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DORA HEATH HOUSE

The house that Dr. Walter L. Heath had built for his wife and expanding family which was located on what is now Pikes Peak Drive and Pikes Peak Court, was too large and expensive to maintain after his death and with Dora’s reduced financial circumstances. In addition the big house had a complicated central heating system and it seemed something was always going haywire with the plumbing. She took stock of her assets, included this too large house, a small ranch South of Parker, and a homestead claim up in Weld County by Keensburg. Neither ranch property made much money and seemed to be an unneeded expense. They had been acquired as a dream of the Dr´s that he would be able to leave each of his boys a ranch. This dream would now have to sacrificed. She kept her head barely above water for several years, finally being able to sell the Douglas County ranch. She was then determined to perfect the homestead claim in Weld County so she could sell it, and left Parker in 1917, with her boys to take on this task. Disaster after disaster struck the young mother. A granary that she had moved on to the property to live in, and a well that she had dug, both proved to be on the neighbors property and had to be abandoned. To live in, she had a small 10´ X 20´ lean-to built on the right side of the property line. It was far from town and they had no transportation. After a disastrous bout with the flu, by one of her boys, she finally gave in and moved back to Parker. She did not even think of remarriage as she held a conviction that her boys must come first. She first had the big house sold and then had William O´Brien build her the small two bedroom home pictured here, arranging to escape the complications of inside plumbing and central heating. The new home had a path in place of a bath, and a water pump near the back porch. Kerosene lamps provided artificial light. The privy was attached to the coal shed which was really a stroke of genius as it was never turned over on Halloween as many others were. She lived here for many years raising her two boys and participating in various church and town activities. In her declining years she left Parker to live in Denver in one of her older boys apartment buildings until her death in 1958.

The house has had many different tenants and the last several years has been occupied by a beauty salon.

Note: The house was originally sided with lap siding, but in recent years a rock siding was put on.

Information for this update came from the book Our Heritage by the Douglas County Historical Society, and various articles from the Record Journal.

Updated January 2009 by Larry T. Smith

Location: From Mainstreet and Parker Road, drive East on Mainstreet for .21 miles. The house is on the right.

Site created by Alex Hernandez, Alvie Sellmer, & James Vallejos 2009