire Engine Company horse-drawn fire wagon. Stored at the newly constructed town hall, its equipment contained 24 fire extinguishers, one 26-foot and one 14-foot ladder, two fire axes, and two fire hooks. Since they were more reliable than the fire wagon, 20 of the fire extinguishers were distributed throughout the town for quick access.
On March 6, 1906, J.E. Fay reported that the fire wagon failed to put out a test fire on a small scrap lumber building because of insufficient water pressure from the Fletcher hydrant. In 1909, the Fletcher Board of Trustees agreed to pay $5 to the volunteer firemen who pulled the fire wagon. They retracted the payment in 1911 after purchasing an easier to pull hose cart. After two public schools burned down in 1923, the city purchased a motorized Samson chemical truck to replace the horse-drawn wagon. The Samson, guaranteed to “…stop fire in its tracks,” was stored at Bill Worbeck’s garage at 1506 Dallas Street. In 1942, the station moved across the street to 1525 Dallas Street and became a combined police and fire station. At this time, a fireman’s duties also included spraying for mosquitoes, rat control at the city dump, and teaching first aid classes. In 1924, the first fire chief, John O’Kane, re-organized the volunteer fire department, developing rules and regulations, establishing fire drills and maintaining the hydrants. By 1935, Aurora volunteer firemen regularly attended the State Vocational Training Program and attended mandatory drill days on Sunday mornings. The Aurora Volunteer Fire Department provided fire service until 1958 when the city folded the department into its emergency services.
Vandersarl Brothers Au r o r a’ s e ar l y p il ots Inspired by the recent flight of the Wright Brothers, teenagers Frank and Jules Vandersarl built a glider in 1905 and flew over Aurora. A few years later, they bought the plans for a French Blierot plane and had the instructions translated into English. Parts were not available in Colorado so the brothers built all the pieces by hand and then assembled them, including the propeller and the entire four-cylinder engine. They finished construction of the plane in 1911 and transported it by horse-drawn wagon to a field near Sable Boulevard, north of Colfax Avenue. Jules flew the plane first but crashed upon landing. The brothers made repairs and then Frank was able to fly it without incident.
Frank Vandersarl
Early Aurora Churches Tent s , d u g o u t s , a n d b uil din gs
Aurora Presbyterian Church in front of the first tent
Early Fletcher families either travelled outside of town for church services or gathered within each other’s homes to discuss religion, sing religious songs, and pray. In 1903, Father Marcellus from St. Elizabeth’s Church in Denver began to hold Catholic mass at the Sable Schoolhouse, a small, rural schoolhouse located east of the town of Fletcher. In 1917, Father James Walsh of Montclair’s St. James Parish took over celebrating mass in the area. After traveling back and forth for a number of years, Father Walsh decided that with the spread of the automobile, parishioners could commute to Montclair for services, ending mass in Sable in 1919.
The Murray Presbyterian Church was organized on Sunday, March 31, 1907. Renamed the Aurora Presbyterian Church within the first week, it was also called the Aurora Community Presbyterian Church. Today it is known as the First Presbyterian Church. Initially, services were held in a large tent at 16th Avenue and Emporia Street; however, a storm blew the tent down, and services moved to rental space at the town hall. A new church was built in 1910 at 17th Avenue and Elmira Street, which was soon outgrown and replaced in 1924 with a larger building at Fulton Street and Colfax Avenue.
Setting the cornerstone at the Aurora Community Church, 1924
From 1915 until they closed in 1922, the Sisters of Mercy convent at 14th Avenue and Dayton Street offered Catholic services. In 1926, Henry A. Geisert purchased the two-story frame house that had been the Sisters of Mercy convent and six adjacent lots for $15,000. He dedicated the new church to St. Therese of Lisieux and converted the parlor of the home into the chapel. Father Daniel A. Barry, who succeeded Father Geisert, built the confessionals and remodeled the rest of the church in the 1930s.
