4036 ADAMS STREET

This is one of several farmhouses that still exist among blocks of post-war housing in the Elyria Swansea neighborhood. Research by Discover Denver volunteers showed that the house was likely built by Irish immigrants William and Bridget McElroy around 1886. The couple ran one of dozens of small dairies located in Swansea at the end of the 19th century. Bridget, with the help of hired hands, continued to run the dairy after William’s death in 1889. In 1900, the census shows Bridget living here with her daughter Mary and two hired men. In 1905, McElroy sold the dairy to George Parmenter, a druggist originally from Massachusetts. Between 1905 and 1910 the property changed hands four times, but city directories show that it continued to function as a dairy. While the property now consists of the house and a few sheds, a 1908 Denver Post advertisement described it at the time as consisting of a “good brick house … 6 full lots on the corner, barn, sheds, trees, new windmill and elevated tank, good well, nice mountain view; big bargain at $2,200.”