418 W. 43RD AVENUE

This small terrace-type building was built c.1886 by Frank and Eliza Grimes, Irish immigrants who came to the United States in 1882. The pair spent several years in New York before moving west and settling in Denver. Early Denver city directories list Frank Grimes as the owner of a saloon on Fox Street, just a few blocks away and near the Boston & Colorado Smelter and the yards of the Denver Sewer Pipe & Clay Company. It is likely that Frank and Eliza Grimes built 418 W. 43rd Avenue, as well as the triplex terrace next door, as rentals. Frank Grimes died in 1893, leaving behind Eliza and the couple’s five children. Assessor records show that Eliza Grimes continued to own these properties, as well as others around the Globeville area, into the early 1920s. These rentals likely provided much needed income after the death of her husband. Renters were generally blue collar workers at the smelter or sewer pipe company, or at the nearby packing plants. Denver attorney Alexander J. Bowland purchased 418 W. 43rd Avenue from Eliza Grimes in 1920, and sold it to Ernest and Viola Munson later that year. Ernest came to the United States from Sweden around 1910, working first at the Boston Smelter and later as a foreman at the Denver Sewer Pipe & Clay Company. The 1917 Denver City Directory shows him rooming at 4256 Elati Street (now demolished), right next door to 418 W. 43rd Avenue. Ernest married Viola, the daughter of his landlords, in 1917. Viola Munson inherited her parent’s house in 1925. 418 W. 43rd Avenue stayed in the Munson family until 1975, passing to Ernest and Viola’s children after their deaths.