Aurora First Christian Church members in the dugout room
Community involvement was important to the success of local churches. The Aurora First Christian Church started in 1923 after Mr. Hawkins of Aurora wrote to his former minister in Indiana for advice about starting a church. Mr. and Mrs. Rifle held the first service in their home on March 3, 1924. Soon outgrowing private homes, the congregation later purchased property at 16th Avenue and Dayton Street for their church and constructed a 40 x 40 foot underground room. The church outgrew the space by 1930, forcing the congregation to temporarily move to the town hall while a 20 x 40 foot dugout addition was constructed, complete with a kitchen sink. After World War II, the congregation finally raised enough money to construct a church building above ground.
The Aurora School Th e fi r s t s c ho o l in D is tric t No. 28 In 1885, local farmer William Smith led a movement to create a new school district for what would become Aurora. Smith collected petitions from residents to convince Arapahoe County to create School District No. 28. The first school constructed for the district was a one-room brick building at 16th Avenue and Fulton Street. It burned down in 1892.
The first school in Aurora
The second school, an eight-room brick building, was built on the same site. Crawford Elementary School stands there today. When the school was rebuilt in 1892, one teacher taught all eight grades. The city paid for Aurora high school students to attend Denver’s East High School until 1913, when an additional three rooms were added to the Aurora school to accommodate the 9th through 12th grades.
Martha Crawford School
The Aurora school burned down during the 1919 school year. Students completed the year at the community church, town hall, and telephone office annex while a new school was being built on the original site. The Aurora School was accredited in 1923. Martha Crawford, for whom the school was later renamed, started teaching at the school in 1926. Crawford started the Aurora PTA in 1929, and a hot lunch program during the Great Depression.
William Smith High School Au ro ra’ s fi r s t hig h s c hool b uil din g The number of school-aged students in Aurora increased dramatically throughout the 1920s. Thirty-four high school students attended in 1922, but by 1931, enrollment jumped to 162. The Aurora School was no longer large enough to support both elementary and high school students. Voters supported a bond issue to help the city raise $55,000 to build a new high school in 1930. Aurora completed construction of its first high school building and named it for the founder of Aurora Public Schools, William Smith, in 1931.
The Aurora Democrat newspaper described the Art Deco building designed by Eugene Groves as “thoroughly modern, splendidly equipped and fire-proof.” J.A. Corbin received the contract to build the school in May of 1931 and completed the project by October of the same year. Typical of the Art Deco style, the front door of the school building featured stained glass windows, and the exterior brick was decorated with red tile accents. Groves designed the gymnasium with a dome-shaped roof, and Albert Christen painted murals in the hallways and on the gym ceiling.
Sara Wood Au r o r a’ s fi r s t l ib ra ria n By 1925, the Aurora Women’s Club began to raise funds and collect books in order to start a library. The women raised money in a variety of ways, including selling cake at 10 cents a slice. Club members offered their homes for book storage as donations increased and actively pursued a permanent library location. An offer came in 1926 to use rooms in the Aurora Mortuary as a library, but the membership voted against it.
In late 1927, Sarah Wood joined the Aurora Women’s Club. Her home at 1516 Dallas Street became the Aurora Public Library in 1928 and the Women’s Club paid $10 a month in rent. The library operated on Monday and Thursday afternoons. Wood worked as the first librarian and earned $25 a month for her service. She remained librarian for nineteen years.
Rose King Brown Au ror a’ s fi r s t b u s ine s swoma n Rose King Brown was Aurora’s first reported businesswoman. Rose came to Aurora on the streetcar to purchase a hen. While shopping she noted a sign advertising the sale of two empty lots with a water line on the corner of Dayton Street and East Colfax Avenue. Rose and her husband mortgaged their furniture to purchase the lots. In 1908, they built their own four-room home at 1360 Dayton Street and a larger home at 1390 Dayton Street to accommodate guests. The Browns were able to build their homes by purchasing lumber with installment payments from the Aurora Chapin Lumber Company.
Brown’s first development project best exemplified her ambition as a businesswoman, the construction of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Aurora. According to a feature article about her life in the Denver Post, a man from Brighton approached Rose about building a grocery store on the 9700 block of East Colfax Avenue.
Rose’s husband suffered a stroke around 1910 and could not work. Rose later told the Denver Post that she “didn’t have one cent” after her husband had his stroke. In order to support herself and care for her husband, Rose took boarders into her home. Over the years, 137 of Rose’s boarders were tuberculosis patients from Agnes Phipps Sanitarium. She lodged them in tents and two small homes in her backyard.
