Monroe Walking Tour

Walking Tour:

1.2 miles

1. Start at the John Galt Coffee Shop/Atlas Theater on 16th between 8th and 7th avenues. This used to be a One Day-old Wonder Bread outlet. The renovated, retiled entry way warrants a look.

2. Wander west on 16th Street, glancing down 8th Avenue at the myriad tree art statues, remembering Greeley received many Tree City USA awards over the past thirty-plus years. Notice the Greeley Creative District sign marking the entrance to this designated arts district. Also note the Maddie Project, three large apartment buildings along the corridor. These have changed the cityscape on 8th Avenue considerably. As you cross, notice the Highlander Smoke Shop that was once Branen’s Grocery Store. It included a bakery, meat market, fresh vegetables, canned goods, dairy products, magazines and cigarettes. It was an up-scale full-service grocery store … the King Soopers of its day!

3. Once you cross 8th Avenue, continue west. On your right you will pass by the office of ‘The Mirror,’ the student-run campus newspaper since 1919, which moved to this off-campus location in 1997.

4. Cross to the west side of 9th Avenue. Turn north (right) and, as the sign says, you have now entered the Monroe Historical District. Stop and notice the #3 Ditch on the west side of 9th Avenue. This ditch was dug by the Union Colonists in 1870. Here the water tunnels under the intersection, resurfacing east of the campus 7-Eleven across 16th Street. This ditch attracted dozens of summer swimmers and winter ice skaters 100 to 150 years ago. It will be rushing with Cache la Poudre water in the spring and might be dry in the winter. Imagine how life-giving this water is to our arid west.

5. Meander along 9th Avenue, passing 1515, built in 1895 by Professor James Hays as a boarding house for State Normal students. Many homes along 9th Avenue have since been divided into apartments, as is the case for 1513 9th Avenue which now contains four apartments. You will pass a huge house at 1427 9th Avenue which was built by W.R. Adams who was instrumental in bringing the Great Western Sugar Beet factory to Greeley in 1901.

6. At the corner of 9th Avenue and 14th Street you will see the First Presbyterian Church, built in 1920. This congregation recently split from the Presbyterians and is now the Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church. On the north side of the front stairs, you’ll see the 1884 cornerstone for the first church built by Greeley’s Presbyterians.

7. Next door to the church is 1313 9th Avenue, built in 1906 and owned and occupied by the Harvey Parker family. Across the avenue at 1312 is the Moser House. Harvey Parker and John Moser were partners in the Parker and Moser Produce Company, and they married sisters who convinced their husbands that they needed to live in the same neighborhood. Think of the family get-togethers with that clan. The Moser and Parker houses are good examples of Foursquare architecture.

8. The house at 1303 9th Avenue is the Nettleton/Mead Home built in 1871. Nettleton designed the #3 Ditch and Ella Mead was Greeley’s first female doctor. An apartment building with eight units has been built in the back yard of the Nettleton/Mead House. This block has many large and lovely homes with huge yards. Be sure to read the historical markers in front of the houses at 1313, 1309 and 1303 9th Avenue.

9. On the next corner, you cannot miss the former Bed and Breakfast with its large wrap-around porch. This became THE place for university visitors to stay. All along the way, glance down the alleys for glimpses of old carriage houses, now garages.

10. Keep walking north until you get to 12th Street. On the corner is St. Peter Catholic Church, with its 1909 cornerstone. You are welcome to go in, look around, light a candle in memory of someone and say a prayer if you like.

11. Next to St. Peter Church is the Southard-Gillespie home at 1103 9th Avenue. It was designed by the prominent Greeley architect, Bessie Smith, for Samuel and Mary Southard in 1907. Their son Charles and his wife Angelina lived there until their deaths, and then their daughter Mary Elizabeth and her husband Alec Gillespie made it their home. All were prominent residents; active in business, law, politics, community organizations and promoting music in Greeley. This home is still owned by the family and serves as the headquarters of Historic Greeley Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to historic preservation.

12. Looking to the south, you can notice how the Monroe Historic District connects downtown Greeley with the UNC campus.

13. Cross to the other side of 9th Avenue and pass by St. Peter’s Catholic School, established in 1926 and now an office building of Saint Peter’s. Across the alley is a gray frame building which housed the Greeley Catholic Kindergarten during the 1970s and 1980s.

14. Continue south along 9th Avenue, making your way to the Meeker Museum, originally the home of Nathan Meeker, Union Colony’s principal organizer. If it is not open for visitors, you can read the many informative plaques along the front sidewalk or rest on the bench under a tree. Behind the museum is an apartment complex built on stilts, making this townscape an interesting combination of old and new buildings.

15. As you cross 14th Street, look left and imagine two huge, magnificent buildings: Meeker High School and the 8th Avenue Gym, both of which were razed in 1968. All that is left of this entire block of schools is Meeker Junior High School which faces south on 15th Street and is now an apartment house. This block was the center of school and town activities for over 50 years. There is not much to look at here except in your mind’s eye.

16. Continue south and you will pass 1514 9th Avenue, built in 1901 as a boarding house and named Normal Haven. If you were a female, your room and board was $8.00 per month; for males it was $9.00 a month.

17. As you reach 16th Street, you can see Mellow Yellow shop on your left. After WWII, a fellow from New Jersey who trained with the 10th Mountain Division in Leadville and made it through the Italian Campaign moved to Greeley and started the Book Stop in the building that is now Mellow Yellow. The Book Stop was the alternative bookstore to the College Book Store.

18. Now walk west on 16th Street, stopping to have a beer at the brew pub or a croissant at the bakery or a milk shake at the ice cream shop or cup of coffee at Margie’s …OR ALL FOUR! Note the Campus Pharmacy plaque on the corner building. Part of the building is used by Madison and Main Art Gallery, an artist co-op that hosts exhibit openings in the attractive courtyard. These shops along 16th Street were named Campus Pharmacy and Campus Music, serving college students for decades. Across the street from this small commercial area is Frasier Hall, the music school of the University of Northern Colorado.

19. Your walk through the Monroe Historic District ends here unless you wish to stroll one more block to the west and look at what was once the bustling Greeley Hospital. Built in 1903, it is now University Plaza. Head east back to John Galt Coffee Shop, the end of your walk.