September is here, and one thing is sure: dog days of summer are finally waning. For folks at the Historical Society, it actually means two things. First, we are greatly relieved major heat waves in our un-air conditioned buildings are subsiding, and second, we note the passing of the September Second Saturday event “Dog Days”, a fun day for local canines and their humans.
Not to worry, though. This month will offer some mighty fine events. The Society will stage a yard sale at the Baugh House on September 9th starting at 7:00a.m. for its Second Saturday event. Do stop by (it’s free!) and peruse the offerings; we’ll be shutting dowBy noon when the heat gets too much. Those interested in selling items should register as a vendor at wheatridgehistoricalsociety.org; fee is $10 for a space. Tables and pop-up canopies are also available for $10 each.
The really big September news, however, is the Historic Properties Tour, a cooperative venture involving the Active Adult Center and the Historical Society scheduled for Sept. 19th from 11:00 – 1:00. The AAC is really good at van trips, and the WRHS is really good at city history; it’s truly a marriage made in heaven. The tour is one the Historical Society has wanted to do for a long time, but hiring a bus has proved too costly for the organization’s budget.
The AAC has a popular van trip program, so the idea, when suggested, got a green light. Each van holds 15 people, and the first van filled up right away. The AAC is currently taking reservations for the second van. Tickets are $12 for residents and $17 for those not fortunate enough to live in the city. Register by calling 303-205-7500 or online at rootedinfun.com/register.
According to organizer and local historian Janet Bradford (whose celery-farming grandfather Bert White had 15 acres where the Historical Park is located and appears sitting atop a wagon on the Old Post Office mural there), the tour is comprised of around 30 homes, both stately and rustic, and several businesses. It’s based on a 1970s tour, updated because several of the original houses have been lost to history, replaced by apartment buildings and other forms of “progress”.
Since Wheat Ridge grew up as a farming community with claims to land stretching from north of I-70 south to 26th Avenue and from Sheridan west to Youngfield and beyond, that is the circular route the tour will take.
Though a few homes still line Wadsworth, most of the old residences and businesses are found along 38th Ave. (formerly Prospect Avenue) and 44th Ave. (formerly Jefferson Avenue). Familiar names associated with local history are also part of the tour. The Lee brothers built homes, and Henry Lee, known as the father of Wheat Ridge, donated not only land for Crown Hill Cemetery, but also for the original Lutheran Sanitarium on 38th Ave. Other famous founders include James Baugh whose cabin disappeared inside a Victorian farmhouse which later mysteriously burned; Martin Everitt, namesake of the middle school; Fred Bunger who started the first post office, and the Pearson brothers.