The Chapin Lumber Company agreed to supply the lumber, but Rose needed financing. She turned to the Midland Federal Savings Bank in Denver for a loan. The bank informed her that they did not fund Aurora businesses because Aurora did not have sufficient water or sewer systems to support them. Rose came back to the bank a week later, only to hear, “We think you don’t understand what we are telling you which is no.” Resolute, she returned a third time a few days later stating: “I’m going to build that building and you’re going to lend me the money.” They were so surprised at her gumption they agreed. Rose went on to construct buildings for a furniture store, a dry cleaners, and eight homes. Rose passed away in 1988 at age 104.
The Aurora Democrat-News A nnu a l s u b s c r ipt io n jus t $1.00! Raphael Gwynn, Aurora’s first newspaper editor, was born in Washington, D.C. in 1876, and graduated from Georgetown Law School. While working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he contracted tuberculosis. Gwynn slowly recovered and even married his nurse in 1907. The new couple moved to Denver for the reported health benefits of the Colorado air, eventually buying property at 13th Avenue and Iola Street in Aurora. In 1909, Gwynn decided to create a newspaper for his new town so citizens did not have to rely on the Denver-based newspapers. A law in Colorado at the time required a newspaper to be printed in the county of circulation. To abide, Gwynn actually created two newspapers – the Aurora Democrat, printed on the south side of Colfax Avenue, and the Adams County News, printed on the north side of Colfax Avenue. The two papers were virtually the same but distributed in different counties.
Gwynn encouraged competition with other newspapers to voice different viewpoints. In 1947, the Aurora Advocate began printing. When Gwynn died in 1956, the Aurora Democrat was sold and became the Aurora Star. The two papers eventually merged as the Aurora Sentinel.
Aurora National Bank B u r g l ar s s t r ike twic e !
Every town needs a bank to help finance growth, but the bank in the quiet town of Aurora made its share of headlines over the years. In 1912 and 1927, the bank was robbed, and in 1933, the federal government convicted the bank president of embezzlement and sent him to federal prison. The first robbery occurred the morning of March 2, 1912. Dwight Day (also known as Dwight Briggs) entered the Aurora State Bank with a blank $100 check. He aimed his gun at cashier and bank owner J.G. Wehn, demanding all the money. Wehn gave Day $354 in currency, $130 in gold, and $40 in silver. The thief left the bank and hijacked an ice wagon to drive to Denver. To avoid followers, Day parked the wagon in a barn and stole a horse. Unbeknownst to Day, the barn belonged to the current town marshal, W.F. Roe. Roe entered the barn and the two men raised their guns. Roe’s shotgun blast shattered Day’s arm and he was quickly taken into custody. All but $10 was recovered from the robbery, which was believed to be lost in the snow during the chase. On Monday, October 10, 1927, three armed men entered the Aurora National Bank and left a fourth man waiting on Dayton Street in a getaway car. One robber held the bank customers hostage while his partners tried to convince the bank president to open the safe. A bank employee turned on the silent alarm as soon as the robbery started. Another employee actually turned it off (thinking she had triggered the alarm). In the confusion, two volunteer firemen mistook the alarm for a fire alarm. They quickly ran down the street with the fire cart only to startle the would-be robbers who then ran out of the bank.
Their getaway car headed west on Colfax Avenue. It was soon stopped when a man working on the roof of Day Chevrolet threw a hammer into their windshield. The robbers fired their guns into the building but soon ran out of ammunition. The attempted bank robbers killed one man and injured five others. The thieves were never caught.
In 1909, Thomas F. Gilligan started his banking career as a cashier at the Aurora State Bank and worked his way to the top as bank president. In 1920, the bank was renamed the First National Bank of Aurora.
By 1933, the economic depression caused many banks in the United States to fail. When federal auditors reviewed the books of the First National Bank of Aurora, they discovered the bank to be insolvent or bankrupt. They also uncovered President Gilligan’s fraudulent financial records. Over the years, Gilligan was involved in a number of unsuccessful investments and used the bank’s money in addition to his own property as collateral. Gilligan spent six years in prison at Leavenworth, Kansas and never returned to Aurora.
The Post Office Commu n ity g at he r in g s p ot
Aurora’s first post office opened on January 15, 1908, operated by A.G. Young, possibly within his grocery store at the intersection of Dallas Street and Colfax Avenue. The post office moved to the McQuate building at 1515 Dallas Street on March 23, 1910, managed by William and Kate Melis. The post office was a community hotspot, resident Mrs. Preston recalls stating, “…the men gathered at the post office. The mail came twice a day, at 9:00 and 3:00. If you wanted to know where your husband was, you’d go to the post office.”
A chain letter craze that originated in Denver in 1935 overworked the Aurora post office. The “Prosperity Club,” also known as the “Send-a-dime” letter, asked recipients to send one dime to each of the six people listed in the letter. If no one broke the chain, you could earn $1,562.50. The Aurora post office increased its sales by $90.00 a month during the craze, the equivalent of approximately $1,160.00 today.
Denver converted the Aurora post office to a Denver post office branch between 1939 and 1962. Adams County re-established the post office branches in Aurora on April 28, 1962.
The Telephone Exchange R es id e nt ia l l in e s on l y $1.50! Aurora’s first telephone exchange opened on September 10, 1910 with 28 subscribers. The Aurora Democrat published an updated list of phone numbers each week. Operator Elsie May Stitt reminisced that most callers told her the name of the person with whom they wanted to be connected rather than the person’s phone number, even though Aurora phone numbers only had two digits.
Early 911 service in Aurora, according to Mr. Friend, whose business Friend Furniture shared the 9700 block of Colfax Avenue with the telephone exchange, meant that Aurora residents used to call the telephone operator about emergencies. The operator then turned on a red light at the top of the building to alert the patrolling police officer. The officer checked the light several times during the night to see if there were any emergencies in the city.
Two phone lines ran into Denver from Aurora — Willow and Hemlock. Cynthia M. Given and Miss Flora Campbell managed the exchange office. A one-party business line cost $2.50, two-party $2.00, and residential $1.50.
1885 Calling Instructions: TO PLACE A CALL Press in the button and turn the crank once only; unhook the listening telephone (receiver) and put it close to your ear, when Central Office (telephone operator) will enquire: “What number?” Give Central Office and number of person wanted, and upon receiving the answer “All right,” hang up the receiver, and wait until your bell rings, then place the receiver to your ear and address person called. If you do not immediately hear his voice, the delay—except in rare cases—is owing to his failure to promptly answer the call.
A building at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Elmira Street housed the telephone office. Mrs. Edna Manis started working as a night operator in 1919, advancing to manager by 1923. A new telephone office was constructed in 1925 at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Dayton Street. The office remained there until 1955 when Aurora phones switched to dials. By 1927, Aurora’s Mountain States Telephone Exchange Office served 415 telephones under the direction of chief operator Mrs. Edna Manis, her mother Mrs. Mary L. Springler, and her daughter Mary Winifred Manis (later Kozacek).
The Trolley in Aurora T he e n d o f t he l in e The town of Fletcher’s success depended on quick and reliable transportation to and from Denver for its residents. On September 20, 1889, Fletcher’s founding fathers formed the Colfax Avenue Railway. The company eventually provided trolley service from Fletcher into eastern Denver where a traveler could connect to downtown Denver. By 1893, the company had 32 cars operating on 10 1/2 miles of track. Fletcher Ordinance No. 30, passed on June 9, 1898, granted the company exclusive rights to provide streetcar service to Fletcher. The company merged with the Denver Tramway Company that same year.
Former Marshal Pop Stitt quickly realized that there was no way for Fitzsimons personnel to reach downtown Denver without having to walk or drive the one mile from the hospital to the last trolley stop. Seeing this as a business opportunity, Stitt started a lucrative jitney cab service from Fitzsimons to the end of the trolley line. A jitney is a motor vehicle which carries people for a fare, originally five cents, typically associated with cheap or poor service.
Trolley Strike G ove r n o r d e c l ar e s m a rtia l l aw! On Sunday, August 1, 1920, 1,100 Denver Tramway Company workers (including operators of the Aurora lines) went on strike after the Denver city council voted against raising fares from six to seven cents. The fare hike would have boosted tramway workers’ wages to seventy-five cents an hour.
Photo from the Colorado Railroad Museum
The strike affected all metropolitan area commuters who relied on tramway service to get to work. On Thursday, August 5, 1920, a dozen streetcars run by strikebreakers were sent out to ferry commuters. Strikers responded by overturning and setting fire to the trolley cars. By the next day, seven men were dead and 81 were injured.
On August 14, 1920, Governor Oliver Shoup responded to the violence by declaring martial law in Denver, Aurora, and Englewood after striking workers organized in the suburbs. This quick action put normal trolley service back in operation the following day. The Denver Tramway Company hired
1,077 new workers, replacing most of the original employees who participated in the strike.
Lowry Army Airfield A i r Co rps Te c hn ic a l Tr a in in g S c hool Before Fitzsimons Hospital was built in Aurora, a private tuberculosis sanitorium was well established nearby. Senator Lawrence Phipps purchased land at 6th Avenue and Quebec Street in 1902. He opened the Agnes C. Phipps Memorial Sanitorium in 1904 in honor of his mother who died from tuberculosis. The facility treated tuberculosis patients until 1932 when it no longer had the resources to keep up with the latest medical advances.
The Army designated the new school as Lowry Army Air Field to honor Denver native Francis Lowry, the first local casualty of World War I. An aerial artillery observer and photographer, Lowry died in 1918 when German soldiers shot down his biplane. Renovating buildings from Phipps Sanitorium.
The U.S. Army Air Corps needed a new base in the late 1930s to train soldiers in the field of aerial photography. Senator Phipps sold his land as a potential training site to the city of Denver. The city offered the Phipps property plus additional land to the south to the Army for possible use as a bombing range. The federal government accepted the proposal and the Denver site of the Army Air Corps Technical Training School opened on October 1, 1937.
Lowry Army Air Field used many of the remaining buildings from the Phipps Sanitorium but also brought in men from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to build two large airplane hangars and additional barracks. However, this new construction still did not solve all the space requirements at the base. Many of the soldiers and all of the new civilian employees needed housing.
Because Lowry Army Air Field was near the border of Denver and Aurora, Aurora took advantage of the proximity to lure potential residents to the new homes on large lots in the expanding town. Business owners welcomed the increased traffic and opened new stores and services nearby.
In 1937, Lowry Army Air Field opened with 850 men, and by 1941, 8,500 soldiers were stationed at the base, with a massive influx of troops on the horizon as the United States would soon enter into World War II.
US Army General Hospital No. 21 When the United States entered World War I, the Denver Civic and Commercial Association campaigned the federal government to build a military hospital in the area. Many injured soldiers coming back from World War I suffered from tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases contracted from the damp and cold life in the trenches of Europe. Medical experts at the time agreed that the low humidity, sunny days, and moderate seasons of Colorado promoted healing.
The Gutheil home at the nursery
In November of 1917, the government selected the A.H. Gutheil Nursery for the site of the future hospital. The Denver Civic and Commercial Association raised money to buy the property and arranged to lease it to the federal government for $1 per year. Construction for the U.S. Army General Hospital No. 21 began in May of 1918. Five months later, officials held a dedication ceremony. The first patient – Private Clair Martin – arrived four days later, even before construction was completed.
Fitzsimons became the largest tuberculosis hospital in America and the largest active military hospital in the world. A world-renowned teaching and research hospital in the field of respiratory illnesses, especially tuberculosis, Fitzsimons also assisted with local nursing training programs and as a result, many women entered the Army Nurse Corps.
World War II and Beyond Au ro r a m ove s int o the future World War II brought many prosperous changes to Aurora. Fitzsimons Hospital expanded to accommodate new patients as well as a POW camp for tuberculosis patients. The government presence in metro Denver, especially in Aurora, sparked a housing boom as new workers and returning veterans settled in this family-friendly suburb. Agriculture declined and the open land made room for more residential development.
Aurora grew from a small town centered on Colfax Avenue into a large multi-cultural city that continues to spread south and eastward. After the closure of Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in 1999, the city reinvented itself as a hotbed for medical and scientific development. New hospitals and technology companies relocated to Aurora, bringing new residents desiring new homes and subdivisions.